“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is story about the brevity and seduction of youth. Dr. Heidegger invites four of his older friends, with less than desirable pasts, over to be a part of his experiment. Mr. Medbourne, who was once a wealthy man, had gambled all his money away. Colonel Killigrew is a man known to be in “pursuit of sinful pleasures.” Mr. Gascoigne is a forgotten politician and a “man of evil fame.” Widow Wycherly  was once a beautiful woman but now lived in seclusion after scandalous stories put the town against her. The experiment requires the four of them to drink water from the Fountain of Youth.

The point of Dr. Heidegger’s experiment is to see how the friends would act if they were able to get back their youth. Dr. H even warns them before they drink of the water that they have experience that they didn’t have before and should let it guide them. He also believes it would be a shame if they “should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young people of the age.” Before they drink, they laugh off the notion of repeating the actions they had come to regret in their old age. However, after they drink it, the group becomes infatuated with the feeling of being younger and go back to their former selves. Mr. Medbourne was caught up in his money. Colonel Killigrew began looking lustfully at Widow Wycherly, and she in the mirror to see her young face. Mr. Gascoigne mind was on politics, patriotism, and people’s rights. They became so caught up in themselves and each other that they knocked over the table and the vase, which contained the water, was shattered. As the elixir wore off, they yearned for more and Dr. Heidegger got the answer he was looking for. An elixir of youth cannot change his own shameful past. As he says before the experiment, “For my own part, having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no hurry to grow young again.” He has been trying to live his past down and it is hard for him. So now that he knows he cannot change it, he is willing to accept his only option, to wait for death to take away his pains.

Another point of interest of the story is whether the elixir was real or not. There are many instances which would make a supernatural drink seem to fit into the story. Much of what is in Dr. Heidegger’s study is explained to have supernatural or ominous qualities. For example, he literally had a skeleton in his closet, he often asked his bronze bust of Hippocrates about his practice, his mirror held the spirits of his deceased patients, he had a picture of his love that was said to have once stepped out of the frame, and he had a black leather book that was said to be magic. So it seems that the elixir could be magical. However, throughout the story there are hints that it is nothing but alcohol. The effervescent liquid had a sweet scent and when drank the group lightened up, “not unlike what might have been produced by a glass of generous wine.” Then, when they looked at one another, they “fancied” that they looked younger. Also, when they asked for more, the doctor replied with “philosophic coolness.” Was it really a scientific experiment or a philosophic experiment? “Was it delusion?” They could have been seeing what they wanted to see or they could have been drunk. The gentlemen were behaving in a way that “proved that the water of the Fountain of Youth possessed some intoxicating qualities.” The narrator also admits that the drunkenness could be due to the “sudden removal of the weight of years.” As they were fighting over Widow Wycherly, the mirror was said to have shown the group as being three old men struggling over an old hag, which leaves two possibilities. One is that the elixir was wine and they had not been young. The other is that the mirror was supernatural and showed the groups true selves even if they had appeared outwardly young. Either way it is looked at, the findings of Dr. Heidegger would be the same. Regaining youth would not have allowed him to reconcile with his past. - Rebecca Hardiman