An eccentric aging physician, Dr. Heidegger, calls together his old friends and contemporaries to test his waters of the “fountain of youth. ” As the doctor himself sits by to enjoy the show, each of his four aged friends eagerly quaffs more and more of the magic potion, each draught further carrying them backwards into their shared youth. Having grown young, smooth-skinned and agile again, the three men begin to fight for the favors of the fourth compatriot now restored to her former beauty. In the heat of the fracas, they begin to grow tired and within minutes the effect of the “waters” has worn away.
The articipants in the brief respite from old age are devastated by the transience of the experience. Despite Heidegger’s warning that he has learned to appreciate the advantage of age by watching the four of them make themselves fools, they learned no such lesson and resolve to make a pilgrimage to Florida to seek the Fountain. “The Birthmark” A devoted scientist, in a brief step from his laboratory pursuits, marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and needs to remove it, to be happy with his wife.
The tale evolves around his rogressive frenzy to use his scientific skills to render his bride perfect and the faith of his submissive wife that the union can survive only if he accomplishes his goal. The author tells us that Aylmer “had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies… ” and, in the secrecy of his laboratory he prepares the potion for Georgiana that results in the disappearance of the birthmark and the death of Aylmer’s experimental subject. Comparison “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark” can be compared in many aspects.
Nathaniel Hawthorne used many of the same writing techniques in both stories. Both pieces share two common reoccuring themes. Also, the symbols in the story have like meanings. In both “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne uses the same writing style. In both stories Nathaniel Hawthorne writes as a realist, as opposed to a romancer. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” Hawthorne writes about an actual event in history, Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Youth on the Florida Peninsula.
It does not matter if the Fountain of Youth exists or not it is a “real” legend. Dr Heidegger’s Experiment” is a situation that could have taken place. It is not a fantasy. “The Birthmark” is also a piece that ould have happened. A beautiful woman could certainly be born with a disturbing birthmark on her face. In “The Birthmark” Hawthorne writes about a real situation with real characters. Again in both “Dr Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne uses a very vague title. For the purpose of “Dr Heidegger’s Experiment”, Hawthorne wants you to ponder on what kind of experiment Heidegger was conducting, psychological or p! ysical.
In the case of “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne wants you to think if the birthmark was what made the main character, Aylmer, kills his wife or if it went beyond just that physical marking. Furthermore, in the pair of stories Hawthorne uses several of the same literary devices, for instance, symbolism. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” Along with the same writing techniques, Nathaniel Hawthorne also used two of the same themes in the stories. Hawthorne uses reoccurring themes of his writing in many of his stories.
In both “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark” Hawthorne uses, the impossibility of earthly perfection moreover the loss of innocence. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” the doctor’s four friends are all in search of earthly perfection. This is why they choose to drink the water from the Fountain of Youth, to become forever young. The friends are made young again by the water, but their youth soon wears away. If it had remained for ever they would have achieved earthly perfection, and that is impossible. In “The Birthmark”, Georgiana is almost a model of earthly perfection except for that horrid birthmark.
Aylmer believes that Georgiana can be that model of perfection and he can get rid of the birthmark. He is successful in getting rid of Georgiana’s birthmark and she is perfect, b! ut dead. Hawthorne is saying that she could not live and be perfect, hence the impossibility of earthly perfection. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” the theme of the loss of innocence is loosely addressed. Dr. Heidegger says: “Think what a sin and shame it would be, if, with your peculiar advantages, you should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young people of the age! Heidegger tells his friends that they have already lost their innocence and gained wisdom in their old age, and what a thing it would be if they could have that wisdom and be youthful at the same time.
Yet, when the friends return to their youth the friends are innocent, naive, and even foolish beings. In “The Birthmark” Georgiana is ompletely innocent with her birthmark, which represents her innocence. When Aylmer removes the birthmark, not only has her innocence been taken but also her life. Similarly as Hawthorne used like writing techniques and themes in both “Dr.
Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark”, he also used symbols to represent the same ideas. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” Hawthorne uses Dr Heidegger’s friends to represent flawed beings. Their flaw is their age. In “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne uses the birthmark to symbolize a flaw on a perfect being as well. In this case it is Georgiana. In both stories that was an object that represented the right” thing to do. In the case of “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” the symbol of write and wrong was the near dead butterfly who was brought back to life by the spilt water of youth.
The butterfly is traditionally a symbol of metamorphosis, and it makes you wonder is if is right to change the natural metamorphic of a person’s life. In “The Birthmark”, Aminidad, Aylmer’s assistant symbolizes the right choice. He is aware that the potion that will remove Georgiana’s birthmark will also kill her. Amini! dad does not speak to Aylmer about this because he “has no right” being only Aylmer’s assistant. The last of the symbols that connect “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark” are the Water of Youth and Aylmer’s potion.
In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” the water from the Fountain of Youth symbolizes a disturbance of nature. It is natural for a person to age and the potion defies nature’s law if age. In “The Birthmark” the potion also symbolizes a disturbance of natural. Georgiana’s birthmark was natural, and when Aylmer removed it with the potion, nature was again defied. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s two writings, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark” contain many parallels. These, like other Hawthorne stories share many of the same themes and morals.
Hawthorne had his own obsessions that included a horrified fascination with “cold philosophy. ” He approached the romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy nature as fictive “horror stories” of biological research out of control. He embodied this concern in his several characterizations of scientists, who were also physicians, working in isolation in their laboratories to gain intellectual control over the mysteries of nature. Although the notion of amoral, or immoral, experimentation is dated in these period pieces, the concerns remain ethical problems in the modern world of medicine.