Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment

**Short Stories - Literary Devises**

**Title:** Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

**Point of View:** First Person, Limited Omniscient

**Protagonist:** Dr. Heidegger, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Gacoigne, and Widow Wycherly.

**What type of character is the protagonist?** They are round and dynamic.

**Antagonist:** Theirs minds thinking about time and the thought of aging.

Dr. Heidegger and his four friends are sitting in his study in the late 1800’s. The study seems to have been not used recently as it is covered in cobwebs and dust. It is dim and old-fashioned, and contains many oaken bookcases, a mirror, portrait, and closet. The mood and atmosphere is kind of mellow in the beginning, then becomes curious when Dr. Heidegger does his trick with the rose. When his companions drink the water, the mood becomes excited and giddy and then when the water wears off it becomes cold and eerie.
 * Describe the setting: **

The type of conflict is Man VS. Himself because the characters force themselves to believe they are young, and eventually they realize they really aren’t and that it might have been their own minds tricking them. It is also Man VS. Environment because the characters are afraid of time and want to be young again so they can relive their past.
 * Type of Conflict: **

 The main conflict is the confusion of time. Dr. Heidegger’s friends believe in their minds that time has actually made them young again when it really has not. They are too busy enjoying being ‘young’ again to realize that its just an illusion. They don’t realize that acting young will make them miss being young even more.
 * Describe the main conflict: **

**Describe the climax of the story:** The climax of the story is when the the three men start fighting over Widow Wycherly and they knock the vase over and the water from the Fountain of Youth spills all over the floor. Then they all turn young again.

Over the course of the story, Dr. Heidegger starts off excited to try out his experiment. By the end, he understands just how much he doesn’t need the water anymore. Dr. Heidegger’s companions, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Gascoigne, and Widow Wycherly start off miserable and depressed, and then when they drink the water they become young and energized. After the water wears off, they go right back to being depressed.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the protagonist change over the course of the story? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I think that the theme is that we shouldn’t try to go against the way nature intended things to be. Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment involved people trying to cheat death, and that’s going against the cycle of life. People all need to eventually die, but the experiment goes against death unnaturally. The experiment failed because nature made the water wear off.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The main conflict helps to illustrate the theme by proving that time shouldn’t be messed around with. The conflict of time makes the water wear off, showing that things should stay natural.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When the three men fight over the widow, it shows how that when they become young again they forget all that they’ve done. They forget the mistakes that they’ve made and they realize just how crazed they are over the water when it spills. The water spills to teach them a lesson; that nature shouldn’t be messed with.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“It’s source is overshadowed by //several gigantic magnolias, which, through numberless centuries old, have been kept as fresh as violets by the virtues of this wonderful water//.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...the //shadows of age were flitting from it like darkness from the crimson daybreak//.”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Simile: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“But without waiting for a reply, Dr. Heidegger hobbled across the chamber, and returned with the same ponderous folio, bound in black leather, which common report affirmed to be a book of magic.” This is a metaphor for how humans classify things as magical when they don’t know how certain things work.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metaphor: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...in the pursuit of //sinful pleasures which had given birth to a brood of pains//...” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“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//...” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“//The crushed and dried petals stirred//...” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...as if //the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber//...” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...//his own conscience could scarcely catch the secret//...” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“//A strange chillness....was creeping gradually over them all//.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...//each fleeting moment snatched away a charm//...”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Personification: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Symbol:** The rose is a symbol for Dr. Heidegger’s continuing love for his dead fiancee. It symbolizes that he will never forget her, and he threw it into the water to show that he wishes the water could bring her back to life, just like it did with the rose.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The author explains how Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew and Mr. Gascoigne were early lovers of Widow Wycherly and ‘had once been on the point of cutting each other’s throats for her sake.’ This foreshadows how at the climax when they are young again, they still fight over her no matter what age they are.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s ironic how right before they drink the water, they promise to stay wise and respectful, but when they do drink the water, they don’t keep the promise. They are too busy being young again, and are acting like rude and foolish young people instead.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Irony: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust. Around the walls stood several oaken bookcases, the lower shelves of which were filled with rows of gigantic folios and black-letter quartos, and the upper with little parchment-covered duodecimos....”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Imagery: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All humans will eventually age and die because it is a natural thing to do. Most humans don’t try to go against the flow of nature or the cycle of life, because they know there is no way to live eternally. It’s not like we have the ability to go back in time or stop ourselves from aging. Dr. Heidegger’s friends need to understand that they can’t escape death, like the rest of humanity. As humans we try to live our lives to fullest, because everything we do is basically to avoid death. Time is endless, but lives are not.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. According to Dr. Heidegger, what is the purpose of his experiment? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">According to Dr. Heidegger, the purpose of his experiment is to see if the water from the Fountain of Youth actually effects humans. If it does, he wants to see how it effects people, so he’s using his friends as guinea pigs. He is very curious, and may be considering actually finding the Fountain of Youth.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. What do Dr. Heidegger’s friends have in common? How does each of them behave during the experiment? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All of Dr. Heidegger’s friends were ‘melancholy old creatures who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves.’ They all had unfortunate lives in their younger years and are now old.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">During the experiment, they all behave like children. They laugh, dance, blush, act lively, and fight like fools. They act quite a bit immature and naive. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">However, each character does act a bit different from the others. Dr. Heidegger acts normal during the experiment and watches with ‘philosophic coolness.’ Meanwhile Mr. Medbourne calculates money involved for ‘a project for supplying the East Indies with ice, by harnessing a team of whales to the polar icebergs,’ because he became more greedy when he turned young again. Colonel Killigrew was busy hitting on Widow Wycherly, while singing and ringing his glass. Mr. Gascoigne ‘rattled forth full-throated sentences about pariotism, national glory, and people’s rights.’ Then he started to whisper to himself and basically talked crazily about random topics for a while. All Widow Wycherly did was spend a lot of the experiment staring at herself in the mirror and examining her every detail. Then she asks Dr. Heidegger to dance, and everyone but the doctor himself start to fight over her, resulting in a broken vase and the water spilt.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Why would Dr. Heidegger not stoop to bathe his lips in the Fountain of Youth? Do his friends feel the same way? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dr. Heidegger would not stoop to bathe his lips in the Fountain of Youth because he realizes what the water does to your mind. He realizes just how foolish people become when they drink it, and he knows he doesn’t want to lose his wisdom and make the same mistakes again. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His friends do not feel the same way because they are blinded by the joy of feeling young again.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Who is the narrator of the story? Thought he is not a participant in the experiment, the narrator relates all the details. How does he know what happened to the doctor and his friends? How certain of his facts is the narrator? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The narrator of the story is unknown, but he may have been hiding somewhere in the room or was told the story by Dr. Heidegger himself. It seems more likely that the narrator was somewhere in the room, because the description of the story is so vivid and the narrator seems perfectly certain of his facts. I think the narrator could have possibly been the ghost of Dr. Heidegger’s fiancee haunting the room, or one of his relatives that he told the story to.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. What points are made about youth and aging in the story? Do you agree with the views in the story? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The story basically implies that youth tend to be foolish while people get wiser as they age. I agree with these views because not many of my friends are wise like older people, and a lot of them do foolish things. A lot of the time adults I know seem to know what’s right and what’s wrong, so I do believe they have more wisdom.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I do not feel this is desirable because I want to live a normal lifetime. I would get too bored living that long, and I would never be motivated to do anything because I’d have all the time in the world. The earth would get overpopulated because no one would be dying at the same rate children are being born. Living that long would not be a good idea because resources would run out, potential wars could happen, and lots of people would be just plain unhappy.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7. Some scientists hope to develop a vaccine against aging. They speculate that human beings could then live approximately 800 years. Do you feel this is desirable? Explain your answer. **

COMPLETION 5/5

EFFORT 5/5

CONTENT 5/5

QUESTIONS 12/12

TOTAL 27/27