Author:
Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Nathaniel Hathorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne. He later changed his name to "Hawthorne", adding a "w" to dissociate from relatives including John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825; his classmates included future president Franklin Pierce and future poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. He published several short stories in various periodicals which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. The next year, he became engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at a Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.
Summary of the story:
The story is about an old man whose name is Dr.Heidegger, he invites 4 of his friends to his home because he wants to try an experiment with them. When his friends arrive to his place he tells them to go with him to his laboratory and he asks them to help him with an experiment about “The Fountain of Youth”, they accept so all of them drink a glass of water and they become young guys again. Then the doctor tells them to reconsider and think about all the mistakes that they had done in life but they don’t listen to him, after that one of his friends becomes an old man again so the doctor tells him that he sees that they did not learn even a single thing about their mistakes.
Plot:
Conflict: Dr. Heidegger wants to make an experiment with his friends.
Rising Actions:
1. He invites 3 old friends and 1 old girl friend to his house.
2. He asks them to go with him to his lab.
3. He says that he needs their help with an experiment.
4. He uses a rose to make them understand what’s the experiment about.
Climax:
Dr. Heidegger’s friends drink the water of the Fountain so the become young again.
Resolution:
They commit the same mistakes and when they get older again they want to go and try to find the fountain.
Irony:
Dr. Heidegger’s friends have their second chance to be young but they commit the same mistakes from years ago.
Characters:
Dr. Heidegger: He is a strange old man, he is very intelligent and he looses the love of his life.
Mr. Medbourne: He very rich but he looses his fortune because he is very greedy, he has white beard.
Mr. Gascon: He is an old man with white beard, he is an ex-politician but he looses everything and lives in shame.
Colonel Killigrew: he is an old man also with white beard, he is an ex-soldier but he has a lot of troubles with his health because he drinks and eats a lot.
Widow Wycherly: she is an elderly white-haired woman, once she was very beautiful and also conceited.
Moral:
we must be proud of what we have and what we are but we must not be conceited, we have to learn from our mistakes and try to be better persons every single day.
In my personal opinion:
I think that this is a very interesting history because it has some fantasy but also real life facts and it leave us a great lesson about the way in which we must enjoy our life without letting pass some opportunities than maybe will never come back.
