he is the caretaker to the poisonous plants in her father's garden. As Giovanni learns, she knows little of the outside world for she has been raised almost exclusively within the garden. She appears to Giovanni, as well as to the reader, to be a gentle and innocent young woman. She even admits to Giovanni that the poisonous flowers in her father's garden "shock and offend her, when they meet her eye" (Hawthorne 617). She honestly tells Giovanni about her poisonous nature when he confronts her; however, she seems to be truly unaware of her presence's poisonous affect on Giovanni. She is also astonished by Giovanni's hurtful confrontation. Beatrice tells Giovanni, "though my body be nourished with poison, my spirit is God's creature, and craves love as its daily food" (Hawthorne 625). If she is evil, it is only because she was made that way. Her heart is pure. So in the end, the beautiful and innocent Beatrice is betrayed by the man she loved, Giovanni. For Giovanni betrays Beatrice because he thought she was evil, and truly Beatrice is the one who demonstrates to have true love. Beatrice proves to be very human, but with a poisonous body and a loving soul. At the beginning of the story, Giovanni is a normal person. However, he is inadvertently tempted by the beauty and sweetness of Beatrice and becomes poisonous. His own dark side is awakened by the encounter with the Rappaccinis and no one is left unscathed. Like all people, he is not completely good or bad, but a combination of the two. Some people are mostly good, some are mostly bad, but no one is only good or evil. ...
