Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment

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

Point of View:

Third Person because there is no words such as “I” or “you” in the story. Semi-Omniscient because the narrator seems to know everything except for Dr. Heidegger and his guests’ thoughts. Though the narrator was probably able to guess the thoughts of the characters.

Protagonist:

Dr. Heidegger because he is the one who wanted the information that his guests could get for him and the story revolves around him finally deciding that he would not drink the Fountain’s water.

What type of character is the Protagonist?

Dr. Heidegger’s character is a round dynamic character because at the beginning he is portrayed as this really creepy weird person who is trying to decide whether or not to use this powerful liquid that he has in his possession. But by the end of the story he is still a creepy old man but, he decides not to use the liquid not because it more fun to conduct experiments with it. Instead because he grew in wisdom and insight to his nature and knew that he didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of his past.

Antagonist:

I say the antagonist it the Fountain of Youth’s water that Dr. Heidegger has because it is the water that causes Dr. Heidegger to perform his experiment on his friends to see their reaction to the water. The water also the one who got exposed the original Fountain of Youth to greed and extreme public exposure.

Describe the setting

The setting starts off with a mysterious almost creepy feeling to the Doctor’s study. Then as the story progresses the study takes on a feeling of wonder when the Doctor reveals the Fountain’s water then to a feeling of somberness with an underlining of care freeness from the guests when the Doctor states that he would not drink the Fountain’s water even if it was at his very door step. The Doctor’s study is a queer place because in the study there is a closet with a skeleton inside, an overly large portrait of a woman with a mirror across the room from it and a statue of an old Greek physician. The study is also filled with cob webs and dust. The study’s light is gloomy or an orangey colour that is filled with floating dust particles. Great Description! Type of Conflict:

The conflict is Man vs. Self because the protagonist, Dr. Heidegger, is putting his friends through this ordeal to help him decide whether or not to use this water that he has in his possession that temporarily makes you feel young again. So all of this testing that he put his friends through was just to resolve this conflict on whether or not to actually use this water.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Describe the main conflict:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The main conflict is inside the Doctor on whether or not he should take and use the Fountain’s water. This conflict makes it’s self very clear when the Doctor said that he had decided that even if the water was flowing at his very doorstep that he would not drink it. This came after he internal resolved that he did not want to act like his past self and possibly make the same mistakes of his youth.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Describe the Climax of the Story:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The climax of the story is when the Doctor’s guests have their third glass of The Fountain’s water. This is the climax because this is the last time the guests personality changes. The guests go from these mid aged people with some respect for their elders to these people that are making fun of the Doctor, their host, about his age and how they look.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story?

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Dr. Heidegger changes over the course of the story by going from this old creepy, lonely, doctor to a doctor who has given his guests a liquid that is supposed to restore a person’s youth and watches their reactions to it in order to decide whether or not he should take this liquid himself. At first the Doctor takes an almost philosophical but, more curious approach to the experiment then he realizes that the experiment need not continue after the vase containing the Fountain’s water got smashed because he now knew that he would not drink the water because if he didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of his youth.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Describe the relationship between the title and the theme.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The title indirectly illustrates the theme because the title //Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment// indicates that an experiment is going to take place in the story. Now we do not know if the experiment is going to be foolish or non-foolish but, we can make the assumption that the experiment is going to be foolish because what is the point of writing about a successful experiment. So if the theme is foolishness then the title indirectly foreshadows the theme

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme?

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The main conflict helps illustrate the theme by showing use the battle in Dr. Heidegger’s head on if it is foolish to drink the Fountain of Youth’s water or if it is not. While in the Doctor’s head we can see all the foolish things that the Doctor could do if he drank the water. He could have some more dead patients or conduct a really stupid experiment that could possibly kill or injure many people. <span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">These are some of the foolish thing that the Doctor could do if he drank the water and reacted the same way his friends did. So if the theme is foolishness the main conflict helps illustrate it by showing us the foolishness that comes with youth.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">How does the climax help to illustrate the theme?

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The climax helps illustrate the theme by showing us how foolish we are for flaunting our youth like it is nothing and not appreciating it for what it really is, a gift that is only bestowed on use for a short time. It also shows how foolish we are to make fun of our elders because in reality we will become one of them so therefore we are just like our elders. So if the theme is foolishness the climax of the story helps illustrate it by showing us how foolish we in our youth.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Simile:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An example of a simile in this short story is //“a small round table, as black as ebony”// this is a simile that is used to show how dark Dr. Heidegger’s table in the centre of his study is.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Metaphor:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An example of a metaphor in this short story is //“… A ponderous folio volume, bound in black leather, with massive silver clasps. There were no letters on the back, and nobody could tell the title of the book. But it was well known to be a book of magic…”// This is a metaphor that shows how people associate things that we don’t understand with magic. It is also a metaphor on how we react to unknown things. We describe them as magic.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Personification:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An example of personification in this short story is //“…the brazen head of Hippocrates frowned…”// This is a representation on how people feel when statues scare someone. People for the most part give statues a human’s expressions if they are scared of the statue. This quote is an exact example of this. Another example is //“…the statue’s eyes fallowed me…”//

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Symbol:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An example of symbolism in this short story is //“…a tall and narrow oaken closet, with its door ajar, within which doubtfully appeared a skeleton.”// This is a symbol of how people fear and hate death. The word //doubtfully// is the thing that makes this such a good symbol because it shows how death is a thing that we are doubtful to acknowledge.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Foreshadowing (give both elements):

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An example of foreshadowing in this short story is “//Four champagne glasses were also on the table.”// This foreshadows that Dr. Heidegger is going to get his guests to drink a liquid in this case some water from the Fountain of Youth. The quote that confirms this is //“… all of you, my respected friends, are welcome to so much of this admirable fluid as may restore you to the bloom of youth.”//

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Irony:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An example of irony in this short story is //“Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician, a man of evil fame, or at least had been so, till time had buried him from the knowledge of the present generation.”// This is ironic because obviously Mr. Gascoigne did something so horrid that it would give him evil fame. So a person would think that his actions would give him a spot in history to keep his actions alive. But instead his actions were forgotten never to be remembered.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Imagery:

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">An example of imagery in this short story is //“…a tall and narrow oaken closet, with its door ajar, within which doubtfully appeared a skeleton.”// This quote is an example of imagery because the skeleton helps the reader feel how creepy and weird the Doctor’s study was. The skeleton does this because generally people associate skeletons with weird and creepy situations. Also when people see a skeleton in a closet in a person’s personal study it usually would send shivers of weirdness and dread down their spine.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The relationship between this story and the class theme is that the Fountain’s water’s power comes from the power of suggestion. The Doctor suggested that the water would make each person who drank it younger but, in reality they were still the same old people that they were before they drank the water. They only thought that were younger because Dr. Heidegger suggested that they would be. This is the relationship between the class theme and the story, the power of suggestion.

<span style="font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">**Questions**

1. According to Dr. Heidegger, what was the purpose of his experiment?

According to Dr. Heidegger, the purpose of his experiment was to see how the Fountain of Youth’s water affected the human body, in the form of his four friends.

2. What do Dr. Heidegger’s friends have in common? How does each of them behave during the experiment?

Dr. Heidegger’s friends are all old, withered grouches. They all are people who were either successful or in the case of Widow Wycherly exceedingly beautiful. Now all of the four guests became withered, empty shells of their former selves so much that they were nearly completely forgotten by the general public. So when each of them took a drink of water from the Fountain they all acted very similarly from a certain point of view. They all started with a feeling of wonder that they were young again then they all started behaving like their younger selves and even made fun of their host the Doctor. Now each of the guests acted very different from each other when they were younger. The Widow Wycherly when she was younger flaunted her beauty like it was nothing so that is what she stared doing after she drunk the Fountain’s water. Where Mr. Medbourne was very focused on schemes to get money as a merchant when he was younger so after the water went down his gullet he started scheming for way to make money. On the other extreme the Colonel was a military man who was always in pursuit of pleasures best not mentioned. After the Colonel drank the Fountain’s waters he started seeking for those pleasures in the form of the Widow Wycherly. Then there was Mr. Gascoigne who was a politician who had fell from fame when he was younger. But once he had some of the water Mr. Gascoigne started talking politics and was probably thinking of some political scheme or something to gain power and fame once again.

3. Why would Cr. Heidegger not stoop to bathe his lips in the Fountain of Youth? Do his friends feel the same way? Comment.

Dr. Heidegger would not stoop to wet his lips in the Fountain’ water because he didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes from his youth which he knew he would if he drank the water. Though the Doctor’s guests did not feel the same way because they were just too caught up in being young again that they did not see that they were making the same mistakes that made them into miserable old grouches of their later life.

4. Who is the narrator of the story? Though he is not a participant in the experiment the narrator relates all the details. How does he know what happened to the doctor and his friends? How certain of his facts is the narrator? The narrator of the story is a mystery but, I believe that the narrator was a young person who was spying on the Doctor from the skeleton’s closet. The narrator being inside the closet would explain how he or she knew how the guests acted after they drank the water. It would also explain how he knew what Mr. Medbourne was muttering about after he drank the water. As for how the narrator knew so much about The Doctor and his guests it was probably because he or she asked people who knew or work for the Doctor or his guests about them to help with the narrators spying. I would say that the narrator’s facts about the Doctor and co. where accurate to the extent that he knew who Mr. Gascoigne was and what he did sense Mr. Gascoigne supposedly was unknown after his fall from fame. 5. What points are made about youth and aging in the story? Do you agree with the views of the story? Comment.

Some of the points made about youth and aging are generally true like how youth are reckless and that you generally get wiser as you age. So yes, I agree with these points to an extent. Because the four guests of Dr. Heidegger’s did not get wiser with their age but, instead got greedier for their youth. But, in contrast the Doctor did grow wiser and repented his mistakes.

7. Some scientists hope to develop a vaccine against aging. They speculate that human beings could then live approximately 800 years. Do you feel this is desirable? Explain your answer.

This would be desirable on some days and not on others. On the days that it is desirable it would be because I would like to see how the world would turn out after this present mess. But, on the days that is not desirable it would be because I believe that it is not our place to live longer than nature intended and that if we lived do long our children would have nothing to explore or do when we pasted on. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Completion: 5/5 Effort 5/5 Content: 5/5

total 15/15

Questions Completion Mark 5/5

total 20/20