Nathaniel Hawthorn
Nathaniel Hawthorn was thought to have made a great impact on American literature with his short stories in telling his side of dark romanticism. People tend to like his writing based on the fact that he centers his themes “on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.” In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” he uses allegory and symbolism to help convey the main message of greed, second chances, and foolishness within the four characters that are given a chance to change and learn a lesson about their past bad habits.
To start off the characters within this story can be defined as a symbol. One of the characters (Widow Wycherly) who once upon a time was beautiful, but then hurt her status as a beautiful woman. When she had become youthful again she automatically was obsessed by her appearance and encouraged the three men to fight over her. When she was younger and beautiful she eagerly pulled men in whom would fight over her. With the three men with her she had no problem doing as she did in the past. He was very pulled in by the widow and a simile is shown when it says “ Colonel Killigrew, whose eyes had been fixed upon her , while the shadows of age were fitting from in like darkness from the crimson daybreak.” ( Hawthorne, page 232). As for (Mr. Medbourne) he showed greed. He was once a business man who was very successful and because of foolish ways lost that status similar to the widow. He was constantly seeking more money and investing in risky things and lost everything. When he drinks the youthful water he obsesses over wanting lots and lots of money. When it comes to (Colonel Killigrew) he was always seeking pleasurable things. Now the story doesn’t really in tell on what those things were that would of cause his youth to fade. When he drinks the water of course he goes back to wanting pleasure. Finally (Mr. Gascoigne) who was a politician was always seeking power. In the story it says that he was “a ruined politician, a man of evil fame.” There was no difference from before he drank the water to after. He was stuck on his political views and nothing was going to change. These four characters inhabited their past behaviors and it was so influencing that they fell back into their bad habits.
Next I would say that the vase was an example of symbolism in