Discussion

1. Reading between the lines:

1) Make up character sketches. What do they have in common? What makes them different?

2) What is the tone of “Dr. Heidegger's Experiment”? Is the story scary or amusing?

3) What is the "moral" of Hawthorne's story?

4) The story contains a lot of descriptions of the interior, people’s appearance and behavior. In what way do they contribute to the main idea? Find all of them and explain the language means used by the author.

5) What does Dr. Heidegger expect from his experiment? Decide whether he manages to prove his theory or not. What is the theory?

6) Literary critics claim that “ Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” deals with two of Hawthorne’s favorite themes: the consequences of tampering with nature and the rejection of conventional morality. Prove it with the text. Are there any other themes and ideas in the story?

7) Read the following abstracts. Comment on them explaining the parts in bold type:

A. “… all of you, my respected friends, are welcome to so much of this admirable fluid as may restore to you the bloom of youth. For my own part, having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no hurry to grow young again. With your permission, therefore, I will merely watch the progress of the experiment."

B. "Before you drink, my respectable old friends," said he, "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. 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! " The doctor's four venerable friends made him no answer, except by a feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error, they should ever go astray again.

C. But the next moment the exhilarating gush of young life shot through their veins. They were now in the happy prime of youth. Age, with its miserable train of cares, and sorrows, and diseases, was remembered only as the trouble of a dream, from which they had joyously awoke. The fresh gloss of the soul, so early lost, and without which the world's successive scenes had been but a gallery of faded pictures, again threw its enchantment over all their prospects. They felt like new-created beings in a new-created universe.

D. Yet, by a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber and the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grand-sires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shriveled grandam.

E. "Yes, friends, ye are old again," said Doctor Heidegger; "and lo! the Water of Youth is all lavished on the ground. Well, I bemoan it not; for if the fountain gushed at my doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it – no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me! "

2. Expanding the topic:

1) If you had your life to live over, what are the three things you’ve done that you would like to change? Would you make the same mistakes? Explain your answer.

2) Watch the movie (1969) based on the story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1685292/Doctor-Heideggers-Experiment.

3) What are your impressions? What means are used in the movie to make the story more expressive?

4) The theme of youth is observed in the story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”. Like the themes of life and death, the idea of transient beauty of youth has been used by many people of arts and has been of great interest to all people. Read the following quotations and comment on them:

a. “The secret of eternal youth is arrested development”

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Alice Roosevelt Longworth (February 12, 1884 – February 20, 1980) was the oldest child of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26^th President of the United States.

b. “The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth”.

Robinson Jeffers

Roberson Jeffers (January 10, 1887 –January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast.

5) Comment on the following proverbs and sayings. What is implied? Do you agree with them?

- Someone is young at heart if they still feel young even though they're getting old.

- It's a pity youth is wasted on the young.

- A man is as old as he feels, and a woman as old as she looks.

- If you wish good advice, consult an old man.

- Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die.

- Old age is ripeness.

- For age and want save while you may, no morning sun lasts a whole day.

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