Dr. Heidegger's Experiment

Students will carefully observe acts of aggression and prosocial behavior on television, report their observations, and analyze their data to draw conclusions.

The authors of American Romanticism held a particular disdain for science, which they made visible through the aggressor characters in their short stories. Both aggressors wanted to do away with any imperfections in their environments, as they felt personally threatened by them. The younger man in The Tell-Tale Heart behaves in cold, calculated movements and dismembers the body of the old man like a butcher. In The Birth-Mark Aylmer, “a man of science,” uses science in order to create a concoction that will remove his wife’s birthmark. Of the potion Aylmer declares, “Unless all science have deceived me, it cannot fail,” (Hawthorne 428). The aggressors are severely flawed characters, who act on deranged impulses, but attempt to justify their actions rationally and

Imagine yourself being 10 years younger than you are now. What would you look like, and how would you act? In the passages “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, and “Trip Up Yonder” the characters find out, or experiment what it is like to be young again. In these stories by drinking certain water in turns the characters young. As the characters find out, being young forever isn't all that good.

Some of Hawthorne’s works are parallel in many aspects as in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccinis Daughter” with a common obsession of scientific beauty and manipulation, the death. Both men have the obsession of science where Aylmer wants to help mankind unlike Rappacini’s work to destroys mankind “Rappaccini “cares infinitely more for science than for mankind”” (Roy R. Male, 1954). Georgiana’s is manipulated with her self-esteem easily convince her of the birthmark’s discouragement to her beauty “Life is but a sad possession to those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it might be happiness” (Bunge, 1993 ) Rappacini merely manipulates Beatrice with lies. Georgiana is clear to see that for Aylmer to achieve perfection, it will cost her life “She attributes this self-destructive attitude to the inspiring influence of Aylmer’s high standards and urges him to continue his noble work, at any cost” (Bunge, 1993 ) Rappaccini’s payment was the loss of a child when Beatrice took her life; diminishing the

Although love is at often times a great thing, it can blind people and misguide them. The relationship between Aylmer and Georgiana is a scenario of misguided love gone wrong. In “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Aylmer expresses his love of science much more than he expresses his love for his wife, Georgiana. This happens despite the extreme love his wife shows him, and her obedience and trust towards him. He ends up ruining her life when turning her into a scientific experiment. His love for science consumes his brain and he is unable to think about the human part of his life and thus, ends up losing it.

Too often in this world does man attempt to perfect nature. Tampering with this sort of element most commonly leads to a disaster to come extent. Because man is never satisfied, he is constantly vying for perfection, regardless of the outcome. Such is the case in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, 'The Birthmark.' Aylmer's persistent attempt to perfect nature is the cause of Georgiana's demise and the affirmation that when man tampers with such a powerful component terrible things may occur.

Sin, a dark and powerful force, twists the soul and warps the mind to the point where it leaves society with unconquerable difficulties in everyday life. Nathaniel Hawthorne, quite successfully, uses literature to its full potential in order to express sins presence in life. He uses the short story, “The Birthmark” to express this theme. In this story, a man by name Aylmer for the first time sees a small defect in his otherwise beautiful wife, Georgiana. When Aylmer mentions it to her, she feels hurt, but it does not seem to affect her self-image. However, as time went on, the birthmark started to bother her causing her to believe she was flawed and in need of fixing. With the assistance of Aylmer's servant, Aminadab, Aylmer creates a miracle drug that would cure his wife of her imperfection: the birthmark. The possibly deadly drug incites fear in her husband; however, the blemish on her face troubles her, as well as her husband, to the point where she believes her life means nothing unless she could get it removed. After much meticulous preparation, the wife takes the cure. At first, everything seems well as her birthmark faded, however soon everything goes wrong, and Georgina has a terrible reaction. Soon after taking the cure she dies, leaving Aylmer heartbroken and alone without his wife. In, “The Birthmark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne brings to light sin’s presence in society through the use of allusions, symbolism, color, and beauty.

“The Birthmark” is a short story authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1848. The story is about Aylmer, a brilliant scientist who is obsessed with science and is planning to use his experiments to remove a birthmark on the face of his wife Georgiana. Aylmer’s love for science made him yearn to obtain control of the entire divinity. His wife was among his victims of science that was stronger in him than the love he had for Georgiana. Aylmer became blind to science to the extent that he could not realize that he was damaging his wife and putting his marriage at risk. It examines the obsession with science and human perfection that often cause problems if not controlled as seen in the story. Hawthorne’s aim with this tale was to warn its readers regarding the dangers of science and knowledge with the story, and this is analyzed below.

A researcher, Stanley Milgram, wondered how far individuals would go in following commands. In 1974 he set up a series of experiments. Describe the research methods used, together with the findings.

For example, In “The Birth Mark,” Hawthorne writes about a woman named Georgiana and her birthmark on her cheek. This actually symbolizes what goes on in his own life with his wife, Sophia. Hawthorne’s wife Sophia had a miscarriage and it caused him to undergo a “sexual panic and arrestment” (Marshall 38). When Hawthorne wrote “The Birth Mark,” it was written to disguise “sexual anxiety as cosmetology” (Marshall 38). This coincided with the virginity of women. Women who lose their virginity have a crimson stain hence the crimson birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek. Meanwhile, “Rappaccini’s Daughter” focuses more on the human heart. Beatrice and Giovanni truly love each other even though they cannot physically be together. Even at her death she wants to save Giovanni. While she wants to save Giovanni, Hawthorne states, “he remains trapped in the situation that her death allows her to escape” (Wachtel). Giovanni is left alone and poisonous. Finally, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” revolves around the effects of science on nature. Dr. Heidegger uses science to make his old friends young once again. His friends drink the concoction he created and they all begin to immediately turn into the younger versions of themselves right before his eyes. The elixir only lasts for a little while and then his friends end up old once again. Science caused the people to be young for a little while but in the end the elixir wore off and they went back to their original selves. Growing old is a part

Hawthorne’s heavy use of symbolism carries a lot of undertones that reveals irony on many levels as he wraps up the story. The most obvious is that Aylmer murders his lovely bride when he perfects Nature. Georgiana is enamored by Aylmer’s experiments even though he often fails. She gains confidence and submits herself willingly but only to vicariously pursue happiness through her husband’s experiment. Knowing that her birthmark makes her an object of horror to the one she loves, she finds life to be a burden and is willing to risk her own life for both of their happiness (Hawthorne 292).

The short story entitled “The Birthmark,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the perfect example of Romantic- era literature. The romantics focused mainly on the spiritual and natural world and believed messing with nature with science would destroy the beauty that came with the mystery and would ruin the overall creation of our world. Throughout his story, Hawthorne reveals being human means having flaws, by Aylmer’s science-oriented mind and Georgiana’s natural beauty to bring the theme of destruction across. To begin, Aylmer, the man of science develops an obsession to remove his wife’s small, hand-like birthmark from her cheek. Georgiana views the mark as a positive charm, as many would believe, “....it has been so often called a charm...

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the representatives of the Dark Romanticism genre. The cultural and literal context, stylistic features and main themes of the Hawthorne’s short story The Birthmark will be discussed in this essay.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is respected as “one of the great masters of American Fiction” (“Hawthorne, Nathaniel” 363). He is an accomplished author who wrote novels as well as children’s literature. However, Hawthorne’s strength is American short story; his “haunting” tales are undeniably responsible for establishing this genre as a “significant art form” (“Nathaniel Hawthorne” Columbia 1). He is known for his “penetrating explorations” of the conflicts within one’s conscience and the consequences that plague his characters, as a result of their disobedience (“Nathaniel Hawthorne” 1). These “dilemmas” of the “human condition” are prominent in his story, “The Birth-Mark” (Tuerk 1). Mosses of an Old Manse, is a compilation of short stories; which

Every single book is essentially the same. However, every book is written in a different and unique way. When writing their books, each author borrows from other authors to make their book a masterpiece. Thomas Foster, author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, explains in great detail the differences between books, but also their connections. Foster writes “There is only one story . . . Whenever anyone puts pen to paper or hands to keyboard . . . They all take from and in return give to the same story” (Foster 185-186). One book that is a part of Foster’s story is Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. In this essay, Thomas Foster’s methods regarding both symbolism and ¬¬¬¬heart disease from his book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor will be discussed and applied to one of Oscar Wilde’s novels. Throughout his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde uses the portrait of the young protagonist as a symbol of many things, one of them being a mirror. Wilde also uses Gray’s death to not only signify suicide, but his true unhappiness through the stabbing and thus killing of his own soul.