Mistakes in Dr. Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne strongly believed that all people have a dark side and a sinful nature. According to Mark Barna, Hawthorne wrote, “In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and the revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or the prisoners whom they hide” (para. 12). In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents a situation filled with sin—secret and public—when a minister and a young married woman commit adultery and each character has to deal with consequences in his or her own way. Because so much debauchery is happening, it is controversial whether the novel’s biggest sinner is Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, or Roger Chillingworth.

In The Scarlet Letter Hypocrisy is evident everywhere. The characters of Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and the very society that the characters lived in, were steeped in hypocrisy. Hawthorne was not subtle in his portrayal of the terrible sin of hypocrisy; he made sure it was easy to see the sin at work , at the same time however, parallels can be drawn between the characters of The Scarlet Letter and of today’s society.

Hawthorne was able to show the true intentions and feelings of characters and the relationships between characters. He did this because he wanted the readers to understand that the Puritan society was not as religious or great as it is sometimes portrayed as. Even though their intentions were right with wanting to start a new religious society in the New World, they had their faults. Hawthorne is able to address these through the use of ironies. For example, having the reverend that everyone looks up to and emulates, be suffering from committing a very sinful act. Also, having the townspeople contradict the meaning of the scarlet A, and see it as a positive thing after Hester has just endured the torture of isolation and banishment. Overall, Hawthorne is trying to express his personal views on the Puritan society through the use of

The book of Proverbs 28:13 says ,“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” This quote explains that anyone who keeps in their sin will continue to guilt and torture themselves by doing so. Hawthorne uses many different forms of imagery and allusions to show the significance of hidden sin. The reader can see how Hawthorne uses sin to change his character's physical and mental state. There were three characters he changed throughout the book: Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, and Roger Chillingworth.

Judgment can be the the greatest plague of society. Judgment kripples acceptance, forward growth and blinds entire communities. Though in retrospect plagues are necessary, as is judgment. Without judgment humanity would be blind to people's character exposing them dangerous risks unstable people present. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne , Hester dealt with the judgment repercussions of adultery. Her sin caused society's judgment of her to rise and fall, in tandem producing negative and positive effects for Hester. Throughout the novel the Puritan community shifts their views of Hester. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, judgment that plagued Hester as a result of her sin evolved and shifted the communities views of her.

Having unseemly high expectations in her community, Hester began to realize that no matter what she did, she will always be publicly criticized any place she went. Hawthorne sets the theme of public ridicule and expectations by using the literary devices of diction and tone, the same as Moore used in The Other Wes Moore. The townspeople were aware of Hester’s beauty. In doubt, they noticed her persona “Was so artistically done; and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that is had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony” (Hawthorne 37). This caused the townspeople to denounce Hester more. They became jealous of Hester because of the beauty she gave off, even after she had committed adultery. The jealousy they presented towards Hester is captured by Hawthorne using the literary device of tone. Hawthorne describes all of the beauty Hester presumes inside and outside of her, but elaborates that her beauty has been terminated by the townspeople because of the “regulations” they placed on her. The public shame eventually caught up to her and her beauty began to fade in people’s eyes. Similar to the writing of Moore, Hawthorne added how the misery that was consumed by Hester was shared among others at

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and “The Birthmark,” reflect Hawthorne's beliefs of playing God and changing natural events. In these short stories, these scientists take the experiments too far. Taking these experiments too far would be to lose characters or consequently have the character die. The scientists Dr. Heidegger from “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” Rappaccini from “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and Aylmer from “The Birthmark” change natural events which lead to the loss of a character.

In the Scarlet letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates the consequences of sin. Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are the main characters that were the highlight of the book. I'm going to tell you how sin they all committed had an effect on their lives. Guilt is a consequence of sin that Hester had to endure throughout her life. She continuously walked around with a smile on her face to act as if others opinions didn't influence her about the sin she had done.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, as an admirer of psychology, uses a distinctive theme of moral ambiguity amongst his characters in the novel The Scarlet Letter. The characters, in particular Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, are rather difficult to classify as either good or bad; they are simply human. Hawthorne’s moral ambiguity amongst these characters makes them more relatable to real human beings and serves as a clear portrayal of the complex human psyche. One can not be defined as simply bad or good; humans are much more complex than these two binary words which is why Hawthorne’s realization of moral ambiguity is quite profound.

how she actually thinks and feels is generally a reflection of the signs of the times she is in.

In both works, “Bartleby the Scrivener” and The Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne show the unbridgeable gap between human desires and human possibilities and the mixture of good and evil in even the loftiest of human motives. In “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, this idea is shown by how the Lawyer keeps Bartleby as one of his employers, even though Bartleby does not deserve to still be working. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this idea is shown through Hester and Dimmesdale’s relationship and also through the contrast between the Forest and Town.

Women in today’s world use many scientific measures to look young, beautiful, and perfect. Some women even undergo surgeries to perfect their bodies. True natural beauty comes from within one’s self and not what is on the outside. While critics argue that Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark,” “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” and “Rappaccinni’s Daughter” stand as an overt commentary on nature vs. science, Hawthorne actually uses these works to explore personal familial connections.

Although there was a lot of romantic evidence in this short story, Hawthorne also showed the use of anti-romantic literature. Using evilness, Hawthorne 's writing helps lead readers into the anti-romantic era. We as readers, were told of a story in which a man tests his friends with water from the Fountain of Youth. The greediness of the “four venerable and melcahancy old creatures” makes the reader feel that evil is in every common man;in fact, greed has been proven to show darkness within a soul. Within the story it said, “Give us more of this wondrous water! Cried them eagerly. “We are younger--but we are still too old! Quick-- give us more!” Their want leads the

Because of the nature of the Puritan culture outside of the novel, Hawthorne chooses an aspect of Puritan extremism that does not necessarily typify itself with every Puritan; that aspect would be mindless following. Throughout the work, Hawthorne effectively paints the “picture” that is the Puritan mindlessness. There are two ways that Hawthorne depicts this – the first focusing on the Puritans’ response to sin and the second focusing on the view of their leaders. Illustrating the first example, if someone commits adultery, they are either to be branded or killed; the latter happening much more frequently than the former. In a much broader sense, the Puritans are not in the least bit forgiving, and this can be seen with how the community treats Hester throughout the entire story; even though she was not killed or branded, they still constantly abuse her emotionally and mentally whenever they see the Scarlet Letter on her clothes. Shifting focus from the Puritans’ response to sin to the way that they view their religious leaders, Hawthorne illustrates this aspect of the Puritan community by using ambiguity and constant implications whenever the community is mentioned. An example of this is seen in how the community treats Arthur Dimmesdale. The community is seen idolizing Dimmesdale at points, even when he is clearly in the wrong; the community even took

her eyes ... kindling a kind of active uncaring"(p. 114) toward him. Her physical beauty, "the rhythmic rise-fall of her buttocks, the tremulous up-downing of her behind"(p.151), will make him "hurt for her, for the taming of her" (p. 152), for years to come.