“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an allegoric story that uses symbolism and imagery to paint for us a story with a deep and meaningful message. The meaning in this story, can easily be summed up as the folly of youth. This story begins with Dr. Heidegger, who invites four old friends, Mr. Gascoigne, Mr. Medbourne, Col. Killigrew, and the Widow Wycherly, to conduct an experiment. He presents before them a peculiar vase, which contains a magical liquid, he demonstrates before his guests the magical property this water contains, and shows its power with a rose from his long deceased lover. The water reverts the rose back to its prime, which after small gibber, explains that the water is supposedly a sample from the ‘Fountain
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“ ‘My dear widow, you are charming!’ cried Colonel Killigrew, whose eyes had been fixed upon her face, while the shadows of age were flitting away from it like darkness from the crimson day-break.” (Hawthorne 508). Similarly, the widow shows her own self lust as she gawks over her own beauty; “She trusted her face close to the glass, to see whether someone long-remembered wrinkle or crow’s-foot had indeed vanished. She examined whether the snow had so entirely melted from her hair, that the venerable cap could be safely thrown aside” (Hawthorne 509). Equally, Mr. Medbourne and Mr. Gascoigne represent their own evils, respectively, being greed and pride. For Mr. Medbourne his greed being displayed with “On the other side of the table, Mr. Medbourne was involved in calculations of dollars and cents, with which was strangely intermingled a project for supplying the East Indies with ice, by harnessing a team of whales to the polar icebergs” (Hawthorne 509). Then lastly, for Mr. Gascoigne is, “Mr. Gascoigne’s mind seemed to run on political topics, but whether they related to the past, present, or future, could not easily be determined, since the same ideas and phrases have been in vogue these fifty years” (Hawthorne 508). To bring back his friends’ clumsiness, they knock over the vase and send the magical water to the
“ ‘My dear widow, you are charming!’ cried Colonel Killigrew, whose eyes had been fixed upon her face, while the shadows of age were flitting away from it like darkness from the crimson day-break.” (Hawthorne 508). Similarly, the widow shows her own self lust as she gawks over her own beauty; “She trusted her face close to the glass, to see whether someone long-remembered wrinkle or crow’s-foot had indeed vanished. She examined whether the snow had so entirely melted from her hair, that the venerable cap could be safely thrown aside” (Hawthorne 509). Equally, Mr. Medbourne and Mr. Gascoigne represent their own evils, respectively, being greed and pride. For Mr. Medbourne his greed being displayed with “On the other side of the table, Mr. Medbourne was involved in calculations of dollars and cents, with which was strangely intermingled a project for supplying the East Indies with ice, by harnessing a team of whales to the polar icebergs” (Hawthorne 509). Then lastly, for Mr. Gascoigne is, “Mr. Gascoigne’s mind seemed to run on political topics, but whether they related to the past, present, or future, could not easily be determined, since the same ideas and phrases have been in vogue these fifty years” (Hawthorne 508). To bring back his friends’ clumsiness, they knock over the vase and send the magical water to the