Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment  by Nathaniel Hawthorne Literary Analysis Essay Example

Noah In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”  by Nathaniel Hawthorne  the plot revolves around Dr. Heidegger doing an experiment with water from the Fountain of Youth. He invites 4 people who all knew each other in the past. These characters include Widow Wycherly, Mr Gascoigne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Medbourne who are all elderly. He offers them the water from the Fountain of Youth and they briefly become young. Throughout the story we are constantly questioning whether this water is truly mythical or is it just some cruel illusion but the water was in fact, real and not just an illusion. 

Throughout the story the author keeps you on edge with all of the strange things the doctor has around his house. From him having a literal  skeleton in his closet to having a picture that moves, having magical water isn’t even the weirdest thing he has laying around. In the text it states “The crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower where reviving from a deathlike slumber; the slender stalk and twigs of foliage became green; and their their was the rose of half a century, looking as fresh as when Sylvia Ward had first given it to her lover” (tex 1, pg 2). This is saying that 50 years ago the doctor's lover gave him a rose in time the rose died and with the water from The Fountain of Youth he was able to bring it back to life. This is something that is only ashomlshable with the use of not everyday water or wine but something truly magical. This brings me to my second piece of evidence of something else coming back to life: a butterfly ( “The precious Water of Youth flowed in a bright stream across the floor, moistening the wings of a butterfly, which grew 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. And later in the text While he spoke, the butterfly fluttered down from the doctor’s snowy head, and fell upon the floor.”(text 1, pg 6). Here we have another case of this watering bringing something back from the dead and this also proves that the water only lasts for a little while and not forever this will be important for later. And finally my last piece of evidence: “Doctor, you dear old soul, “get up and dance with me!” And then the four young people laughed louder than ever,”(Text 1,pg 4)This piece may seem like nothing but its important remember earlier when I said they were older people, how often do you see older people dancing proving this water to only only affect their minds but also their bodies and surely enough you didn't see them dancing after they turn old again now you could say it's because their not happy because their old again but during than scene they were literally making fun of themselves, by limping around like an older person like they were before.

Now like every argument you have people who have different opinions. . Let's look at one such example “Meanwhile, the three gentlemen behaved in intoxication qualities”. People may argue that this entire story was just people getting drunk and hallucinating everything that happened but remember the rose scene from earlier that was before they consumed any of the water so the rose scene actually happened. So it's possible that the water contains some “Intoxication qualities” but they were all sober and not influenced at all when they watched the rose come back to life. Another argument that people might make is that if the water was really from the Fountain of Youth it would last forever and not just for a couple of hours proving it was wine or something. Well lets just say this I mentioned when the water brought a butterfly and rose back to life. 

So all of this evidence demonstrates that the water was in fact truly from the Fountain of Youth. But this story does a good job of making you question yourself about whether the water was real or not. But this story tells an important lesson to learn from your mistakes and in this story they didn't.