Rappaccini’s Daughter – Multiple-Choice Test

Why does Giovanni come to Padua at the beginning of the story?

• To escape a troubled past

• To study at the university

• To visit his uncle

• To train as a physician’s apprentice

What does Giovanni first notice about Beatrice from his window?

• She sings to the plants in the garden

• She wears a veil to cover her face

• She can touch a strange plant without protection

• She carries a poisonous serpent

What is unusual about Dr. Rappaccini’s behavior in the garden?

• He talks to himself as he works

• He never speaks to his daughter

• He avoids the sunlight while working

• He wears gloves and a mask near the plants

What is the central symbol of Beatrice’s relationship with the natural world?

• A. A singing bird in a cage

• B. The broken fountain

• C. The poisonous purple plant she calls her sister

• D. The locked gate to the garden

What warning does Professor Baglioni give Giovanni early in the story?

• To stop writing poetry and return home

• To stay away from Dr. Rappaccini and his daughter

• To avoid speaking to Lisabetta

• To report Rappaccini’s experiments to the university

What does it mean to be mithridatic, as suggested in the story?

• To cure others using plant-based remedies

• To build resistance to poison by gradual exposure

• To be naturally immune to all toxins from birth

• To suffer illness due to toxic exposure

Which of the following best represents the use of allusion in the story?

• Beatrice is compared to a rose in a poem

• Giovanni is described as cold as ice

• The garden is compared to Eden and Giovanni to Adam

• Baglioni is said to smile like a serpent

What symbolic roles do the main characters represent in the Eden allegory?

• Giovanni = serpent, Beatrice = angel, Rappaccini = Adam

• Giovanni = Adam, Beatrice = Eve, Baglioni = Devil, Rappaccini = plays God

• Giovanni = plays God, Beatrice = Knowledge, Rappaccini = Sin

• Giovanni = Savior, Beatrice = Temptation, Baglioni = Snake

What is one major theme revealed through Beatrice’s fate?

• People should avoid science at all costs

• Innocence can be destroyed by both love and ambition

• Those who fall in love too quickly are doomed

• True beauty always hides danger

What effect does the garden have on Giovanni as he spends more time watching it?

• It fascinates and disturbs him

• It cures his homesickness

• It reminds him of Naples

• It inspires him to write