“Rappaccini's Daughter” is a gothic short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1844. It was included in his collection of short stories entitled Mosses from an Old Manse. At the time he was forty years old and had been married to Sophia Peabody for two years. “Rapaccini's Daughter” is considered one of the most timeless fairy 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, gloomy chamber” above a magical, poisonous garden. The garden is run by an old mad scientist, Doctor 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 poisonous nature. Professor Baglioni gives Giovanni an antidote for Beatrice to free her from her poisons. The story ends tragically when the innocent Beatrice takes the antidote and dies. Many readers see the story as an allegorical tale. Rappaccini's garden allegorical to the Garden of Eden. It is important to note the characters as they symbolize Adam and Eve, God and Satan. Rappaccini is a scientist who studies the medicinal properties of plants. He plays God with his daughter's life and his "natural" creations. John is a young medical student who symbolizes Adam. Beatrice is Rappaccini's pure and innocent but poisonous daughter. She symbolizes Eve. Professor Baglioni is Giovanni's friend and Dr. Rappaccini's academic rival. We see him as good and evil and symbolizes the Devil in the Garden of Eden. Lisabetta is Giovanni's housekeeper, a kind older woman. It is also important to note the shrub; the central shrub is symbolic because it represents the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The story studies many important 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 poison and remedy. Romantic love also turns out to be toxic, due to the confusion of the image of the loved one with the real person.