Comparison Between Dr. Heidegger's Experiment and Birthmark

There were a variety of gothic elements and symbols in both stories. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, the setting is Dr. Heidegger’s dark, gloomy, dusty house with old cabinets and things everywhere. There is even a skeleton in a tall oaken closet. Out of all the old, weird things, he has a mirror that “was fabled that the spirits of all the doctor’s deceased patients dwelt within its verge, and would stare him in the face whenever he looked thitherward” (503). He has a picture on his wall of his young fiancée, whom he was going to marry, but she swallowed one of his prescriptions and died on the bridal evening, and he i

In conclusion, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” and “The Birthmark” share the same ideas. Nathaniel Hawthorne used the gothic style to show symbols of the mistrust of science and the transcendentalism idea of the over-soul. The dark side of human nature is also obvious in both stories. They both are good examples of what he wanted to get across to anyone who reads his works.

The themes of the stories both center on the mistrust of science and the dark side of human nature. In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, Dr. Heidegger makes his four friends young again in hopes that they will change their ways, but it just brings back the bad characteristics of the people. He tells them to “think what a sin and shame it would be, if, with your peculiar advantages, you should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young people of the age” (507) as a general rule before they drink the elixir. In the beginning of the story, they do not trust Dr. Heidegger’s science at all, and they do not believe that he can do anything that he speaks of, but they are so anxious to be young again, they do anything he says. After the drink the elixir, they return to their evil ways, and, after a while, they return to being old again. In “The Birthmark”, Aylmer’s is very

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