Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment


 * Short Stories - Literary Devises + 1,2,3,4,5,7 Title: Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment **

**Point of View:** 1st Person View + Limited Omniscience

**Protagonist:** Dr. Heidegger **What type of character is the Protagonist?** Round and Dynamic.

**Antagonist:** Dr. Heidegger


 * Describe the setting: **

Judging by the house, it looks like something from the 1800s. It might be the early 1900s, but the lack of technology suggests it was during the 1800s, that or Dr. Heidegger lives in a really old house. Dr. Heidegger and his colleagues are in Heidegger’s “chamber “ conducting an experiment. The time of day is the summer in the afternoon. The mood gives off a sort of mysterious, yet at the same time light-hearted feeling that makes you feel at home, but at the same time curious and tempted to learn more. Dr. Heidegger is using his colleagues as test subjects to see if the Fountain of Youth really exist.


 * Type of Conflict:** Man vs Himself


 * Describe the main conflict: **

Dr. Heidegger is running an experiment to see if the water from the Fountain of Youth actually exist, however he is also deciding if he should drink the water or not.. He uses his colleagues as ‘lab mice’ and tells them that he obtained water from the Fountain of Youth and lures them to take it. It really is some sort of hallucinogenic substance he’s giving them (however, he doesn't know it's hallucinogenic) to help their mind think that they are actually getting younger. Dr. Heidegger is observing his colleagues in their nostalgic state and deciding whether he should take the water himself. This isn’t Man vs Man because the Men (Heidegger’s colleagues) aren’t fighting against Dr. Heidegger, instead they are fighting against among themselves, but that's not the main conflict due to the fact that there is no involvement of the protagonist.


 * Describe the Climax of the Story: **

When the Doctor’s colleagues knock down the vase and the flower shrivels. You feel the most suspense and the most raw emotion in that scene. You can really feel how awestruck Dr. Heidegger is when his most prized possession (the flower) dies. Afterwards, the colleagues become young and you feel how depressed the colleagues are when they realize that their childhood is truly gone; you really feel their desire to become young again. After seeing the pain the colleagues feel after turning old again and seeing his precious flower die, Heidegger completes his experiment and comes to the conclusion that the Fountain of Youth would not be worth drinking and that humans really do repeat the mistakes from their past. Past that point, nothing new happens and the story pretty much concludes.


 * How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? **

There are two drastic moments where the protagonist changes. The first when his colleagues remain as ignorant as always and he realizes that humans don’t learn from their mistakes and continue to repeat their past. Dr. Heidegger is fairly expressionless when this happens, he, in a way, is sort of smug. However, you can feel that he changed when he came to the realization. The second moment the protagonist changed is when his colleagues smash the eternal water vase and the flower from his fiance decays. Dr. Heidegger is good at holding back emotion, but you can feel how sad he is when something so valuable is destroyed. He changes when he sees his flower shrivel in front of him. Yes, he says he loves it even though it’s destroyed, but I feel as if he only said that to make his colleagues feel less guilty for destroying Dr. Heidegger’s most prized possession.


 * Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. **

The theme being, humans are doomed to repeat the same mistakes, even when given another chance to learn from their previous experiences. The title is about Dr. Heidegger’s experiment. Dr. Heidegger’s experiment is, literally, an experiment to see if eternal life is actually possible. However, the experiment morphs into the question (for the reader, not any of the characters) "Even if human life is possible, do we deserve it?" Dr. Heidegger sees his colleague's naive nature. They do exactly what the theme says. They repeat their same mistakes and don’t learn from the past. In other words, the title (being about Dr. Heidegger’s experiment) eventually morphs in to an example of the theme.


 * How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The main conflict really illustrates the theme. The conflict being that Dr. Heidegger has to decide to drink the water or not after observing his colleagues. His colleagues don’t care about changing who they are when they get a second chance, they continue being as bratty and stuck-up (yes strong words, however, I feel as if it is good for the given situation) as they were before. Dr. Heidegger sees that and doesn't want to be like that. Even if it was actual eternal life, the Doctor would still refuse; he doesn't want to go back and be as ignorant as his friends. The observations Dr. Heidegger makes illustrates the theme. However, the actually story with it’s use of descriptive language and it’s overall feel is what really emphasizes on the theme. When Dr. Heidegger’s colleagues actually do something, the description of it shows why humans never learn from their mistakes.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When the Doctor’s colleagues revert back to their old selves, Dr. Heidegger makes up his mind about taking eternal life. He also observes that his colleagues regretted how they spent their time as youth again. They repeated the mistake of not correcting their past again and it came and bit them in the bum; they were all filled with regret. The Doctor’s colleagues not only felt regret, but desire for more, they traveled to get some more of the water, and the reader can probably infer that they will change nothing about themselves and relive the mistakes they made. This observation that Dr. Heidegger makes illustrates the theme. The climax shows that the Doctor's colleagues are truly in an endless cycle of repeating their past.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Simile: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Now Dr. Heidegger was a very strange old gentleman, whose eccentricity had become the nucleus for a thousand fantastic stories.”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metaphor: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“You might as well ask whether an old woman’s wrinkled face could ever bloom again.”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Personification: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The rose is literally a specimen of flower, but it is a symbol of Dr. Heidegger’s fiance. It was once blooming and happy, then it decayed and died. Dr. Heidegger wants his fiance back, but he can’t have it back. Sort of like how the rose blooms again but can’t permanently stay up forever.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Symbol: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The moment the rose shriveled up indicated that the Doctor’s colleagues would not stay young forever.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the end, the Doctor’s colleagues didn’t stay young and they revert back to their old selves again (pun intended).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s ironic how the Doctor’s colleagues teased Dr. Heidegger for being old and old people in general, and then a few moments later, they became old again.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Irony: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Among its black-silver clasps, he opened the volume, and took from among its black-letter pages a rose, or what was once a rose, though now the green leaves and crimson petals had assumed one brownish hue and the ancient flower seemed ready to crumble to dust in the doctor’s hand.”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Imagery: **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Our class theme humanity and the story relate because they both are based around human nature. The theme, humans fail to learn from their mistakes, is a property of human nature. We as humans have the failure to learn from past mistakes in our blood. It is part of us (albeit, not a really good part) to have as much short term fun and then regret it later. Even if we are given a second chance, we won’t change, we will not evolve from our previous mistakes. **We treat mistakes as punishments and not learning experiences.** We will simply repeat history because it is part of our DNA. Humanity includes the ignorance to learn from and change our mistakes. The theme of the story describes just how we, as humans, work and why we don't learn from our mistakes..


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. According to Dr. Heidegger, what is the purpose of his experiment? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The purpose of Dr. Heidegger’s experiment is to test to see Dr. Heidegger should drink the eternal water or not. However, even though that was the initial question, half way through,the reader asked the question. “Do humans deserve eternal youth?” Dr. Heidegger used his friends as lab mice to decide if he should drink the water or not.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. What do Dr. Heidegger’s friends have in common? How does each of them behave during the experiment? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dr. Heidegger’s friends all have an incomplete youth. They all regret doing (or not doing) something and they desire an opportunity to change their past. All of them behave like they did as youth. Mr. Gascoigne is thinking about politics again .<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mr. Medbourne begins to become his old merchant self and schemes to sell the East Indies ice (don’t even ask). Colonel Killigrew is, in slang, dancing like a drunk fool while ‘checking out’ Widow Wycherly. Widow Wycherly goes to the mirror to look at herself. It is clear that they didn’t learn anything from their experience.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Why would Dr Heidegger not stoop to bathe his lips in the fountain of youth? Do his friends feel the same way? Comment. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dr. Heidegger used his friends as test subjects to see if the Fountain of Youth was legit. After seeing how his friends behaved when they thought they had eternal youth, Dr. Heidegger decided he didn't want to be like them. He didn't want to be as stuck-up and ignorant as his friends. As well, he didn't regret as much as his colleagues. The biggest regret he had was not saving his fiance. However, the Fountain of Youth does not revive people. His friends did not feel the same way. They made mistakes in their life and were filled with regret. As well, they all had a desire to become young again and enjoy the beauties of life. Dr. Heidegger, being a doctor, seen so many people pass away that he understands death is part of what makes us human and that living forever corrupts the cycle of life.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Who is the narrator of the story? Though he/she is not a participant in the experiment, the narrator relates all the details. How does he/she know what happened to the doctor and his friends? How certain of is facts is the narrator? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The narrator of the story is Dr. Heidegger’s fiance. Dr. Heidegger’s fiance probably knew Dr. Heidegger’s friends well, therefore, she could relate to the details in the story. She knows the history of Dr. Heidegger’s friends and since her soul is in Dr. Heidegger’s portrait (there’s no proof of this of course, you gotta infer it), she can see exactly what happened. She is fairly certain about her facts. It doesn’t state that she’s extremely confident, however there isn’t extreme unsureness as well <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(a few times she says something like "legend be told that"). The narrator is Dr. Heidegger’s bride because of two main reasons. The first being, that we can infer the narrator is a women because no sane man would insult Mr. Medbourne for being a lady’s man. They would have major respect, not bash him like what the narrator did. Since there’s only two females mentioned in the whole story and the Widow is obviously not the narrator (unless she talks in third person), it only leaves the bride. The second being how the narrator stresses the importance of the rose. The rose being important to Dr. Heidegger’s bride and Dr. Heidegger limits your options even more. So with that given evidence, I can infer it’s Dr. Heidegger’s fiance.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. What points are made about youth and aging in this story? Do you agree with the views in the story? Comment. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The points made about youth and aging are that humans do not learn from their mistakes. They don’t become wiser with experience. In fact, humans stay the same, and the only reason they don’t make as many mistakes as an adult is because of physical limitations. Humans are a special case in which experience will not prevent the same mistakes from occurring. We as humans will waste a second chance, even when we claim that we learned from the very mistake we get a second chance on. I do agree with the view in the story. I mean, it’s over exaggerated, but just by looking at history, you can clearly see that humans truly never learn and are doomed to repeat their mistakes.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7. Some scientists hope to develop a vaccine against aging. They speculate that human beings could live approximately 800 years. Do you feel this is desirable? Explain your answer. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I do feel this is desirable on the condition that it slows down aging and doesn’t add another 725 years of life on to your life span. We don’t need 800 year old men who can’t do anything but sit in the hospital all day. If it slowed down aging, you would be an 800 year old man with the body of a 75 year old man. You could do so much more in that scenario. Why do we need to live longer if we are just going to make the same mistakes? Simple, the reason we make the mistakes is because we are raised like that. Now with more time on our hands, we can actually raise the generation to learn from their mistakes and become better people. Before, we simply did not have time to do such things. When we got the message engraved in a child’s brain, they simply made another mistake. Now we have the time and we can manually make the child's brain understand they need to stop repeating their mistakes. As well, now we don’t have to worry about the education system. We can cover a lot more topics in the period time and we'd have with a lot less stress. No more do we have to do an English Short Story analysis at 12:00 am, now we can relax with a lot more time on our hands. We can relax and we can cover a lot more subjects with the added time. Furthermore, live conditions will increase, we will have a lot more efficient bodies with the new education system and the only major thing to worry about is the running out of resources (however, if scientist can make someone live up to 800 years of age, they can probably find a way to increase the amount of oil we have).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Excellent!

COMPLETION 5/5

EFFORT 5/5

CONTENT 5/5

QUESTIONS 12/12

TOTAL 27/27