Dark Romantics

Dark Romantics

The dark Romantic writers were concerned with nature and imagination, characteristics which are dominant in „Dr. Heidegger’s experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorn. The story is about Dr. Heidegger’s experiment, in which 4 old people drink some magic water which makes them younger. It expresses the dark romantic concerns for nature, because it is about water, from a spring with magical power. To prove to the old people that the experiment is going to work out, Dr. Heidegger took a 55 year old, completely dried rose out of his black book. When he threw it into the water, “it lay lightly on the surface of the liquid. Soon, however a single change began to be visit able as if the flower were reviewing from deathlike slumber” (144). The Dark Romantic writers often included elements of nature in their stories, like the rose which gets resurrected from the magic water of youth. Nathaniel Hawthorn easily could have used a chemically substance instead of the water, it would have had the exact same effect. Specific for the Dark Romantics time episode, he used water, to clarify the importance of nature. Another example for Dark romantic concerns is imagination. As the old people drank the water, “there was an almost immediate improvement in the aspect of the party . . . There was a healthful suffusion on their cheeks” (146). Imagination is the Dark Romantic concern the whole story is about. Dr. Heidegger’s friends believe, that they became younger, they imagine that the water of youth made an impact on them, which allows Nathaniel Hawthorne to illustrate his message that people don’t change. The story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment“ by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains all the aspects for Dark romantic stories, such as nature and imagination.

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