I think the flower metaphor is used to show how differently flowers (and the properties and powers vested in it by Mynona) are seen by men and women. While a flower is something hypnotizing to the later mother-in-law, enough to put her in a dream daze, enough power to eventually get her pregnant, for the male, there is a different connotation. Dr. Rosenberger
(I am sure there is a pun on that name) is scared of the flower when he sees the flower bush on his bed. Enough so that he tosses it down to Emma. Men therefore are threatened by flowers and woman are infatuated by them.
A flower is something a woman wants and a male can never embody. Everything a flower stands for is emasculating and yet it is something hypnotizing to woman.
Posted by Hunter at 9:02 PM
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April 7 Post
“The Vegetational Fatherhood” was by far one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read. However, I have come up with a few explanations/interpretations:
- The young woman represents the Virgin Mary in which not man but “nature” impregnates the young woman, therefore making her rose bush-transforming daughter a representation of Jesus.
- If the daughter is a representation of Jesus, then Dr. Floris Rosenberger is a representation of the Romans, those who are believed to have killed Jesus since it was Dr. Rosenberger who killed his wife (whether intentional or not).
- The mother is locked away in an asylum, representing the general belief of the pubic about Mary in reference to her miraculous conception.
Posted by sloanesc at 9:40 PM
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Vegetational Fatherhood
I think this story is a cautionary tale about lying to a partner in marriage. At first glance, I initially felt that this was another story like Blackbeard, which casts a bad light on falling for somebody "different" (with the racist overtones of the time), but attempted to bury it with the appearance and sweetness of flowers.
However, I thought about it further and realized that the murder is brought about because the husband does not know about the nightly metamorphosis. Had she or her mother been honest with the husband, the murder would have been prevented.
Also, I noticed the reference to a reverse "Lucia di Lammermoor". I looked this up, and found out that it is an opera about forbidden love that ends with Lucia going hysterical after her wedding and killing her husband. The opera itself seems to be about marrying people for the wrong reasons and the consequences that it brings about, so I think this reference strengthens the idea.
Posted by Michael Hetrick at 10:48 PM
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Vegetational Fatherhood and Science 4/7
It is interesting what the role of science plays in the tale Vegetational Fatherhood. While the beginning of the tale is decidedly unscientific with a personified rose and the girl who turns into a rosebush each night after reaching puberty, the end of the story relies heavily on the idea of scientific evidence. Dr. Rosenberger and the girl's mother are deemed insane because they claim an event that is beyond the realm of scientific understanding. Dr. Rosenberger is described as a 'learned man of science' and astonishes all by supporting the mother's claims that the girl transformed into a rosebush each night. It is only after an autopsy, a scientific procedure, is performed that something strange is considered. However, it is not magic but horrific experiments by Dr. Rosenberger, the anatomist, that are thought possible by the general public.
Science both conceals and explains the events of the story. Science hides the actual event of animal-plant transformation that occurred from the public by making it seem impossible. Science, in turn, reveals that something strange was going on but too late to help Dr. Rosenberger or the girl's mother, and the evidence is misinterpreted anyway. Science in the story seems to become a hindrance to the truth not the enlightening quest for knowledge that it is usually thought to be.
Posted by AudraC at 8:29 PM
