Dr. Heidegger's Experiment

“Mr. Medbourne, in the vigor of his age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost his all by a frantic speculation, and was now little better than a mendicant. Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout, and divers other torments of soul and body. 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, and made him obscure instead of infamous.”

The narrator gives background on the three old men, describing how their misfortunes played out. Medbourne was ruined by the pursuit of money, Killigrew by the pursuit of pleasure, and Gascoigne by the pursuit of fame—a classical triumvirate of temptations. Now, in their old age, they live with the consequences.

“As for the Widow Wycherly, tradition tells us that she was a great beauty in her day; but, for a long while past, she had lived in deep seclusion, on account of certain scandalous stories which had prejudiced the gentry of the town against her.”

The Widow Wycherly, like the three men, has a checkered past, although it is only discreetly referred to as “certain scandalous stories” that people tell about her. As a result, she has lived for many years in deep seclusion. The Widow Wycherly resembles Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, who also lived apart from town on account of the shame meted out to her from townsfolk for her past.

“It is a circumstance worth mentioning that each of these three old gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow Wycherly, and had once been on the point of cutting each other’s throats for her sake.”

This information foreshadows the physical struggle between the three men that will occur later in the story. The narrator says that it is information “worth mentioning,” when it is, in fact, key to understanding the story, signaling the narrator’s ironical and playful style.

“Among many wonderful stories related of this mirror, it was fabled that the spirits of all the doctor’s deceased patients dwelt within its verge, and would stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward.”

The reader is well-informed about the guests’ pasts, their mistakes, and the effect of these mistakes on their melancholy old age. There are a few points where the narrator also hints at the doctor’s past and its effect upon him. This is one of those passages. Here, all the doctor’s patients who died while under his care haunt him in his study, staring him “in the face” whenever he looks in the mirror.

“Some of these fables, to my shame be it spoken, might possibly be traced back to my own veracious self; if any passages of the present tale should startle the reader’s faith, I must be content to bear the stigma of a fiction monger.”

The narrator’s irony is on display in this passage. He suggests that the story he is now telling may or may not be veracious, or true. Through mechanisms like this, Hawthorne invites what Coleridge called the “willing suspension” of one’s “disbelief,” which is necessary for the proper enjoyment of fiction.

“Would you deem it possible that this rose of half a century could ever bloom again?”

This is an example of when illusion begins to play a role in the story. Dr. Heidegger throws the brown, dried rose into the vase of water, and it revivifies. The guests assume that they are watching a magic trick. There is also irony in the question and foreshadowing of Dr. Heidegger’s plan for the guests.

“The crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.”

Hawthorne uses figurative language to describe the rose’s dramatic transformation. The “deathlike slumber” can also allude to the four guests’ feelings regarding their old age.

“As the liquor diffused a pleasant perfume, the old people doubted not that it possessed cordial and comfortable properties; and though utter sceptics as to its rejuvenescent power, they were inclined to swallow it at once.”

It is ironic that the characters are aware that the water of youth might not have its proposed properties, yet they drink it anyway. They are “inclined” to do so simply because it looks so delicious.

“It would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you, you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance, in passing a second time through the perils of youth.”

This advice from Dr. Heidegger to the guests before they swallow the water invites them to remember their past mistakes so that they do not repeat them. It foreshadows the guests’ fate in the experiment. The irony here is that the old guests do not see youth as a peril, but a joy.

“They gazed at one another, and fancied that some magic power had really begun to smooth away the deep and sad inscriptions which Father Time had been so long engraving on their brows.”

Hawthorne uses figurative language to describe how age has affected the old guests. He personifies time, showing how nature held authority or control over their lives.

“The most singular effect of their gayety was an impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude of which they had so lately been the victims. They laughed loudly at their old-fashioned attire, the wide-skirted coats and flapped waistcoats of the young men, and the ancient cap and gown of the blooming girl.”

This is another example of illusion and irony in the story. The guests, by laughing at Dr. Heidegger, are essentially laughing at themselves. They are under the illusion that they are young, but they are still old people.

“They all gathered round her. […] Blushing, panting, struggling, chiding, laughing, her warm breath fanning each of their faces by turns, she strove to disengage herself, yet still remained in their triple embrace.”

The guests commit their past mistakes again as foreshadowed early in the story. Simultaneously, Widow Wycherly’s fate is foreshadowed, as she remains in their triple embrace. By the end of the story, they all stick together on their pilgrimage to the Fountain of Youth in Florida.

“The precious Water of Youth flowed in a bright stream across the floor, moistening the wings of a butterfly, which, had grown old in the decline of summer, had alighted there to die. The insect fluttered lightly through the chamber, and settled on the snowy head of Dr. Heidegger.”

The butterfly symbolizes what happens to the guests during the experiment. The butterfly landing on Dr. Heidegger’s “snowy” head represents the guests’ return to old age.