Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," contains much symbolism pertaining to the truths about life and humans' inherently evil aspects. Such characteristics are found in the personalities of the characters, as well as the various objects portrayed in the short story. Hawthorne also uses elements of imagery and allegories to depict the forbiddances and limitations of attempting to go back in time.
Each of the five characters in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” exhibit specific human idiosyncrasies. Mr. Medbourne is a man of greed and extravagance. His young, merchant days boasted of great prosperity. However, this did not last for very long, since he wasted the money earned. Even when he regains his youth, the former merchant attempts to calculate another way to earn easy money. Medbourne is too lazy to work hard for his money, because he wants to spend it more than he wants to earn.
Colonel Killigrew is a man holding onto great lust and lack of temperance. His lust is hinted at when Hawthorne mentions that Killigrew "wasted his best years...in pursuit of sinful pleasures." Later, when he turns young again, Colonel Killigrew's lack of temperance becomes evident as he sings "a jolly bottle song." As he joyfully sings his song, he continues to eye the body of Widow Wycherly. He cannot let go of his desire to drink or control himself from his lustful cravings.
Mr. Gascoigne is a liar and hypocrite. One learns of him being infamous at one point in his life early on, and his thinking never changes over time. There will be times when he vocalizes many, charismatic, alluring lines; he chatters on about “patriotism, national glory, and the people’s right.” However, there will also be times when Gascoigne quietl...
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...r every individual to grow as a person, and not to linger on in the past.
In conclusion, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows many of the evil aspects of being human. Greed, lavishness, lying, hypocrisy, lust, lack of temperance, lack of self-control, secrecy, guilt, and selfishness are all parts of the evil qualities of human beings. The power to control time is also not one a mere human can possess. It is impossible for any mortal entity to turn back their own time. As one grows old, their experiences become a part of them and make a person who they are. No one is able to erase what has been done. However, every individual is able to take their inherently evil aspects of being human and turn them into good by learning from the mistakes they make throughout their lives.
Works Cited
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." , by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1837. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
Throughout his literary endeavors, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion; that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
During the first air raid, Pan American’s facilities were destroyed, and ten civilian employees of the airline were killed. When the assault on the island was first launched, the Americans had twelve aircraft. By December 21, they were down to two planes and by the 22nd of December, none was left in the fleet.
Heidegger’s Experiment” the characters are given back their youth. After drinking this special water and taking back a number of years, the people wanted to continue getting younger until they were merely young adults, just out of adolescence. When they were finally this young, they all rejoiced greatly, “They were a group of merry youngsters, almost maddened with the exuberant frolicsomeness of their years”. However, their new youth was short lived and they soon returned to their true age and bitterness they had in life. Instead of being thankful for the chance to experience their youth again, they got greedy and selfish over wanting to stay that way forever. If ever there was a time where greed did not deserve to be rewarded it would be this
Every 60 seconds a person is murdered in the U.S. Yearly there are over 12,000 gun deaths in the United States. The amount of violence in our country is a result of how cruel people can be to each other and the lack of humanity we have as human beings. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding there are British boys that were on their way home but they crashed and now have to endure through the challenges the island they are on gives them. The book is representing humanity’s inner nature and shows the reader how different human actions are when bad things happen. A philosopher named John Locke believed that people are born with a blank slate and something bad must happen first in order for someone to be evil. Human nature is usually good but things can always change. The nature of humanity is inherently good because something must happen in order for people to be evil. If you were friends with somebody, something must happen between you two in order for you to hate them.
For the last seven years of his life, his days were passed with a steadfast goal of creating torment for the man who sinned and hurt him the most. In this case, Hawthorne is the Aesop, and he strives to communicate the moral and truth about revenge. Like Mahatma Gandhi, Hawthorne indicates that revenge is a continual process—one act of revenge leads to more atrocious acts by the opposition, and in the end no one wins. The human mind has been deceived. Revenge is the trap we all fall into every once in a while.
At 0800, we were ten to twenty miles away from the target when a twin-engine enemy fighter attacked us over the island of Kyushu. One of our engines caught fire, which required the crew to abandon. The engineer and I remained onboard and we continued our flight for another five miles until we lost a wing. We then bailed out and parachuted safely before the plane crashed near the town of Taketa. I evaded capture for eight hours. I was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken by train to a camp.
Nathaniel Hawthorns short stories, such as, Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, Rappaccini’s Daughter and The Birthmark all have an underlying meaning and demonstrate a similar recurring theme. Hawthorne uses his stories to clarify his beliefs on the competition between nature, religion, and science in everyday life. In all three of his short stories he refuses the concept of science coming before religion or nature. Hawthorne clearly thought if nature or religion was tampered with using science it could only end badly, but more specifically with death. In each of his stories there is a scientific experiment that defies both nature and religion ending harmfully. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s beliefs conclude that God and nature to ultimately be more powerful then science.
The question “What makes us who we are?” has perplexed many scholars, scientists, and theorists over the years. This is a question that we still may have not found an answer to. There are theories that people are born “good”, “evil”, and as “blank slates”, but it is hard to prove any of these theories consistently. There have been countless cases of people who have grown up in “good” homes with loving parents, yet their destiny was to inflict destruction on others. On the other hand, there have been just as many cases of people who grew up on the streets without the guidance of a parental figure, but they chose to make a bad situation into a good one by growing up to do something worthwhile for mankind. For this reason, it is nearly impossible to determine what makes a human being choose the way he/she behaves. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) published a novel in 1818 to voice her opinions about determining personality and the consequences and repercussions of alienation. Shelley uses the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to make her point. Rousseau proposed the idea that man is essentially "good" in the beginning of life, but civilization and education can corrupt and warp a human mind and soul. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (hereafter referred to as Frankenstein), Victor Frankenstein’s creature with human characteristics shows us that people are born with loving, caring, and moral feelings, but the creature demonstrates how the influence of society can change one’s outlook of others and life itself by his reactions to adversity at “birth”, and his actions after being alienated and rejected by humans several times.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the first American writers to pioneer the unprecedented and unforeseen gothic genre which resulted in the exposure of darker themes across America in the 19th century. This new genre sprouted the “brooding” romantics who revolved around the human’s capacity for evil as a main theme of their works. Being one of the “brooding” romantics, Hawthorne followed the Puritans’ belief that everyone is a sinner as a result of being a descendent of the Puritans associated with the infamous Salem witchcraft trials. Not only was he related to the despicable Puritans, but also, he had to live with the guilt that his dishonorable great-great grandfather, Judge Hathorne, was “the only one who refused to apologize for his role
A. Khrushchev, and the Russian military, placed nuclear offensive missiles into Cuba. A U-2 plane taking pictures over Cuba spotted the missile camps in Cuba, and brought it to the attention of the President. After a meeting with Russian officials, the Russian’s assured that the missiles were for defensive purposes only. The U.S. officials knew that the missiles were nuclear and for offensive purposes. So, instead of bombing the area before the missiles were ready, like the White House officials wanted, President Kennedy decided to put a quarantine line on the border of Cuba, to stop Russian ships from delivering nuclear equipment. As the ships got closer and closer to the line, Khrushchev wanting to avoid war, called the ships to turn around. After 2 letters, to and from Khrushchev, Kennedy agreed, that if the Russians dismantled the missiles, and got the equipment out of Cuba, the U.S. would get their missiles out of Turkey, within 6 months.
The rise of the crisis came without warning. Cubans caught word of the arrival and deployment of these missiles and hundreds of reports were sent to Miami, Florida. These missiles were perceived to be mediocre. Therefore the missiles were not taken seriously by the people. CIA agents further explored information on the missiles in Cuba and discovered transport trucks carrying large cylindrical cargo that could not make turns without backing up and also discovered some of the locations of the suspected missiles. As a result, photographs secretly taken from an air force operated American U-2 spy plane verified Soviet missile build sites.
Human nature is the most debated topic to date. Many people think that mankind is programmed to be evil; on the other hand people argue that it is naturally good. Nathaniel Hawthorne gave his argument with the novel, The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter showed that mankind is innately good by Chillingworth’s measures, Hester’s capitulates and Dimmesdale’s noble qualities.
An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 crashed at 2342 eastern standard time, December 29, 1972, 18.7 miles west-northwest of Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida. The aircraft was destroyed. Of the 163 passengers and 13 crewmembers aboard, 94 passengers and 5 crewmembers received fatal injuries. Two survivors died later as a result of their injuries.
...ing, it is safe to say that humans are not by nature evil but instead, they are good but easily influenced by the environment and society to act in evil way and do such evil things. You choose the road you want to take; either it’s the bad road or the good road. We are all born to live a life where we will be faced with good and evil things. We were not born to be an evil or bad person, but as you get older you make that choice. What do you want to be remembered as: the good or the bad person? Choose to be good over being bad because the rewards to your family, your friend, and yourself will always outweigh the bad.
5. Into Thin Air: The Mysterious Story Of Flight 19. (2012). Retrieved 29 March, 2014, from http://surviving-history.blogspot.com/2012/07/into-thin-air-mysterious-story-of.html