“Rappaccini's Daughter” is a gothic tale written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1844. It was included in his collection of short stories titled Mosses from an Old Manse. At that time he was forty years old and had been married to Sophia Peabody for two years. “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is considered one of the most timeless tales ever written. The story begins with a young man, Giovanni, who comes to Padua to continue his studies at the University of Padua. He rents a room in a “high, dark room” above a magical, poisonous garden. The garden is run by an old mad scientist, Dr. Rappaccini, and his beautiful daughter, Beatrice. Giovanni falls in love with Beatrice but is warned by Professor Baglioni to stay away from her due to her venomous nature. Professor Baglioni gives Giovanni an antidote for Beatrice to rid her of her poisons. The story ends tragically when the innocent Beatrice takes the antidote and dies. Many readers view the story as an allegorical tale. Rappaccini's garden allegorical to the Garden of Eden. It is important to note the figures because they symbolize Adam and Eve as well as God and Satan. Rappaccini is a scientist who studies the medicinal properties of plants. He plays God with his daughter's life and with his "natural" creations. Giovanni is a young medical student who symbolizes Adam. Beatrice is Rappaccini's pure and innocent but venomous daughter. She symbolizes Eve. Professor Baglioni is a friend of Giovanni and the academic rival of Dr. Rappaccini. We see him as good and evil, and he symbolizes the devil in the Garden of Eden. Lisabetta is Giovanni's housekeeper, a kind elderly woman. It is also important to notice the shrub; the central shrub is symbolic because it represents the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The story explores many major themes, three of which will be examined in this essay: drugs as a double, romance as a drug, and nature versus science as a double in a context where the "creators" produce the pharmakon, the drug that is both a poison and a cure. Romantic love also turns out to be toxic, because of the confusion of the image of the loved one with the real person...