Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment

Short Stories - Literary DevisesTitle: **__Dr. Heidegger's Experiment__**

Point of View: 1st person, limited omniscient

Protagonist: Dr. Heidegger What type of character is the Protagonist? Round and dynamic.

Antagonist: Himself/themselves

Describe the setting: The story takes place in Dr. Heidegger's study. It is an ancient chamber, full of cobwebs and dust. The mood is mysterious.

Type of Conflict: Man vs. himself, man vs. man

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict is when Dr. Heidegger is deciding whether or not to drink from the Fountain of Youth.

Describe the Climax of the Story: The main conflict is when the four guests are young again and the men are fighting over the widow.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? At the beginning of the story, Dr. Heidegger is trying to decide whether or not to drink from the Fountain of Youth, if given the opportunity. By the end of the story he had clearly decided never to drink that water.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. I believe that the theme is humans will rarely learn from their mistakes. The title " Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" relates to the theme in an ironic sort of way, because experiments are all about learning from mistakes and figuring out better ways of doing things.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict helps to illustrate the theme because Dr. Heidegger is doing an experiment on four people to see if, when turned young again, they will learn from their mistakes or just revert back to how they were in the past.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax relates to the theme because when the four guests are fighting, they have obviously not learned from there mistakes and have gone back to the reckless people they were in the past.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: "...with a visage as faded as her dress."

Metaphor: "...there was the rose of half a century..."

Personification: "The crushed and dried petals stirred,..."

Symbol: The rose was a symbol of Dr. Heidegger's love for his wife.

Foreshadowing (give both elements): The doctor tries to give his four guests guidelines before he allowes them to drink the water. They laughed because they didn't see what could possibly go wrong. This foreshadows that something might happen during the experiment. Later on, the three men get in a huge fight over Widow Wycherly.

Irony: The irony is that the four guests were all reckless in their youth and did not want to repeat it. But, when they were given the chance to drink the water from the Fountain of Youth, they took ait nd and went right back to their old reckless selves. They did not learn from their mistakes.

Imagery: "It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust. Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The story showed how people don't learn from mistakes. The class theme is humanity and the inability to learn from mistakes ina very negative aspect of it. It is what causes most of the problems our society suffers from.

Questions: 1. The purpose of Dr. Heidegger's experiment was to see for himself whether it was worth it to drink the water from the Fountain of Youth.

2. All of Dr. H's friend were unfortunate in life. After drinking the water, Colonel Killigrew was admiring the widow and singing joyful songs, Mr. Gascoigne started talking about political topics and patrionism and national glory,and Mr. Melbourne began thinking of ways to supply the East Indies with ice by harnessing whales to the polar icebergs. Widow Wycherly was admiring herself in the mirror, then she started dancing and teasing the doctor for being old.

3. Dr. Heidegger would not stoop to bath his lips in the Fountain of Youth because of how his four guests acted during the experiment. He realized that he would not be able to keep his wisdom if he were to become young again. His friends did not feel the same way. They were so dissatisfied with their present life, that they would rather die than be old.

4. I think the narrator of the of the story could be the doctors long dead wife. She would of known these things about the doctor and his friends because she could have been present, but still unoticed, if she was a ghost.

5.

7. The vaccine would be desirable, but only under certain conditions. It would have to be able to stop the physical aging process, while keeping the ability to gain wisdom and maturity. Also, it would have to be able to control reproduction so that there would not be extreme over population. Lastly, there would have to be a way to use it on animals as well, so they could live with you the entire time.

COMPLETION 4/5 EFFORT 4/5 CONTENT 5/5 QUESTIONS 9/12 TOTAL 22/27