Rappaccinis Daughter (1980)

Set in 18th Century Italy RAPPACCINIS DAUGHTER is the tale of a young scholar named Giovanni Kristoffer Tabori who falls in love with a beautiful yet forbidden girl who tends her fathers poison garden However the strange and unearthly beauty of Beatrice Kathleen Beller masks a terrifying curse which Giovanni must tragically discover Her father the mysterious Dr Rappaccini has made her the subject of a diabolical experiment In Giovannis attempt to free Beatrice from the control of her father and to escape the poisonous effect she begins to have on him he unwittingly destroys her From the short story of master American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne two quintessential Hawthorne themes are explored the sins of interfering with anothers soul and the futility of trying to tamper with nature