The two short stories, "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "Young Goodman Brown" typify the short works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American writer who lived from 1804 to 1864. It is the purpose of this paper to compare and contrast the two stories in terms of conventional literary concepts.
Both of the stories deal with the basic themes of good and evil and, in particular, the struggle with death and fear of death. Beatrice, Rappaccini's daughter, has led a skewed, poisoned life, at the mercy of her mad scientist father who views her more or less as only one more botanical specimen, a subject for his experimentation. She knows nothing about living, only about relating with the plants in the garden where her father has imprisoned her.
Giovanni, the young man who becomes interested in her, notes to his dismay that within Beatrice's presence, a lizard dies, a flying insect dies, and the bouquet tossed from his window withers within her grasp. During the course of the story, Giovanni becomes imbued with the death-like qualities by association with her, and he too kills insects with his very breath. Hawthorne's choice of words leans heavily toward the death theme--"Could it be that Beatrice's breath ... thus embalmed her words with a strange richness...?" (McLaughlin 646). The two lovers conclude the story with a kiss of death.
The struggle between good and evil is also a theme in "Young Goodman Brown." Brown takes off into an eerie excursion into the night during which he encounters many of the upstanding citizens of his community, who apparently are involved in a witch-meeting which overtakes his beloved, innocent wife, Faith. Brown is understandably disturbed by his conflicting urges towards the mystery of the night happenings, the murky dark side of the catechism teacher, the town pastor, the deacon, the governor's wife, and other people of normally good repute. They are all there involved in the fiend worshipers' witching ce...