Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment

[|A good song to listen to while reading!] Thanks for your musical selection! Short Stories - Literary Devises

Title: Dr. Heidegger's Experiment

Point of View: Third Person, Limited

Protagonist: Dr. Heidegger What type of character is the Protagonist? The protagonist is round and dynamic.

Antagonist: himself, his mind

Describe the setting The setting is inside of Dr. Heidegger's home in his study, sometime in the 1900's with a mood that is mysterious and intriguing.

Type of Conflict: man vs. self

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict is of Dr. Heidegger's indecision and apparent struggle to understand whether the fountain of youth is merely an illusion or whether it makes you younger. His inner conflict, is about if humans would be doomed to repeat their past mistakes. He hasn't decided what will happen when the water touches his friends' lips.

Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax of the story is at the point in time when the vase with the "Water of Youth" is smashed on the floor therefore the rose fades back to a delicate dry wilted flower and the three men and woman become old once more.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? The protagonist changes because in the beginning of the story, he is unsure of how his experiment will go although he has a hypothesis. He doesn't know how the men and woman will react to becoming young once more or thinking that they have become young again but his hypothesis is that they are doomed to relive their past instead of using it for the greater good. He changes because at the end of the story, he now knows that he would never use the "Fountain of Youth" because he knows that it may make someone younger bu they lose all the lessons that they have learned in life, they lose their wisdom.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. The theme is about repeating one's mistakes and not learning from those mistakes. Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (which is the title) is about seeing if you would relive the past if you had the chance to grow young again or if you would relive your mistakes. Therefore the theme is hidden in the the experiment.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict is Dr. Heidegger's experiment because the reason he is doing the experiment is over an internal struggle of the mind, on whether humans would relive their past if they could become young again. The theme is of reliving one's past mistakes therefore the theme and the conflict are related by the means that they both are about living in the past, in your mistakes without learning from them.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax illustrates the theme because it shows of how they did not learn from their mistakes and they lived in the past, so they shattered the vase containing the water which kept them young. From arguing over the Widow Wycherly, they broke the vase and dumped the water. They did not learn from their mistakes and so ruined what was precious to them. The climax illustrates very well how they did not learn from their past or from their mistakes.

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

Simile: "with a visage as faded as her dress"

Metaphor: "the chill and darksome vale of years"

Personification: "the crushed and dried petals stirred"

Symbol: the mirror- the mirror is a symbol of how things may not always be what they seem like how they became young but in the mirror it showed three old men fighting over a shrivelled old woman. The mirror is also a symbol of truth for it can never tell a lie when it reflects your image back at you.

Foreshadowing (give both elements): The withering rose after the water from the Fountain of Youth was spilled on the ground foreshadowed that the people would become old once again just as the rose had. The people wanting to be young so badly and then being horrified and wishing to be dead once they became old again foreshadowed that they would go looking for the fountain of youth.

Irony: It is ironic that the very thing in which they wanted so much (the water) was spilled because of their foolishness. There is irony where the Dr. Heidegger tries to tell them to make some ground rules so as not to get to caught up in the moment and they disregard with laughter when they repeat old mistakes while caught in the moment.

Imagery: "It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust."

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The class theme "humanity" and this story are related because the theme of the story is about if someone is doomed to repeat their mistakes, which could lead to the thought, "is humanity doomed to repeat their mistakes?" Not all of humanity learns from their mistakes as they should and would repeat history if we didn't learn about it. Repeating a mistake can be quite natural and easy to do because it takes much more effort to try to learn from them, as shown in the story when the three men fight over the woman when they become young again as they had in the past. These people were so caught up in the moment of their youth that they didn't realise they were demonstrating their past once again. So humanity is related because without learning about our history and attempting not to practice already made mistakes we would do what these test subjects did that night in Dr. Heidegger's study.

//__**Responding**__// 1. Dr. Heidegger //**says**// that his experiment is about testing the water from " the Fountain of Youth" on the human frame to see what the effects are although that may not be his real experiment.

2. Dr. Heidegger's friends that are men all once loved the Widow Wycherly. All of his test subjects wished they were in their grave for they had been quite unfortunate in life and longed for their youth. Dr. Heidegger and his friends were also a bit beside themselves. During the experiment the gentlemen acted as thought the water had intoxicating qualities. Mr Gascoigne was all about political topics and he kept changing from one politics topic to the next. The Colonel sang a jolly bottle song and let his eyes rest on madame Wicherly. Mr. Medbourne calculated money which intermingled with supplying ice for East Indies. Madame Wycherly looked at her youthful reflection. They caused a small riot over the Widow Wycherly and they broke the vase which contained the water because they were too exuberant.

3. He would not stoop to bathe his lips in the Fountain of Youth because of what the test subjects taught him that day. The test subjects taught him that one is more likely to repeat their young mistakes rather then use their wisdom from throughout the years for good purposes. Most people would be so caught up in the moment of their youth that they would act foolishly. Therefore, Dr. Heidegger would never drink from the Fountain of Youth; he would rather enjoy the moments he has left. His friends and test subjects however, did not feel the same way at all. Their youth was the best part of their life and they wish for nothing more than to be young again; this or to be inside their graves. They had been so unfortunate in life and were unfortunate still when the water only lasted moments rather than years. They taught no lesson to themselves and went in search of the Fountain of Youth.

4. Though the narrator's name is not directly stated in the story, I believe that the narrator is perhaps a great-niece or a great-nephew of Dr. Heidegger because they seem to know what they are talking about as they explain the story. They seem to be very specific in their details, as if they had been told the story many times. They would be able to know what happened if they had heard this story from their great uncle or from their mother or father. He is not quite certain of all of his facts which could mean that through time, some of the facts were mixed up because of being passed from ear to ear like a game of "telephone." Therefore I think that the narrator is a great-niece or nephew.

5. In this story, youth is made out to be a part of life where you learn life lessons and make mistakes and as you age, you learn from your mistakes and learn more and more lessons about life. Old age is made to be a horrible occurency in this story by those who relish their youth. I agree that when you are young, it is important to make mistakes so that you can learn life lessons and not repeat these mistakes because it is important to not make silly mistakes when you are older and it can hurt you with trying to obtain a job or even just being amiable to people. If you do not learn what people dislike or how to act respectful, etc, when you are younger than it is likely to go wrong when you are older. I do not agree with the thought that old age is a miserable occurency because I think that being older can mean you are wiser depending on if you learned from your mistakes when you were younger; if you are wiser than you can help teach life lessons to younger people.

7. I don't think that this is a desirable idea because there would be a huge problem with overpopulation. If everybody continued to reproduce but they lived for quite a long time, then the population would continue to grow without cease. With overpopulation we could possibly use all the resources on Earth and destroy our planet slowly. Personally I would not find it desirable because eight hundred years does have a limit which I think is important but it would still be too long in my opinion. It would potentially cause you to not enjoy every moment as much as you would if you knew you're time was short because with so much time you could dawdle and procrastinate on what you want to do with life while thinking, " I have plenty of time." If you knew you had very little time then you would probably do everything you wanted and you wouldn't want to waste a single moment. Living for eight hundred years would not be a desirable situation.

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