ipl-logo

Comparing Heidegger's Experiment And The Birthmark

895 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Hawthorne 's literary style and themes

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote many gothic short-stories related to the boundaries between nature versus science, and whether science should be used to change a person’s nature for the better. In the stories Heidegger’s Experiment and The Birthmark Hawthorne compares nature and science by having two scientists alter something in someone’s life. In many cases the stories claim that science is used to alter human nature tragically, and rarely used for good. Hawthorne supports this by showing two totally different examples in each of his stories. In the stories Heidegger’s Experiment and The Birthmark it is argued that science is used for the selfishness of those who wanted to alter human nature with science. Science should not be used to alter the …show more content…

He invites Widow Wickerly, Mr. Medbourne, Mr. Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne. The four elderly people to try his new invention which is an elixir of life, it is supposed to make the old, young again and help them fix their mistakes that they made in the past. Heidegger exclaims to the elderly people “… you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance.” Dr. Heidegger tells his guests that before they drink the elixir, they should make a few rules about what not to do when they are young again. His guests, too eager to try the elixir choose to ignore Dr. Heidegger’s suggestions and choose to go back to their old selves. For example, the widow in the past ruined her reputation by enticing too many men. When she drinks the elixir she makes the same mistake by influencing the other three men to fight over her. She once again ruins her reputation by influencing the men around her to fight for her love. Dr. Heidegger tries to alter the nature of aging with the science of his elixir. This was not a good decision on his part due to the fact that all of his guest went back to their old ways. His experiment ultimately fails. The experiment ultimately shows that all of his guests are different vices of human nature. The widow is vain, Mr. Medbourne is greed, Mr. Killigrew is gluttonous to alcohol and women, and Mr. Gascoigne is extremely power hungry. Due to the fact that all of his guests are different vices of human nature, it shows that he was trying to fix the way that humans are with science. Dr. Heidegger tries to get rid of these vices in human-nature by using science and artificially changing the way they think. Dr. Heidegger is ruining human nature by using science because he is getting rid of the mistakes his guests made. Those mistakes are something they can learn by and made them who they

Show More
Related

Compare And Contrast Dr. Heidegger's Experiment And The Birthmark

370 Words | 2 Pages

In the stories “The Birthmark” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both explore the wonders of science. “The Birthmark” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” explore science in similar ways, like the future. But there are some differences, like who’s future. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, Dr. Heidegger uses science to create and “magic water” to let people go back to when they were young, this let people change their future for the better.

Read More

Unwind

1001 Words | 5 Pages

Sciences and technologies have improved many aspects of human lives. But as technologies are developing to be more and more advanced, science can be a deadly subject to us as well. Some writers have taken this idea and expanded on this theme of how science is deadly. In this essay I will discuss how this theme is explored in the texts: the novel Unwind written by Neal Shusterman, the film Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol, following the short texts There Will Come Soft Rains and The Veldt written by Ray Bradbury. Science is supposed to help humans to understand more about the world and improve people’s lives.

Read More

Theme Of Making Discoveries In Frankenstein

398 Words | 2 Pages

In Mary Shelley's acclaimed novel 'Frankenstein,' making discoveries is presented through the scientific form of discovery, the alchemic nature in which the discoveries are made, their disastrous consequences, and highlighting the main issues of creating life. The presentation differs from that of Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale,' with the form of discovery focusing on personal identity, the methods being reflection and rebellion, and the consequences being resistance and terror. The concept of creating life contrasts sharply with Frankenstein, as it serves as the foundation of Gileadean society. One way which Mary Shelley presents making discoveries is through the nature of the discoveries. In ‘Frankenstein’, discoveries are often

Read More

Comparing Frankenstein And The Birthmark

1247 Words | 5 Pages

Since the prospect has been available to humankind, debates have continued concerning the ethics of using human stem cells for research, many having strong opinions on the matter. Multiple books, novels, and short stories about this dilemma were written decades ago, including Frankenstein by Mary Shelley in which a man creates life and "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne in which a man loses a life in the name of science. The possible ramifications and consequences are shown in these writings that can be used a precedent. Both scientific facts and literature, including Frankenstein and "The Birthmark," prove there are many ethical factors that must be considered with human cloning experimentation and stem cell research.

Read More

Comparing Sin In The Birthmark, Rappaccini's Daughter, And

1076 Words | 5 Pages

All of mankind commits sin, even when they do not mean to. Nathaniel Hawthorne's works usually includes since, women, or religion. The stories The Birthmark, Rappaccini’s Daughter, and Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment by Mr. Hawthorne all include science. In The Birthmark a man is obsessed with ridding his wife of her “horrible” facial birthmark and ends up killing her in the process of trying to remove it. Rappaccini’s Daughter tells a tale of a man falling in love with a poisonous girl, when he give her the antidote to the poison she's made up of she dies.

Read More

Self-Destruction In Oryx And Crake

1806 Words | 8 Pages

Psychologists and Pseudo-Scientists have long sought to explain the inborn human desire for self destruction. Selfishness against one’s own benefit, the urge to harm or take on harm for the sake of one’s own security, drinking, smoking, these clearly injurious thoughts and actions seduce individuals by an instinct Freud coins the “Death Drive” (Beyond the Pleasure Principle 30). Moreover, as advances in genetic engineering tear the veil between science fiction and fact, modern critics have questioned how this suicidal drive may push into uncharted frontiers. Such concerns have fostered a fear of unadulterated scientific progress captured within the works of Margaret Atwood. Oryx and Crake, especially, utilizes almost hyperbolic predictions of scientific innovation as evidence of a deeper self-destructive nature, and as justification for fear.

Read More

Comparing Beauty In Rappaccini's Daughter And The Birthmark

1238 Words | 5 Pages

In Hawthorne’s stories “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Birthmark” two scientists search for scientific achievement by experimenting with nature to perfect female beauty. Hawthorne uses the characters Dr. Rappaccini and Aylmer to emphasis the theme of science verses nature. Each character is seeking to control nature and both bring death to someone they love with their scientific meddling. In “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, Dr. Rappaccini is described in contrast to the setting of the stunning garden in which he grows.

Read More

The Power Of Youth In Dr. Heidegger's Experiment

562 Words | 3 Pages

Youth is believed to be one the most important phase in one’s life. When someone is young they believe that they dispute or fight with anyone over someone. Also with being young comes the obsessiveness and the will to fight anyone for something. Finally, they do not care who gets hurt in the process. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, Youth is a metaphor for the false notion of invincibility in youth because no one is invincible, but when one is young and full of life they feel that they are in full control and have power over anyone and anything.

Read More

The Chaser Heidegger's Experiment Analysis

1244 Words | 5 Pages

Lives don’t need actual cleaning, however, the mess we make of our lives sometimes, needs to be figuratively cleaned up. The old man infers that the lethal powers of the life-cleaner potion will be a way to tidy the mess that Alan will make of his life by giving the love potion to Diana. Additionally, this same phrase from the old man provides an example of foreshadowing as it, as well as multiple other warnings given by the old man about the necessity of the second potion, predict the dire consequences of Alan’s imprudent use of the first potion. Also, the old man’s French words “Au revoir,” which mean till we meet again in English, again foreshadow Alan’s inevitable return to Pell Street. Lastly, Collier uses dramatic irony to highlight the warnings in his parable.

Read More

Frankenstein And The Birthmark Analysis

1325 Words | 6 Pages

Both works emphasize how certain unregulated science can end in misery.

Read More

Walt Whitman Research Paper

244 Words | 1 Pages

Walt Whitman uses science in a majority of his poems to prove that it isn’t that bad. Edgar Allan Poe had described science “as a vulture preying on the heart and the imagination” (Sloan 14)

Read More

How Is Frankenstein Related To The Industrial Revolution

1167 Words | 5 Pages

TO PLAY WITH FIRE Introduction Countless scientific explorations and experimentations had been conducted and were continuing to be conducted up to and during the time Frankenstein was written in. Directly and indirectly through these explorations and experimentations living conditions of humanity changed drastically and rapidly especially -unincidentally- (In relation to the period in which Marry Shelley lived.) during the 18th and 19th centuries. Human societies experienced dramatic changes in almost all areas of life in ways never like before and in an extremely brief time span compared to the rest of the human history.

Read More

Science And Nature In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Birthmark

914 Words | 4 Pages

There are certain things that humans don’t have liberty to know, not capable of doing it. Hawthorne also point out the conflict between science and nature through this short story. Nature is the great force that controls human beings. In this story Aylmer is great scientist who believes that manmade creation is so powerful till could compete with

Read More

A Comparison Of Scientists In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein And Robert Louis Stevenson

2180 Words | 9 Pages

Representation of Scientists in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Towards the end of the 19th century, the portrayal of science in literature became more frequent than before; science has been progressing and it began to spark the interest of the readers of fiction. Supernatural elements in stories have been ascribed to scientists and experiments rather than God and miracles. However, since science still covered much of the unknown and inexplicable, the characters of scientists have occasionally been given almost godlike powers, thus prompting the readers to consider the question of morality. The scientist characters in both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have initially been successful with their scientific experiments and achieved groundbreaking discoveries, but have ultimately been punished for having gone too far with their experiments on humanity.

Read More

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Use Of Ambiguity Essay

1348 Words | 6 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the most prolific American Authors of the 19th century, who is remembered most prominently for his book The Scarlett Letter, but he was also a writer of a great many short stories as well. Three of these stories are “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” which is the tale of a scientist and a twisted experiment he performs on his daughter, turning her into living poison and making her live in a garden in solitude. A second is “Young Goodman Brown,” telling of Goodman Brown’s walk into a forest and the dark ritual he sees that irreparably changes his view of those living around him. Finally, there is “The Birthmark,” in which the mad scientist Aylmer creates an “antidote” to clear his wife Georgiana of a hand-shaped birthmark

Read More

More about Comparing Heidegger's Experiment And The Birthmark

Related Topics

Open Document