Cheating Father Time

Anna

                “If only I was your age again,” desperately yearned my Grandma, but she didn’t know what she was asking for.  In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” Nathaniel Hawthorn demonstrates the greed of human nature and the importance of the cycle of life.  Literary elements are used as a massive enhancement for the journey back on the road of demise, arrogance, and repetitive sins in the course of human life.

            Primarily, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses the setting in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” to enhance the mood of the story.  He uses dark and mysterious words to create an atmosphere of despair.  For example, Dr. Heidegger spends his time in his study “festooned with cobwebs and besprinkled with antique dust” (154).  This description of the story conveys a sense of mystery and adds to the setting of the story.  Not only does he explore mystery, but he also explores the supernatural.  In his study he has a long, tarnished mirror that hangs on the wall, and it is said that “the spirits of all the doctor’s deceased patients dwelt within its verge, and would stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward” (154).  In addition to this mirror, Dr. Heidegger also possesses a black leather book implied to contain magic.  When his chambermaid touches it, skeletons rattle, pictures move, and faces appear in the mirror.  These supernatural elements, as well as the descriptive word choices, work together to enhance the story.

            In addition to the setting, the use of symbolism in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” adds to the overall character of the story.  Hawthorne uses several symbols to express emotion and create appeal.  For example, Dr. Heidegger carries an old, wilted rose in his black book of magic.  Even though the rose is no longer alive, the doctor loves it and cherishes it deeply.  This significant rose symbolizes his remembered wife, and even though it is withered and aged he still loves it.  In addition to the rose, he also possesses a vase of “beautiful form and elaborate workmanship” (156).  Compared to the dull atmosphere in the study, the vase became the centerpiece of the house.  However, in the end the elegant vase is broken in an abrupt accident.  The vase symbolizes the doctor’s hope of human nature to change for the good and his life of being young again.  When the vase falls and breaks, those dreams are no more.  Both the vase and rose are symbols that are an important addition to Hawthorne’s success in such a story as “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.”

            For some intellectuals, old age is thought to come with the territories of self centeredness, disease, worry, and the impulse of wanting to be young again.  In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” the characters are “melancholy old creatures, who have been unfortunate in life” (152), and are the exact description of old age.  Mr. Medbourne wants money and wants it quick, but now in his old age he has became a poor beggar.  Mr. Medbourne is a perfect guinea pig to see if someone will actually change if given another chance.  Similarly, widow Wycherly is an aged woman who had great beauty when she was younger.  Both of these regretful elderly adults “are worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections” (154).  Dr. Heidegger, who thinks before acting, doesn’t feel the same, but feels like “having had much trouble in growing old, [he is] in no hurry to grow young” (160).  Nathaniel Hawthorne uses these characters for the mere fact to show the greed of human nature and the importance of the characters in the story.

            Hawthorne crafts an intriguing, but sad tale in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.”  Although the characters are richly described, they are mostly to be pitied.  Humans have sought ways to cheat the effects of aging since the beginning of time, and Hawthorne captures this anxious feeling perfectly in this story.  However, as humans have discovered over and over again, time cannot be turned back, nor can the consequences of our actions when young be undone.