30 pages • 1 hour read
Nathaniel HawthorneDr. Heidegger's Experiment
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1837A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Water of Youth
The water of youth is a symbol of both rebirth and ignorance in the story. Dr. Heidegger’s four guests trust that the water will restore their youth after years of growing old. The water of youth triggers “a healthful suffusion on their cheeks, instead of the ashen hue that made them look so corpse-like” (20). With the water of youth, the four guests are reborn physically and mentally. However, they are ignorant of Dr. Heidegger’s advice to utilize wisdom and patience when drinking the water. According to Dr. Heidegger, their lifetime of experience gives them an advantage in their second chance at youth, but the water of youth blinds the guests to that fact the more they ingest it. Then, when the water of youth runs dry, they return to their old states. Dr. Heidegger does not drink the water of youth, rejecting the return to youth and ignorance.
Dr. Heidegger’s Rose
The rose symbolizes love, memory, and the human body in the story. Dr. Heidegger uses the “withered and crumbling flower” (17) that his lover Sylvia Ward had given him to show his guests what could happen to an object when changed by the water of youth. The guests who “look as if they had never known what youth or please was” (19) see the rose as a symbol of themselves and witness it’s transformation from its withered state into the flower that looks “as fresh as when Sylvia Ward had first given it to her lover” (17). Not only do they improve physically, but they improve spiritually as well. The passions that the guests had in their youth are also given life under the influence of the water of youth. The three gentlemen’s love for Widow Wycherly is also revived. Their passion for Widow Wycherly’s hand in marriage that had withered away, like the rose, is reignited. She, “a blooming girl” (24), comes to be like Dr. Heidegger’s rose.
Mirror
The mirror in Dr. Heidegger’s study is a symbol of reflection and truth in the story. In the beginning of the story, the mirror is said to contain the “spirits of all the doctor’s deceased patients” (14). The implication is that when Dr. Heidegger looks in his mirror, he is reminded of them if not confronted by them. Later, the mirror reflects another awful truth when it reflects three shriveled old men grasping at an old woman instead of three young men and a young woman with the “gush of young life” (23) running through their veins. The guests, who despise their reflection, are met with the truth or reality of their lives. In addition, Widow Wycherly utilizes the mirror to confirm her beauty after drinking the water of youth, “to see whether some long-remembered wrinkle or crow’s foot had indeed vanished” (22). She isn’t satisfied with her reflection until she becomes intoxicated by the water of youth, which quickly causes her perception of herself to become unrecognizable. However, once the water of youth has “effervesced away,” (27) she is met with her true reflection again.
Related Titles
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
