Characterization in “Rappaccini's Daughter”The dialogue, action, and motivation revolve around the characters in the story (Abrams 32-33). The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the types of characters present in "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, whether they are static or dynamic, flat or round, and whether they are represented through performance or narrative. . The tale takes place in Padua, Italy, where a student from Naples named Giovanni Guascanti has moved to attend medical school there. Her modest room is in an old mansion watched over by the landlady, Lady Lisabetta, a two-dimensional character given religious expletives like "Holy Virgin, signor!" » She seeks to make the client happy with their accommodation; she responds to Giovanni’s curiosity about a nearby garden: “No; this garden is cultivated by the own hands of Signor Giacomo Rappaccini, the famous doctor. . . .” As a character, old Lisabetta never develops beyond this one aspect of her personality of trying to make the customer happy. Later, she sells information to Giovanni so he can enter the garden through a secret entrance. Giovanni, in his room, can hear the gurgling of water in Dr. Rappaccini's garden, from an ancient marble fountain located in the center of the plants and bushes; this sound “gave him the impression that the fountain was an immortal spirit which sang its song incessantly and without taking into account the vicissitudes which surrounded it. . . .” Giovanni is particularly interested in "one particular shrub, placed in a marble vase in the middle of the pool, which bore a profusion of purple flowers, each of which had the luster and richness of a precious stone." As striking as the plant with the purple gemstones is “a tall, emaciated, small nature... middle of paper... edified,” at the feet of her father and Giovanni. Beatrice, over the course of the story, moves from isolation to love and the full realization of truth, so she is very dynamic; not static like his father. Giovanni is equally dynamic in transforming into a loving person and then becoming an almost hateful person again due to the acquired illness. WORKS CITED Abrams, MH A Glossary of Literary Terms, 7th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Rappaccini’s daughter.” Electronic text center. University of Virginia Library. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id="HawRapp"&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=publicKazin, Alfred. Introduction. Selected short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Prime Minister Fawcett, 1966.