Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, in 1837. This short story tells about an elderly doctor who has made a substantial amount of questionable decisions through his lifetime. Dr. Heidegger then invites four friends over to assist him in a study that he is working on. This study requires his guests to drink from glasses that are filled with water from the fountain of youth. Dr. Heidegger warns his friends that they should think carefully about their past actions and work towards being a better person while they have the option of redoing their youthful years. After drinking the water, his friends become as greedy as ever and demand more. Obviously not changing their ways, they foolishly knock over the pitcher of water and quickly
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As everyone knows, the fountain of youth is not a real place, but Hawthorne makes it out to be so that it can be an achievable goal for the greedy friends. The point that Hawthorne was trying to get across to his readers is that the fountain of youth represents eternal life, or Heaven. The people who drink from the fountain of youth have the ability to live forever, never growing old. This statement is much like the way Heaven is portrayed to the majority of Christians. Dr. Heidegger warned his friends that if they did not change their ways once they become young again, it would all be a waste and eternal life will then not be achievable. In that, Hawthorne was saying that if you are not good in life, your eternal life will be equally as bad as before or possibly not even be at all. This is why Dr. Heidegger tried to help his old friends by convincing them they were young again and giving them a redo at life. Heidegger warns the friends, “ it would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you, you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance, in passing a second time through the perils of youth” (Hawthorne). Hawthorne is saying that regardless if they were actually young again or not, their mentality was that they were, and therefore they should have been trying all they could to be better people than …show more content…
Dr. Heidegger for example, was used to try and teach a lesson to the readers about living life to the fullest, in order to regret very little as their lives grow old. Dr. Heidegger is the prime example of a man that is living out the rest of his life full of regrets. He looks in the mirror and sees the patients that he could not or did not save. Although, after watching how his friends reacted to their new ability to turn back time, he knows that he would never wish that for himself. Hawthorne states this very fact by saying, “Well—I bemoan it no; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it)
As everyone knows, the fountain of youth is not a real place, but Hawthorne makes it out to be so that it can be an achievable goal for the greedy friends. The point that Hawthorne was trying to get across to his readers is that the fountain of youth represents eternal life, or Heaven. The people who drink from the fountain of youth have the ability to live forever, never growing old. This statement is much like the way Heaven is portrayed to the majority of Christians. Dr. Heidegger warned his friends that if they did not change their ways once they become young again, it would all be a waste and eternal life will then not be achievable. In that, Hawthorne was saying that if you are not good in life, your eternal life will be equally as bad as before or possibly not even be at all. This is why Dr. Heidegger tried to help his old friends by convincing them they were young again and giving them a redo at life. Heidegger warns the friends, “ it would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you, you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance, in passing a second time through the perils of youth” (Hawthorne). Hawthorne is saying that regardless if they were actually young again or not, their mentality was that they were, and therefore they should have been trying all they could to be better people than …show more content…
Dr. Heidegger for example, was used to try and teach a lesson to the readers about living life to the fullest, in order to regret very little as their lives grow old. Dr. Heidegger is the prime example of a man that is living out the rest of his life full of regrets. He looks in the mirror and sees the patients that he could not or did not save. Although, after watching how his friends reacted to their new ability to turn back time, he knows that he would never wish that for himself. Hawthorne states this very fact by saying, “Well—I bemoan it no; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it)