"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment": Story Analysis

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Nathaniel Hawthorne 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.

Summary
This story is about the Dr Heidegger, an old man who lives alone in an old house. Once he was going to married with a woman named Sylvia Ward, but she died the day before their wedding, and he kept a rose she gave him fifty-five years ago. The doctor invited four of his friends to carry out his

experiment to return them young, but they make the same mistakes as many years ago, and at the end of the story they still old as the beginning.

Analyzing the Story
Conflict: Dr.Heidegger kept for decades a withered rose which was given to him by his bride before their wedding and she died.

Rising Action:
1)Dr. Heidegger invited his four friends to experiment with them.
2)He toke the rose and he poured some water on it and a moment later the rose began to bloom again.
3)He told his friends about the “Fountain of Youth” and asked them to drink the water.
4)He asked them to think about their mistakes they made when they were young.
5)The four people drank the water.

Climax: The four friends were young again, but they started to think about what will they do, and they did the same mistakes as in the past.

Resolution: The three men were fighting each other and they broke the glass with the rose and the water and they suddenly became older again.

Characters

Dr. Heidegger: He was an old and a sad man who lives alone since his bride’s dead. He was the doctor who makes the experiment, but he did not want to be young again.
Mr. Medbourne: He had been a rich man, but he was greedy and he did some bad business and he lost all his fortune. He was old men too.
Mr. Gascon: He was in elderly age, he had been a famous politician, but he was dishonest, and he was sent to jail. He was poor now.
Colonel Killigrew: He was a soldier and he was very gourmand, he liked to eat and drink a lot and it affected his health and he got sick all the time.
Widow Wicherly: She was once very beautiful but now she was old and she was not pretty any more. She had a high self-esteem.

Moral
With this story the author shows us about the way to act of many people, doing the same mistakes as always and without learning any lesson about it.

To be honest I liked this story more than the others because in spite of the fantasy of a fountain of youth, the message behind it is real. When life hands you a new opportunity to change things you must take it and do the best.