In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Short Story Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, one Of

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, one of

the central ideas of the story revolves around the idea of reality and

illusion. The story deals with the changing old age into youth.

The most thing that appealed to me the most was find that the experiment for of trying to

make it reality ratherthen a figment of imagination caused by the intoxicating brew.

A couple of points that Hawthorne made led me to believe that the story

was indeed a true testament of the powers of the magical water. The first is

rather evident and straight forward because it happens before a single person

even raises glass close to their lips. I am of course referring to the fifty-

five year old rose that was given to Dr. Heidegger on the eve of his wedding by

his bride to be. Heidegger places the rose in the water so there could be

proof of the mysterious water's power, but in the same act of proving its power

to his guests Hawthorne proves to us the power of the water because when the

rose regains life nobody was drunk or had even attempted to drink the water.

"The crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson,

as if the flower were reviving from a death-like slumber;". It is that

clear cut, and completely undeniable considering that five people witnessed the

act and not one had the slightest objection.

After the first drink of the potion until the last, I was still led to

the opinion that what the guests were experiencing was in fact real and

completely genuine. At this point I will point out that it is at this exact

moment where the issue of reality versus illusion begins to take shape.

However, while we left to toil with this intriguing notion, it seems quite

intentional on the part of Hawthorne to make us decide on which side we are for.

I would say his reasoning for dividing us would be to point out that while it

may be real or a delusion it's ethical and moral message should be clear cut to

everyone. Backtracking for a second though, I would also like to dispute the

argument of illusion as some people fight in favor, of on the sole occurrence

of the old images in the mirror. It seems to me that as I mentioned above, a

ploy set by Hawthorne to add a little twist to the story, and give us the

readers something to think about. While we could argue that what they are

seeing is a direct influence of the potion it would be far stretched to say

that what they felt

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