Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title:  __Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment__

Point of View: 1st person, limited omniscient

Protagonist: Dr. Heidegger Round/Dynamic

Antagonist: The guests past lives.

Describe the setting: The story takes place in Dr. Heidegger’s study. It was an old-fashioned, dimly lit chamber with cobwebs and dust. There were bookcases all around the walls filled with gigantic books.

Type of Conflict: Man vs. Self

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict is when the guests become younger again and start bringing back the old habits that they had from previous years of their “miserable” lives.

Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax of the story is right after the little riot they have with fighting over who gets to dance with Widow Wycherly. During this riot, the water from the fountain of youth was spilled all over the floor. Immediately afterwards, the riot is stopped and the four guests begin to age again.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? Dr. Heidegger starts off very serious for the conducting of his experiment, but throughout he becomes more amazed and eccentric about the results. At the end of the story Dr. Heidegger becomes serious but is still partly amazed by the outcome of his experiment.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. The theme of the story is that one will be happier if they are not greedy. I am not quite sure how this relates to the title very well, being it “Dr. Heidegger’s Exeriment”, but I suppose it could symbolize that Dr. Heidegger was conducting this experiment to see the reactions of certain people.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict is that the four guests of Dr. Heidegger want more and more water of the Fountain of Youth that they have completely forgotten all they have learned during their lives. The greed and selfishness of them wanting to be younger has completely changed their humanity.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The four guests are so caught up in being young again that they were prepared to fight over a young girl that they now have the opportunity to flirt with, forgetting about everything else that was going on, and knocking over the water from the Fountain of Youth over their “childish”, selfish ways.

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: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Simile: “;and now again he spoke in measured accents, and a deeply deferential tone, as if a royal ear were listening to his well-turned periods.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metaphor: “...as it effervesced from the surface, resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Personification: “;while the brazen head of Hippocrates frowned and said-`Forbear!’”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Symbol: A symbol in the story would be the water from the Fountain of Youth. It symbolizes how one can become a selfish monster over such little things in life that are not to be changed, and that eternal life is not meant to be.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreshadowing: “Even while the party were looking at it, the flower continued to shrivel up, till it became as dry and fragile as when the doctor had first thrown it into the vase.” After the rose began to grow old once more, you could tell that Dr. Heidegger`s guests were about to change back to their old selves again.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Irony: The four guests were laughing at the Doctor because of his age. The irony in this is that the four of them were old as well, so it was almost as if they were mocking themselves.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Imagery: dim old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, besprinkled with antique dust, oaken bookcases, bronze bust, ornamented with a full-length portrait, crushed and dried petals, little bubbles, silvery spray, pleasant perfume, gray, decrepit, sapless, miserable creatures, sparkling on the brim, oaken armchair, exhilarating gush of young life, flowed in a bright stream, dry, fragile.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. This story relates well to humanity because the story is about how greed and selfishness can cause suffering, and humans will always be tempted to do what they can to live even to the point of throwing away their “human traits” and becoming wild animals.


 * __Responding__**

1. The purpose of the experiment is to see if the four guests will not only become physically younger but also mentally.

2. All of Dr. Heidegger’s friends have done something wrong in their past. During the experiment they all behave in silly manners, because they truly believe that they are younger again and that they can relive their lives, but they do not change their ways.

3. Dr. Heidegger would not stoop to bathe his lips because he finds that he has lived his life to his satisfaction and that he would not need to do so again. His friends, however, wish to be young again not to correct the mistakes they have made but only because they want to look younger and be more superior than they are at an elderly age.

4. The narrator of the story is probably Dr. Heidegger’s butler, because only someone who knew the doctor would be able to see what was going on and only someone in the room would be able to describe the experiment with such accuracy. He seems very certain about all the facts that go on throughout the story.

5. Some points that are made are that older people have their wisdom, and young people focus too much on their appearance rather than wisdom. Personally I do agree with the points in the story.

7. No I do not believe an aging vaccine is a good idea. Our world is already highly populated and with this vaccine, there will be more people being born and less people dying, so we would be become over crowded.

Completion 5/5 Effort 3/5 Content 4/5

Questions 10/12

total 22/27