Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment (Connor Harrison)

Point of View: First Person, Limited Omniscient

Protagonist: Dr. Heidegger What type of character is the Protagonist? Dynamic, Round

Antagonist: I believe the true antagonist of the story was themselves, and their own mind and psyche. My theory was that it was all an illusion, and that they never actually drank from the fountain of youth, therefor never becoming young.

Describe the setting The story is set, in what I think is the early 19th century. It seems very mysterious in the beginning, and helps illustrate part of the story.

Type of Conflict: I believe the type of conflict would be Man Vs. Himself

Describe the main conflict: The Main conflict is the three men and woman believing that they are in fact, younger and fitter than the older state they were recently in. The thought that they all were younger was plaguing their minds so much that even when they were looking at each other they could see them still being younger than before. But when the Doctor asked for the woman to dance with one of the men, them fighting over her reminded them too much of their past and they suddenly saw themselves differently once again.

Describe the Climax of the Story: I believe the climax is right after the men were fighting over the ‘young’ lady, and realizing they had returned to their old aged selves again. I felt the suspense and action all building up till tat one point, and after, the truth was suddenly realized to me that this could all have been a phycological experiment my Dr. Heidegger.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story?  The Protagonist starts of with a bit of friendliness towards the test subjects, but in the end, I realize that he had been using them all along. It was a very interesting touch to the story, and I feel that Dr. Heidegger changed in that way.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. First off, I would believe that the theme of this short story is, ‘The art of Illusion’ and our mind seeing and believing things that are not really there. The Title, ‘Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment’, is what really is the illusion, and it isn’t an experiment on whether or not the water affects the patients, but whether or not he could fool them so much that they would believe such things, of eternal life, and being forever young.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Main conflict, which what I picked was the illusion of the patients being young, really does illustrate the theme, as much as the theme is basically the main conflict as a whole. The conflict between the mind and our vision were being blurred into an illusion so vast, that the four patients could not tell the difference between the two, and made them believe of this.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The climax, really is a big part of the conflict, being the revealing point to me that them going young never really happened. The theme was put together quite well by the main aspects of the conflict and climax.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Simile: ”and with a visage as faded as her dress” ,

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metaphor: “whose eccentricity had become the nucleus for a thousand fantastic stories”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Personification: “as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Symbol: I think a very important symbol in this story would be the rose. It was what fooled the minds of the patients and made them believe that such magic could happen. It was, in my opinion, merely a magic trick fooling the test subjects. The rose also on the other hand represents the love for his wife, who he has long forgotten over the many years.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): Near the beginning of this story, when he brings up the topic of the fountain of youth, you could very well predict that that would play a large role throughout this story. And in fact, it did.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Irony: A big chunk of irony in this story is the fact that they believed, which to them, was a pure miracle, but in fact had them all fooled by doctor Heidegger.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Imagery: “The sunshine came through the window, directly across this vase.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does humanity relate to this short story? Well, I think it could be interpreted in many ways, but one way I see it is this: We all Make Mistakes. And this doesn’t just mean the illusion, but of their whole lives in the past. As it describes in the beginning, with their test subjects lives and what their rights and wrongs were. This short story, like the others, is a great way to look at a piece of our humanity.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> QUESTIONS:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1) My impression of what the experiment was is to see if the Men and Woman would believe that they could get young again, and what they would end up doing. As it turns out, the fight between the four was to reminding of their past, and they quickly set their minds to other things realizing that they had never really returned to being young.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2) All of Dr. Heidegger’s Friends have one thing in common which is easily noticeable, love. The Men fighting for the dance with the woman was a sign that each man had feelings for her, and wanted to have her to themselves.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3) The word used here, ‘stoop’ is meaning to bring yourself lower to other people or placement in society. It was meaning he would never bring himself down to drink from the fountain. I feel he is saying this in a very negative way. He is inclining that the fountain of youth is somewhat like a curse, and revealing it is something that most people do not want to see. See, the past is the past, and he would not want to bring that back, once he has already forgotten it. His friends feel an opportunity to bring them back to when they were young and happy, but instead, reminded them of the past they wanted to forget.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4) The narrator is a all knowing person, or omniscient. He knows all about the characters past and what they were wanting back. I highly doubt that the narrator is third person, meaning that he would have either had to experience all of the characters pasts, or asked them all about them. That is why I chose Omniscient.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5) The Views and points that the story inclines is that every person should continue to live their lives, look to the future and forget about the past. It is what the four main characters wanted to do, but instead, it came back to bite them in the butt. They were not hoping to remember such things and suddenly lose them once again.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7) For a chance to live until the age of 800, I would gladly take it. The Reason why I have a problem with eternal life, is that it never ends, and you have no certain change in the future for you. 800 years is simply a longer life extension, which means I could do all the thing I would like to do and enjoy them everyday until it is time for me to lay and rest.

COMPLETION 5/5

EFFORT 5/5

CONTENT 5/5

QUESTIONS 12/12

TOTAL 27/27