Who Is Beatrice? What Is Her Role In The Story "The Rappaccini's Daughter"?

Beatrice was a beautiful young girl. She dressed tastefully. She seemed to be full of life, health and energy. We find her character to be quite complex on account of the several forces at work in shaping it.

Firstly, the pressure that her father had put on her is noticeable. He had assigned her work that was like a working in a factory producing an atom bomb without proper defenses against radiation. Her father put her to work in his garden where he was growing poisonous plants. She smelled and touched them freely with the result that all her body became poisonous.

Secondly, Beatrice felt the need of company in the serious way. We feel that she did not have a mother sister or brothers at home. Her father was an extremely strange old man who had no interest in his life except scientific research on poisonous plants. She did not and could not have any female friends. So the pressure of painful loneliness led her to look for a lover who could satisfy her emotionally and socially.

Thirdly, Beatrice was a strong believer in fate and was a pessimist. She knew that her fate was bad, and her life was sure to have a tragic end. She told Giovanni that her father's mad love for science had shaped her own fate.. so we may call her a fatalist, a believer in her awful fate which could not be changed for the better.

Fourthly, Beatrice found it impossible to satisfy the natural demands of her lover in Western society. Giovanni wanted to come close to her , touch her hands, and kiss her, which she wanted to do to him. But she knew that if ever he touched her, he would at once get poisoned.

Fifthly Beatrice was a pure, honest and innocent girl. If she was poisonous, it was all the doing of Rappaccini as he had caused her to come into physical contact with poisonous plants and flowers.

Such was the fate and role of Beatrice.