Out of the window of a gloomy chamber of an old edifice was a beautiful garden. The overflowing garden was filled with many beautiful poisonous flowers. However, no one new of what was to come of this garden and all the poisons in it. Imagery and irony are shown throughout this story. In "Rappaccini's Daughter" Hawthorne portrays the theme that when human beings tamper with nature, the results are disastrous. .
In this short story there is a imagery shown through Beatrice and the poisonous flowers in her fathers garden. In Rappaccini's garden everything is poisonous including his daughter. "Beatrice was gazing at the insect with childish delight, it grew faint and fell to her feet; it's bright wings shiverd, it was dead (Hawthorne, 793)." As an insect flies over the wall and Beatrice breathes on it, it dies. Also another instance when Beatrice's poison shines through is when she is given flowers from Giovanni (Hawthorne, 794). Once Beatrice has touched the flowers they begin to wilt and die (Terence, 93). All the beautiful flowers in the garden are poisonous, but one stand out, Beatrice's favorite. Beatrice was attached to one type of flower. She called this flower her "sister (Bunge, 68)." A drop of juice fell from the stem of the flower and landed on a lizard. Immediately the lizard died (Hawthorne, 792). This flower, her "sister," is like Beatrice because they can easily kill any living thing. For example the innocent lizard and insect (Bloom, 60). They are lured by the sweet sent and then killed. Beatrice and this flower are "sister" because they are the same poison. Beatrice and her sister show imagery in many ways in this short story.
Love, Competition, and death are three types of irony expressed in "Rappaccini's Daughter. The love of Giovanni for Beatrice is so strong that he becomes poisoned. Giovanni thought he had not been poisoned, but then signs came to him that showed he had been.