DrHeideggersExperiment

KRYSTAL HILL'S FACT SHEET! Dr. Heidegger's Experiment Facts Sheet for 1st Semester Exam • **Passage** ◦ They all gathered round her. One caught both her hands in his passionate grasp another threw his arm about her waist -- the third buried his hand among the glossy curls that clustered beneath the widow's cap. Blushing, panting, struggling, chiding, laughing, her warm breath fanning each of their faces by turns, she strove to disengage herself, yet still remained in their triple embrace. Never was there a livelier picture of youthful rivalship, with bewitching beauty for the prize. Yet, by a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grandsires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shrivelled grandam. But they were young: their burning passions proved them so. Inflamed to madness by the coquetry of the girl-widow, who neither granted nor quite withheld her favors, the three rivals began to interchange threatening glances. Still keeping hold of the fair prize, they grappled fiercely at one another's throats. As they struggled to and fro, the table was over-turned, and the vase dashed into a thousand fragments. The precious Water of Youth flowed in a bright stream across the floor, moistening the wings of a butterfly, which, grown old in the decline of summer, had alighted there to die. The insect fluttered lightly through the chamber, and settled on the snowy head of Dr. Heidegger. ``Come, come, gentlemen! -- come, Madam Wycherly, exclaimed the doctor, ``I really must protest against this riot. They stood still and shivered; for it seemed as if gray Time were calling them back from their sunny youth, far down into the chill and darksome vale of years. They looked at old Dr. Heidegger, who sat in his carved arm-chair, holding the rose of half a century, which he had rescued from among the fragments of the shattered vase. At the motion of his hand, the four rioters resumed their seats; the more readily, because their violent exertions had wearied them, youthful though they were. ``My poor Sylvia's rose! ejaculated Dr. Heidegger, holding it in the light of the sunset clouds; ``it appears to be fading again. And so it was. Even while the party were looking at it, the flower continued to shrivel up, till it became as dry and fragile as when the doctor had first thrown it into the vase. He shook off the few drops of moisture which clung to its petals. ``I love it as well thus as in its dewy freshness,'' observed he, pressing the withered rose to his withered lips. While he spoke, the butterfly fluttered down from the doctor's snowy head, and fell upon the floor.

• **Author** ◦ Nathaniel Hawthorne ◦ July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864 • **Time** ◦ // Twice Told Tale //in 1837. • **Context** ◦ This story made his local debut, and after this was published he was finally known. ◦ The story was first published as "The Fountain of Yonder" in 1837 in [|Lewis Gaylord Clark's]  [|The Knickerbocke] //  r  //magazine, though it was left anonymous. It was soon included in the collection // Twice-Told Tales //. ◦ During this time transcendentalism was flourishing in the United States, and one of their main beliefs was that the essential nature of human beings is good and that, left in a state of nature, human beings would seek the good.


 * ◦ Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment is a short story that tells the tale of Dr. Heidegger and his four comrades, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Gascoigne, and the Widow Wycherly. Dr. Heidegger invites his friends over to his very eerie study and offers them the drink of youth from the mythical Fountain of Youth of which he tells them will turn them young again but warns them not to make the same mistakes they did before. After taking a drink all of the four friends turn young again and almost instantly make the same mistakes that they did before. ||

• **Theme of the work:** ◦ **Foolishness** ▪ "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is rooted in a rather pessimistic view of human nature. The story argues that people are, for the most part, fools. They don't learn from their mistakes, they're generally petty, and we can't expect anyone to change for the better. In this story, foolishness is particularly associated with youth, or at least a youthful state of mind. Hawthorne does provide a counter-example to his foolish characters in the form of Dr. Heidegger, but even this character has his sinister side. ◦ **Old Age** ▪ "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" explores questions of age and behavior. What does it mean to be old? What does it mean to be young? What is the difference between defining age physically, and defining it mentally or emotionally? One interpretation of the text suggests that age is a state of mind; if one believes one is young, one will act accordingly. The story's moralistic side argues that youth is associated with folly, but offers no hope for redemption in older age, either. ◦ **Reality** ▪ "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is a story of illusion, deception, and doubt. The title character makes use of theatricality, wishful thinking, and even alcohol (in one interpretation of the story) to make experimental subjects of his friends. This illusory trickery even seeps into the narration – the narrator's shadowy evasions raise similar questions for the reader of what is real, what is fictional, and, most interestingly, whether or not it matters. ◦ **Transformation** ▪ "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is the story of four elderly friends who are transformed – or at least think they are transformed – back to young, vivacious individuals. The text plays with the idea of what it means to be transformed physically as opposed to mentally, and which actually takes place in the story is subject to debate. Hawthorne also asks whether we can learn from a transformation, particularly one as ephemeral as that which takes place in this story. Pessimistically, the narrative seems to conclude that we can not. ◦ **Superstition** ▪ Whether or not the eerie elements of "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" are actually supernatural is subject to debate. It's a question of theatrical showmanship vs. genuine superstitious belief. The theme creates a mood of doubt and forces the reader to ask some difficult questions about the nature of reality – at least as defined within the narrative. It also severely complicates our understanding of the title character, who has at least one foot in a sinister, supernatural realm. ▪     • **Plot** ◦ **Initial Situations-** The study of youth. Dr. Heidegger is obsessed with going back and feeling and looking young again. ◦ **Conflict**- The elixir of life and the Fountain of Youth. Dr. Heidegger believes that he has discovered the Fountain of Youth and is willing to share the elixir with the four of his friends. ◦ **Complication –** Dr. Heidegger has no clue whether or not he elixir will work and how the effects of will jeopardize their safety, he puts out kind of a disclaimer to this elixir before his friends take the bait. ◦ **Climax**- the elixir is drank by the four friends as Dr. Heidegger sits and watches the elderly friends grow old again, he begins to see them fighting over the Widow and becoming rambunctious. ◦ **Denouement**- As the now young friends go about their fighting they begin to feel weak and old again, and the elixir is now waring off. ◦ **Conclusion- The conclusion of this short story is that Dr. Heidegger has learned to embrace his age and love himself for who he is and his friends are still wanting to be old even though that brought on a bunch of drama. "If the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it".** • **Characters** ◦ ** Dr. Heidegger ** - crazy old, and wrinkly scientist who is the protagonist of the story. Who believes that he has found the fountain of youth ◦ ** Colonel Killigrew ** - a man who throughout his life has had many sex partners including Widow Wycherly. ◦ ** Mr. Medbourne ** - once a rich merchant who lost most of his money gambling, claiming that he lost it in a stock investment. ◦ ** Mr. Gascoigne ** - a politician whose career was cut short. ◦ ** Widow Wycherly ** was formerly a beautiful woman loved by the three gentlemen. When the four drink the liquid, she becomes beautiful again and everybody starts to compete for her hand, once again. • **Setting** ◦ The story takes place inside Dr. Heidegger's study. I picture it to be very dim lit and to have many books upon the wall. And many of them out on the table that is focused on the Fountain of Youth and the elixir. The closet consisted of a skeleton which gave this story or eery feeling to it. Not knowing who it was, or why its in the closet to begin with. There is also a full length portrait of a lady on the way that has been faded and makes you think that it was once his wife and that the skeleton cold possibly be hers. • **Symbols**

▪ Through this ordinary mirror, "Dr. Heidegger also sees images of his deceased patients, the mirror symbolizes his past failures, those patients he could not save" ◦ Rose ▪ The rose is a continuing symbol throughout the allegory. It represents the youth of the guests; as they become young it blossoms and when they grow old again it withers away. ◦ The Elixir ▪ Throughout the story the reader continues to ask themselves whether the elixir that Dr. Heidegger gives his guests is actually water from the Fountain of Youth and really turns his guests young again, or whether it is merely an illusion that Dr. Heidegger uses to prove his point. ◦ The Skeleton in the Closet ▪ The metaphor of the skeleton in the closet refers to someone keeping a secret. It is sinister that Dr. Heidegger literally has a skeleton in his closet. This does a lot for the complexity of Dr. Heidegger’s character. It poses the question of “what is Dr. Heidegger hiding in his past?” This raises more questions about Dr. Heidegger than it answers.
 * ◦ Mirror

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PAGE 1 Passage (Samm S., Caroline S., Ganaelle J.)

"That very singular man, old Doctor Heidegger, once invited four venerable friends to meet him in his study. There were three white-bearded gentlemen, Mr__ . Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, __and a withered gentlewoman whose name was the __ Widow Wycherley __. They were all melancholy old creatures , who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves. __ Mr. Medbourne __, in the vigor of his age, had been a prosperous merchant , but had lost his all by a frantic speculation , and was no little better than a mendicant. __ Colonel Killigrew __ had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout and divers other torments of soul and body. __ Mr. Gascoigne __ was a ruined politician, a man of evil fame, or at least had been so, till time had buried him from the knowledge of the present generation, and made him obscure instead of infamous. As for the __ Widow Wycherley __, tradition tells us that she was a great beauty in her day; but, for a long while past, she had lived in deep seclusion, on account of certain scandalous stories which had prejudiced the gentry of the town against her. It is a circumstance worth mentioning that each of these three old gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow Wycherley, and had once been on the point of cutting each other's throats for her sake. And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint that Doctor Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves; as is not unfrequently the case with old people, when worried either by present troubles or woful recollections. "

Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment was written by Nathanial Hawthorne and published in 1837. It explores the innate human nature of self destruction by using the various actions and past actions of the five main characters. Hawthorne uses various literary features to make his point, including the use of the narrator and the use of irony within the plot.

The characters in this story all represent how the choices made in youth come back on you in old age. Taken less literally, Hawthorne explores the consequences of impulsive and vain actions partly as a result of social corruption. The sinful act that each character committed in their youth leads to the destruction of those very same ideals that tempted them to that act. **The merchant**: found wealth, but his inability to see beyond wealth results in the loss of it. **The colonel**: (a position that relies on physical ability) prided himself in physical pleasures. The result is physical discomfort, as well as a moral discomfort from the acts (many of which must have been less than moral) he committed. **The politician**: once a community leader, found himself with a ruined reputation and, now, anonymity. **The widow**: prided herself on her looks and presence in high society, finds herself devoid of her beauty and indeed shunned by the society she so much enjoyed scandalizing. **Dr. Heidegger**: whose goal was to help others as a medical practitioner, must live in the knowledge that his own prescription killed the one he loved. AMBIGUITY – reveals deeper meaning; loose diction when describing the characters; the narrator as an external character IRONY – relates to theme CONTRA**DICTION** – venerable (means "ancient", but also means "worthy of respect as a result of great age or wisdom"; this is ironic because one of the supporting themes is focused on the lack of wisdom expressed by each of the characters in their new found youth) HUMAN NATURE – regret, sinful actions, ignorance at change THEME – man cannot achieve perfection TONE – detached tone, adds to mysterious atmosphere and ambiguity, lets reader “infer” more of meaning and theme Furthermore, Hawthorne also uses characterization to exemplify the meaning behind the theme. In his stories Hawthorne allows the reader to infer his own personal moral vision from characters that seem to lack it. Mr. Medbourne, for example, “in the vigor of his age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost his all by a frantic speculation, and was now little better than a mendicant” (Hawthorne 213). In this, Hawthorne hopes for his reader to “infer the positive from the negative” (Liebman 127). For example, to learn of the pain which follows greed, readers need only read Hawthorne’s description of Mr. Medbourne. Also, “Each of Dr. Heidegger’s four guests represent the waste of something that people prize” (Hodgins 218). “Colonel Killigrew, who had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout, and divers other torments of soul and body” represents wasted health (Hawthorne 213). Through this type of characterization, Hawthorne shows the reader each character’s desire (and failure) to attain perfection. ([]) “People lack the ability to achieve perfection and therefore, since they are only human, are destined to make the same mistakes twice.” (one of the links from Sisemore)

They all gathered round her. One caught both her hands in his passionate grasp another threw his arm about her waist -- the third buried his hand among the glossy curls that clustered beneath the widow's cap. Blushing, panting, struggling, chiding, laughing, her warm breath fanning each of their faces by turns, she strove to disengage herself, yet still remained in their triple embrace. Never was there a livelier picture of youthful rivalship, with bewitching beauty for the prize. Yet, by a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grandsires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shriveled grandam. But they were young: their burning passions proved them so. Inflamed to madness by the coquetry of the girl-widow, who neither granted nor quite withheld her favors, the three rivals began to interchange threatening glances. Still keeping hold of the fair prize, they grappled fiercely at one another's throats. As they struggled to and fro, the table was over-turned, and the vase dashed into a thousand fragments. The precious Water of Youth flowed in a bright stream across the floor, moistening the wings of a butterfly, which, grown old in the decline of summer, had alighted there to die. The insect fluttered lightly through the chamber, and settled on the snowy head of Dr. Heidegger. Come, come, gentlemen! -- come, Madam Wycherly, exclaimed the doctor, I really must protest against this riot. They stood still and shivered; for it seemed as if gray Time were calling them back from their sunny youth, far down into the chill and darksome vale of years. They looked at old Dr. Heidegger, who sat in his carved arm-chair, holding the rose of half a century, which he had rescued from among the fragments of the shattered vase. At the motion of his hand, the four rioters resumed their seats; the more readily, because their violent exertions had wearied them, youthful though they were. My poor Sylvia's rose! ejaculated Dr. Heidegger, holding it in the light of the sunset clouds; it appears to be fading again. And so it was. Even while the party were looking at it, the flower continued to shrivel up, till it became as dry and fragile as when the doctor had first thrown it into the vase. He shook off the few drops of moisture which clung to its petals. ``I love it as well thus as in its dewy freshness,'' observed he, pressing the withered rose to his withered lips. While he spoke, the butterfly fluttered down from the doctor's snowy head, and fell upon the floor. His guests shivered again. A strange chillness, whether of the body or spirit they could not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. They gazed at one another, and fancied that each fleeting moment snatched away a charm, and left a deepening furrow where none had been before. Was it an illusion? Had the changes of a lifetime been crowded into so brief a space, and were they now four aged people, sitting with their old friend, Dr. Heidegger?

**__Plot -__** The four old friends have just drank the water from the Fountain of Youth and become young again. They soon revert to acting like young teenagers and the men begin to fight over Widow Wycherly. In their revel they knock over the vase of water and break it, spilling all of the Water of Youth.

__** Characters- **__

The story takes place inside Doctor Heidegger's study. It is a "dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs and besprinkled with antique dust." There are bookcases a bust of Hippocrates, showing Doctor Heidegger was an intelligent, venerable old man. There is a closet with a skeleton, bringing the image of dark secrets to mind due to the phrase "skeleton in your closet." There is a mirror, said to contain the images of "the doctor's deceased patients", a manifestion of Heidegger's guilt. There is a book of magic, a nameless black folio album, and the vase containing the Water of Youth that Heidegger had collected. Upon the wall is a "full-length portrait of a young lady, arrayed in teh faded magnificence of silk, satin, and brocade." The room is very dark due to the dark wood furniture and the curtains strewn across the windows, lending a mysterious, magical quality to the study and the events that have occurred in it.
 * Dr. Heidegger - wise doctor, knows not to repeat the follies of youth (different from previous doctors in Hawthorne stories who do experiments for their own gain and make mistakes)
 * Widow Wycherly - sin of vanity
 * Mr. Medbourne - greed
 * Colonel Killigrew - pleasure seeker
 * Mr. Gascoigne - power hungry
 * __Setting -__**

__**The Narrator -**__ The narrator of this story is extremely unreliable. He seems to be an old friend of Dr.Heidegger's but he claims "some of these fables, to my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back to mine own veracious self." He calls these tales fables, questioning the validity of the events that occur and also says the content might "bear the stigma of a fiction-monger." The account of this story therefore can not be taken as true as the events might be twisted by the narrator. When the old friends see themselves in the mirror during this passage, the validity of the image reflected is also thrown in to question. The narrator claism it could be "a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and hte antique dresses they still wore." The narrator does not even reveal if the people were truly turned young again or if they simply believe they were.

__**Figurative Language -**__ Father Time - Hawthorne likens Dr. Heidegger to Father Time because he had the ability to give them their youth back through the elixir, but it was taken away when they started acting rambunctious and repeated the mistakes of their youth. He writes, "for it seemed as if gray Time were calling them back from their sunny youth, far down into the chill and darksome vale of years." The rose - the rose is symbolic of his wife, whom he lost when she took the medicine he prescribed and it killed her. However he says that he loves the rose whether it is beautiful and fresh or old and withered, just as he would have loved his wife. Unlike his guests, he does not make the mistake of being wistful for youth. the mirror - the mirror ties into the representation of reality and the mystery of whether the guests have really been transformed back to their youth or are simply experiencing an illusion. They behave like they are young but their reflections in the mirror are old and withered. the butterfly - the butterfly is another example of the illusion; it is brought to life by the elixir and then dies, paralleling how the guests return to their youth and then become old again

__**Representation of Reality-**__ The entire short story is mysterious and unclear in the sense that the reader cannot be sure whether the guests are truly transformed into youth or everything is an illusion brought on by Dr. Heidegger. This passage in particular brings this question to the forefront because it directly contradicts itself. The narrator tells us that the mirror reflected the image of elderly people, yet this is called "a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and the antique dresses they still wore." In the very next paragraph, it is decided that they are indeed young, "their burning passions proved them so."

__**World View -**__ The short story raises the problem of the 'follies of youth', or the mistakes that all the old people made when they were younger. They spend their lives, their bodies in the present and their minds in the past. They all dearly wish they could be young again, and not act the way they had once. However, the short story shows that even when they believe they have been granted a second chance at youth, they go and begin making mistakes and acting wild because they cannot escape making mistakes and the follies that come with being young. Though they wish to be young again, because of the people they are, having a second chance will not actually solve anything, just make them take the same path they did previously.