Compare And Contrast: Dr. Heidigger Vs. Colonel Killigrew

Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing, specifically "Dr. Heidigger's Experiment" all of his protagonists are overly-intellectual male characters that are assisted by female characters. Colonel Killigrew and Dr. Heidigger perfectly represent two of Hawthorne's overly-intellectual male characters; they react differently towards the water, have their own personality and have made past and present mistakes that have influenced their lives.

Colonel Killigrew has a different reaction to the water because of one reason, he tried the water and Dr. Heidigger just watched while Killigrew, Medbourne, Wycherly and Gascoigne drink the water from the Fountain of Youth. Colonel Killigrew was very eager to have a second glass of water for the obvious reason of feeling youthful again. He begins to flirt with Widow Wycherly with the line of, "My dear widow, you are charming." (Hawthorne 2) later he asks her for a dance and gets into a fight with the other gentleman, excluding Dr. Heidigger. While everyone was doing their own event; Medbourne creating a wonderfully ludicrous marketing idea involving whales and ice blocks to the East Indies (Hawthorne 2), Wycherly staring into the mirror admiring herself and her young beauty and age (Hawthorne 2) and Gascoigne thinking only of politics (for he was a former politician) (Hawthorne 2) and finally you have Killigrew singing a jolly battle song and ring his glass with the chorus to the song while he was staring at Wycherly. Killigrew ended up taking a pilgrimage to Florida with the four others to search for the Fountain of Youth. Dr. Heidigger very distinctly said that he would never partake in the drinking of the water, "...I would not bathe my lips in it [the water] - no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!" (Hawthorne 5) Dr. Heidigger screwed up with this experiment by tricking his friends.

Dr. Heidigger has made many past mistakes and present mistakes in his life including tricking his friends into drinking the water for his own personal enjoyment. In his past years, he had a fiancйe, Sylvia, who on their wedding night received a prescription from Dr. Heidigger and she died. The thought is that he accidentally killed her but his motives if he had would be unknown, they were to be married. Colonel Killigrew had one mess up in his life and it caused him a series of painful torments of the body and of the soul. His biggest torment would be the receiving of the Gout. The Gout is a medical disease that causes acid to build up in your joints and then creates a metabolic imbalance in you digestive system, your joints become very sore and you swell because of the acid build-up. The other problem Colonel Killigrew experienced was his loss of Widow Wycherly after having a "crush" on her for many years, when she was younger and more appealing. Dr. Heidigger on the other hand has a literal skeleton in his closet. The skeleton in his closet could just be a skeleton because he is a doctor or it could be a metaphorical meaning of a bad incident in his past that still haunts him, such as killing his fiancйe by accident with the wrong prescription. Each person in this short story has their own personality that reflects there previous mistakes and also their own

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