Dr.

Heidegger's Experiment
It is the story of an eccentric doctor who gives four of his friends an "elixir" from the Fountain of Youth and observes their behavior as they grow "young" again. Like many of Hawthorne's other tales, the story is highly moralistic and even Puritan in its values. Hawthorne is often cited as a member of the so-called "Dark-Romanticism" genre, in which the supposed inherent evil of mankind is held up to scrutiny. "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" was first published anonymously in the January 1837 issue ofKnickerbocker magazine under the title "The Fountain of Youth." Hawthorne republished it in book form later that year, under his own name and its current title, in a collection of stories called Twice-Told Tales (in the sense that every tale had been published somewhere else before and hence was being told for the second time).

 Little Words, Big Ideas

Foolishness and Folly

Dr. Heidegger Experiment Themes

"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is rooted in a rather pessimistic view of human nature. The story argues that people are, for the most part, fools. They don't learn from their mistakes, they're genera... Old Age "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" explores questions of age and behavior. What does it mean to be old? What does it mean to be young? What is the difference between defining age physically, and defining...

Versions of Reality

"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is a story of illusion, deception, and doubt. The title character makes use of theatricality, wishful thinking, and even alcohol (in one interpretation of the story) to...

Transformation

"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is the story of four elderly friends who are transformed or at least think they are transformed back to young, vivacious individuals. The text plays wit...

The Supernatural

Whether or not the eerie elements of "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" are actually supernatural is subject to debate. It's a question of theatrical showmanship vs. genuine superstitious belief. The the...

 Interestingly, in 1860, Hawthorne added to his story a note addressing a supposed accusation of plagiar against him. It seems that an English review of his story insinuated that he lifted the Idea from Mmoires d'un Mdecin, a novel by Alexandre Dumas (whom you know as the author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo). In his note, Hawthorne points out that he wrote "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" twenty years earlier and long before Dumas's novel, but that the far more famous Dumas is welcome to lift any ideas he pleases from Hawthorne's own work.

 Dr. Heidegger then claims that the liquid in the vase is water from the mythical Fountain of Youth. He would like their help in an experiment: they drink the water, he sits back and watches. The guests are clearly skeptical, but they agree. Before they drink, Dr. Heidegger warns them not to make the same mistakes they did the first time they were young. The guests drink, and they believe they have grown young again. (Whether or not they actually are physically transformed is ambiguous.) Of course, they act like fools, and the three men end up wrestling each other for the Widow's attention. In their tussling they knock over the vase, which spills the elixir all over the floor. It doesn't take long for the effects of the potion to wear off, and the four guests find that they are old again. Dr. Heidegger does not regret the spilled elixir; he has learned his lesson by watching his guests, and would not drink the water for anything. The guests, however, have learned nothing, and vow to travel to Florida, find the fountain of youth, and drink from it day and night

Transformation
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is the story of four elderly friends who are transformed or at least think they are transformed back to young, vivacious individuals. The text plays with the idea of what it means to be transformed physically as opposed to mentally, and which actually takes place in the story is subject to debate. Hawthorne also asks whether we can learn from a transformation, particularly one as ephemeral as that which takes place in this story. Pessimistically, the narrative seems to conclude that we can not.

The Supernatural
Whether or not the eerie elements of "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" are actually supernatural is subject to debate. It's a question of theatrical showmanship vs. genuine superstitious belief. The theme creates a mood of doubt and forces the reader to ask some difficult questions about the nature of reality at least as defined within the narrative. It also severely complicates our understanding of the title character, who has at least one foot in a sinister, supernatural realm.

Dr. Heidegger's Experiment Summary

The story begins with old Dr. Heidegger inviting four elderly friends over to his rather eerie study: Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Medbourne, Mr. Gascoigne, and the Widow Wycherly. The four old folks have all fallen a long way from their prime; each squandered his own type of fortune (youth, money, power, beauty) and is now in a miserable state. The narrator also informs us that, when they were young, the three men used to fight over the attention of the Widow Wycherly.

Heidegger's creepy study contains, among other things, a bust of Hippocrates with whom Dr. Heidegger consults from time to time, a magic black book, a skeleton in a closet, and a mirror that supposedly contains the visages of Heidegger's dead patients. The Doctor presents his guests with four empty champagne glasses and an ornate vase full of clear, bubbling liquid. He takes an old, withered rose, drops it into the vase, and shows his guests that it has in fact been rejuvenated to a fresh-blooming flower.