Dr. Heidegger's Experiment

"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment:" Story Analysis

Meet the Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. He started writing short stories, and then began to write novels. The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s best-known novel. It made him famous around the world. Hawthorne is one of America’s greatest writers.

My Summary

This story is about 1 doctor who was doing an experiment, 3 men, and 1 woman. They are now old the 3 men loved that woman, when they were young. The doctor’s experiment was about the Fountain of Youth. He wanted them to drink that water to change their mistakes, but when they become young again, they start fighting. At the end of the story the rose become brown again, and they turned old again, but they want to look for the Fountain of Youth.


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Plot Analysis

Conflict

The doctor shows them his experiment.

Rising Action

1-    The Doctor poured some of the water onto the rose.

2-    The rose turned red, fresh and lovely.

3-    He talks about the Fountain of Youth.

4-    The Doctor tells them to drink that water.

5-    They drink and become young again.

6-    They start fighting.

7-    The vase fell to ground, and the water was poured on the ground.

8-    The rose began to shrink, it was dry and brown again.

Climax

    They became old again.

Resolution

    They make plans to leave for Florida, because they want to find the Fountain of Youth to drink the water again.

Dr. Heidegger	Mr. Medbourne	Mr. Gascon	Colonel Killigrew	Widow Wycherly
Old	Old	Old	Old	Old
Strange	Poor	He was a famous politician	He eats and drink a lot	Conceited
Alone	He was rich	Dishonest	He was a great soldier	She was beautiful
Sick	Greedy	Shameful	Sick	Now she’s not beautiful
Smart	He begs for money	Poor

Moral

The moral of this story is that we always one a second chance to do something better or change our mistakes, but when we have it, we waste it at all. It doesn’t matter if we are young or old, nobody here is eternal, we know since we born that we must die. If we are young we do a lot of mistakes but when we get old we want to change everything, but why to change when we are old, we can try to be better when we are young. Even whether a person is old, they keep doing mistakes, no one is perfect. Nobody escapes neither become old nor of the death. The question is: if you have a second chance how would you use it?

My Opinion

Yes, I liked it very much, because it was very interesting to know about something like the “Fountain of Youth”. I enjoyed it also because it’s true, sometimes when we have a lot of things and money and those things, we forget about what is more important money or happiness. The irony of the story is that they wanted to be young; they get it, although at the end they become old again, for me it is the irony of the story. I enjoyed it a lot.