American Literature / Unit 8 AML 0716 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"The Birthmark" and "Rappaccini's Daughter"
Captions available
The idea
In "The Birthmark" a scientist removes the one flaw from his wife's cheek and kills her with the cure. In "Rappaccini's Daughter" a girl raised among poisonous plants is herself poison, and the antidote destroys her. Both punish the attempt to perfect a human being.
In practice
Two cures, and two dead women.
Where people slip
The scientist's ambition is the flaw in each.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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