Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment - Jessica Hept

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” Dr. Heidegger is a doctor is in his study along with four other people, with whom he is acquainted. All of the characters are elderly and the four subjects have all suffer some misfortune as a result of their own faults. Dr. Heidegger tells them about his experiment, which is to give them an elixir that he claims is liquid of the Fountain of Youth. They all accept the offered drink and enjoy its effects which eventually dissipate as Dr. Heidegger observes their reactions and interactions. This short story consists of many contrasts, the purpose of which portrays the capriciousness of human nature. This fickle nature is portrayed through characters of the story.

            The development of the events that take place in Dr. Heidegger’s study offers many contrasts that evoke suspicion in the mind of the reader in order to depict the fickle nature of mankind. The first indication of inconsistency is the fact that Dr. Heidegger’s four friends that he invited “to meet him in his study” are dead. This information immediately calls in to question the sanity of Dr. Heidegger, which undermines whatever resolution or contribution he gives to the story; the questionable mental state Dr. Heidegger is further sullied with the mention that the bust that he consults speaks to him. The story is centered around Dr. Heidegger and the fact that his mentality is called into question brings about the questionability of the entire sequence of events. The narrator states that Dr. Heidegger consults the bust of Hippocrates, which he “was accustomed to hold consultations in all difficult cases of his practice.” The Hippocratic Oath is the pledge taken by healthcare professionals in which they swear to practice medicine ethically; some may consider experiments with cadavers or human specimens to be unethical and this also proffers discrepancy in that he consults the bust in difficult cases which are possibly difficult in a moral sense. At the end of the experiment, he assumes the moral high ground with his statement “if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it… Such is the lesson ye have taught me!” Even this “lesson” is put into question simply because it is Dr. Heidegger that spoke it.

            This contrast is also portrayed through the four friends. There are first described as “melancholy old creatures, who had been unfortunate in life,” producing a sympathetic response from the reader; however, the explanation for their melancholy is immediately provided in that each account shows that their melancholy is result of their own actions and they are then labeled as “foul guests.” This inconsistency in the portrayal of the characters conveys that though a person may seem to be victim to Fate, one’s own dealings are what controls the outcome of a situation and that it is a conscious choice. When Dr. Heidegger warns them to learn from their mistakes, they laugh, “knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error,” when in fact they do make the same mistake which it to take youth for granted, flaunting it and giving in easily to the pleasures of youth with no regard of the effects their carelessness may have. The fact that they resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to Florida, and quaff at morning, noon, and night, from the Fountain of Youth” supports that they continue to seek temporary pleasures. The four friends claim to apply caution when they receive the chance to relive their youths, yet their opportunity for redemption only feeds their lustful tastes.

            The characters of Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” depict the theme of the 

whimsical nature of Man because of their interactions with one another and through the actions and decisions.