Falling Action

Accordingly, when “Giovanni’s passion had exhausted itself in its outburst from his lips” that is when the falling action begins. It was then that Giovanni understood the gravity of what he had done and attempted to rectify the hurt he had caused. He still hoped to return “within the limits of ordinary nature…leading Beatrice…by the hand” (Hawthorne 14). As a solution, and leading into the resolution of the story, Giovanni turns to the antidote in order to counter their poison. However “Giovanni did not know” that all hope had already been lost for Beatrice in this life and that “she must pass heavily, with that broken heart, across the borders of Time—she must bathe her hurts in some fount of Paradise, and forget her grief in the light of immortality—and there be well” (Hawthorne 14). This is a dark foreshadowing of the events that will follow this scene. The “Paradise” that is mentioned is that of heaven and it is only there that she will be rid of all of the pains of mortal life. There is nothing else that could heal her broken heart now that Giovanni has shattered it for now she understands that Giovanni, in all of his doubt, could never love her the way she loves him. The idea that God is benevolent and will heal our hurts is that of Romanticism. Giovanni’s attempt to fix the damage that he has wrought shows his continued vanity, fostered by the blinding resurgence of love, for, as aforementioned, the damage is irreparable. Again his passions suppress his rational side.