Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment


 * __ Short Stories - Literary DevisesTitle: Dr. Heidegger's Experiment __**

be content…”
 * Point of View: ** First person, limited. The narrator uses I. “…I will merely hint…” “…I must


 * Protagonist: ** Dr. Heidegger


 * What type of character is the Protagonist? ** Round, Dynamic


 * Antagonist: ** Himself


 * Describe the setting: ** The story is set around the early nineteenth century. The main events occur inside of Dr. Heidegger’s study. It is an old, dim place, with many cobwebs and lots of dust. There are books everywhere and a skeleton in the closet. There was also a large picture of the woman that Dr. Heidegger was to marry. The mood starts out as doubtful, but as the four guests get younger the mood becomes amazed, and immature. Near the end the mood changes to sadness, when they return to their older selves. Dr. Heidegger’s mood seems expectant at the beginning and satisfied by the end.


 * Type of Conflict: ** Man vs. Himself


 * Describe the main conflict: ** The main conflict is between Dr. Heidegger and himself. The conflict is that he wants to know whether or not he would like to go back and relive his younger years. He conducts an experiment using four people as test subjects, to decide wether or not he would like to go back or not.


 * Describe the Climax of the Story: ** The climax of the story is when, after the fight over the widow, the water from the fountain of youth is spilled, and the guests start to feel old again. This is the point where not only does the true nature of the Dr. Heidegger’s experiment becomes apparent, but also the fact that the guests will not stay young.


 * How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? ** Dr. Heidegger changes because at the beginning of the story he does not know whether he would want to become young again. He conducts the experiment on his four guests, and learns by the end of the story that he would not want to become young again. The guests resorted back to an immature nature, to mach their age. He would not want to go back to acting immature, and loose the knowledge that he has gained, so he would not want to go back. The change is that the indecision in the doctor's mind is put to rest.


 * Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. ** I think that the theme is that given the opportunity to change the past humanity is doomed to repeat it. This relates to the title "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" because the experiment is what highlights and proves the theme. When the guests think that they have become young again they begin acting as they did when they were young; immature and careless. Despite the experiences that they had had since they were that age, all of the lesions they had learned disappeared. They turned into they same irresponsible people that they had been when they were young. Given the chance to relive their lives, they would have chosen to resort back to the way that they had been, and disregard everything they had ever learned.


 * How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? ** I think that the theme is that given the opportunity to change the past humanity is doomed to repeat it. This whole concept only comes around because of the experiment, which is a result of the main conflict. The main conflict is between the Dr. Heidegger and himself. The experiment tests what would happen if someone were to become young again. The subjects all begin acting their age. This helps the doctor to make up his mind.


 * How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? ** The climax helps to illustrate the theme that humans are doomed to repeat the past. This is because at this point in the story the realization the guests will not stay young becomes apparent. Yet, the guests spend there last few minutes young again, acting as they did when they were young. They did not try to be wise; they only wanted to have fun.


 * Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **


 * Simile: ** "...a small round table as black as ebony..." This is comparing the colour of the table to the colour of ebony, using as. "They felt like new-created beings..." This is comparing "they" to new-created being, using like. "They" is referring to Dr. Heidegger's guests. "Youth, like the extremity of age..." This compares youth to the extremity of age, using like.


 * Metaphor: ** "...brimful of this wonderful water, the delicate spray of which, as it effervesced from the surface, resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds." This is comparing the brimful of wonderful water to the glitter of diamonds, without using like or as.


 * Personification: ** “…moisture which clung to its petals.” Moisture cannot cling. Clinging requires hands, which moisture does not have. “…moment snatched away…” Moments cannot snatch, so this is personification.


 * Symbol: ** The rose that was given to the doctor that he still keeps, is a symbol of lost love. It represents what the doctor lost; his one true love. “My poor Sylvia’s rose!” The subjects of the experiment are symbols for the desperate aspects of humanity. They want, want, want, but when given an opportunity to live their dream, they squander it. “I rejoice that I have well selected the subjects of my experiment.”


 * Foreshadowing (give both elements): ** “My poor Sylvia’s rose...it appears to be fading again.” This leads us to believe that the rose will not stay young, and neither will the people. “Are we grown old again so soon?” “In truth, they had.” This proves that the guests did indeed turn old again.


 * Irony: ** It is ironic in the story that even though they did not make smart decisions in their youth, when given a second chance to do it over they would choose to follow the same path. “…who had been unfortunate in life…” “…had once been at the point of cutting each other’s throats for her sake.” “…they grappled fiercely at one another’s throats.”


 * Imagery: ** The majority of the imagery is depicted when the narrator is describing the room and the people. “…besprinkled with antique dust…” “…withered gentleman…” Most of the imagery is on the first three pages.


 * Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. ** This story relates to humanity, because the experiment tests the psychological aspects of what it means to be human. This experiment proves that the human quality of desire is so powerful that it can deceive people, and convince them that something is real when it isn’t. The experiment proves how much desire impacts human’s lives. How do we know what’s real, if all we have to do is really want something and we’ll think we have it?


 * Responding: **


 * 1. ** The purpose of Dr. Heidegger’s experiment was to see if a desire could be strong enough to convince someone that something that was not real was real. He asked four people who were so desperate to be young again that they would do anything, to drink some water supposedly from the Fountain of Youth. Even though it was not actually water from the Fountain of Youth, the guests were so desperate to be young again, that they were convinced that they were once again young. Dr. Heidegger’s experiment was a psychological experiment.


 * 2. ** Dr. Heidegger’s guests were similar because they wanted to be young again just to be young, not because they were ashamed. They had an immense desire to be young again. So great, that they even convinced themselves of being young when they weren’t. They were also similar because during experiment they went back to their old ways. The banker began scheming to sell ice to the East Indies using extreme measures to try and make money. The widow goes back to being vain and only caring about her looks. Mr. Gascoigne talked about patrism, national glory, and people’s rights. The colonel began singing a bottle song. The guests all became childish, giddy, optimistic and merry.


 * 3. ** The doctor would not like to become young again because the experiment proved to him that despite all the lesions that people have learned over the years, when given the opportunity to do it over, people are doomed to repeat their past mistakes. The doctor sees no need to repeat the lesions that he has already learned. He says wile speaking to the guests, “Such is the lesson ye have taught me!” Based on their actions after drinking the water, he can determine that going back to a younger age would only result in repeating the same mistakes. The guests have such a desire to be young, that even if they didn’t think that it would work, they were still willing to try.


 * 4. ** The narrator is not a participant in experiment, but he seems to have all of the facts of the experiment through the eyes of Dr. Heidegger. He is most likely another person in a scientific field that the doctor felt the need to share his experiment and discovery with. The narrator seems very sure of his facts, and hardly wavers at all from what he believed happened, but since we only have the story from Dr. Heidegger’s point of view, it could be bias. If we heard the story from one of the guest’s points of view, I am sure that the story would be much different.


 * 5. ** From the way that this story is written, it makes it seem as though aging and dieing are a natural part of life, and should not be cheated. This is proven in the story with quotes such as “Youth like the extremity of age, had affected the strongly marked characteristics of middle life, and mutually assimilated them all.” I do agree with the story. Death is a part of life that we all l have to go through, and given the opportunity to be young again I would not take it. I only need to be young once, and I want to keeps the memories of the past, even the hard ones, because that’s what would make me a better person.


 * 7. ** No, I do not think that this would be desirable. If everyone were to live for eight hundred years, there would be a huge problem with overpopulation. This would significantly deplete our resources, such as fossil fuels, extremely fast. In just a few generations everything would become expensive, and many people would live in poverty.

COMPLETION 5/5

EFFORT 5/5

CONTENT 5/5

QUESTIONS 12/12

TOTAL 27/27