"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." Story Analysis

 

Biography:

Nathaniel Hawtorne was born in Salem, Massachusettes on July 4 1804, and passed away on may 19 1864. His work as an American fiction writer was based on the history of his Puritan ancestors and the New England of his own day, but in its "power of blackness" has universal significance. later in 1850 he wrote one of his best-known novels The Scarlet Letter. This has made him a famous man around the world and is known for one of America's greatest writers.

Summary:

Dr. Heidegger invited four of his old friends to his house for an experiment, these friends were unfortunate in their early life. Dr. Heidegger demonstrated how a rose he had kept for fifty-five years could bloom again with water from the Fountain of Youth. This rose was given to him by the woman he was going to marry. They all drank the water to see if they too would become young again, and indeed they did, but unfortunately the rose began to shrink, and so they turned old again. In the end they have learned nothing from their past mistakes, and were planning to go find the Fountain of Youth.

Story Plot:

The conflict; Dr. Heidegger invites four of his old friends over to his house for an experiment.

Rising Action; - Dr. Heidegger invited his guests to go into his laboratory.

- Dr. Heidegger removed a rose he had saved for fifty-five years from one of his bokks.

- He told his friends the story behind behind the rose, how the woman he was going to marry; Sylvia Ward,   gave him the rose to wear on their wedding day. Sadly she died the day before the wedding.

- He asked his friends if they thought the rose would ever bloom again, they did not believe it was possible.

- The vase on the table where they were sitting was filled with a liquid that looked like water, he poured a little on the rose and it began to bloom again.

- The Dr. Heidegger told them about the Fountain of Youth and where it is located.

- They could drink all the water they wanted and grow as young as they wanted, but before they drank it the Dr. warned them not to make the same mistakes they did when they were young.

- Moments later they were feeling younger and wanted to drink more of the water.

- Soon they started argueing on who was going to dance with the widow Wycherly.

Climax; While struggling with each other the men knocked down the table with the vase, the water from the Fountain of Youth flowed across the floor.

Resolution; The four friends turned old again. Dr. Heidegger made his conclusion that non of his friends had learned from their past mistakes. They were planning to go find the Fountain of Youth. 

Characters:

Dr. Heidegger	Mr. Medbourne	Mr. Gascon	Colonel Killigrew	Widow Wycherly
strange old man,	was a very rich	was a famous	was a great	conceited,
Doctor,	man, greedy,	politician,	soldier, spent his	was once beautiful
flat character	lost his fortune,	dishonest, now	life eating &	but not anymore,
	now he is a	he lives in	drinking, now he	flat character
	begger,	shame,	suffers from bad
	flat character	flat character	health,
			flat character

All the four friends have much in common. They have been friends since a long time, the three men all love the widow Wycherly. They all made big mistakes in their early life wich led them to an unhappy future.

Moral of the story:
The moral of this story is about foolishness. The four friends being foolish in their youth, even when given a second chance they made the same mistakes.

Personal Opinion:

My personal opinion about this story is the following; in life no one is perfect, everyone can make mistakes, but at one point you have to be able to learn something from it and change it. If not, a person would just keep on making the same wrong desicions over and over again. This may lead to rejection by others. Having this kind of behaviour will not take you anywhere in life. People should learn to appreciate new opportunities and make the best out of it. The irony of the story is that we expect that the four friends change and will not make the same mistakes again, but that is not the case.