Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

by

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Widow Wycherly Character Analysis

Widow Wycherly (whose first name is actually Clara) was a beautiful woman in her youth, but has lived in “deep seclusion” for many years because a scandal ruined her reputation and turned the townspeople against her. When she drinks from the Fountain of Youth, she becomes beautiful again, and the other three subjects of the experiment vie for her attention and for the right to dance with her. Her vanity is her primary character trait; she spends half of the story preening in front of a mirror, and when she grows old again, says she would rather die than be old and ugly.

Widow Wycherly Quotes in Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

The Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment quotes below are all either spoken by Widow Wycherly or refer to Widow Wycherly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Youth, Old Age, and Death Theme Icon
).
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment Quotes

And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint that Dr. Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves,—as is not unfrequently the case with old people, when worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections.

Related Characters: Dr. Heidegger, Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:

“Before you drink, my respectable old friends,” said he, “it would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you, you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance, in passing a second time through the perils of youth. 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!”

The doctor's four venerable friends made him no answer, except by a feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error, they should ever go astray again.

“Drink, then,” said the doctor, bowing: “I rejoice that I have so well selected the subjects of my experiment.”

Related Characters: Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

Yet, by a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grandsires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shrivelled grandam.

Related Characters: Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Related Symbols: Water
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:

“Yes, friends, ye are old again,” said Dr. Heidegger, “and lo! the Water of Youth is all lavished on the ground. Well—I bemoan it not; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it—no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!”

Related Characters: Dr. Heidegger (speaker), Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:
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Widow Wycherly Quotes in Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

The Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment quotes below are all either spoken by Widow Wycherly or refer to Widow Wycherly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Youth, Old Age, and Death Theme Icon
).
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment Quotes

And, before proceeding further, I will merely hint that Dr. Heidegger and all his four guests were sometimes thought to be a little beside themselves,—as is not unfrequently the case with old people, when worried either by present troubles or woeful recollections.

Related Characters: Dr. Heidegger, Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:

“Before you drink, my respectable old friends,” said he, “it would be well that, with the experience of a lifetime to direct you, you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance, in passing a second time through the perils of youth. 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!”

The doctor's four venerable friends made him no answer, except by a feeble and tremulous laugh; so very ridiculous was the idea that, knowing how closely repentance treads behind the steps of error, they should ever go astray again.

“Drink, then,” said the doctor, bowing: “I rejoice that I have so well selected the subjects of my experiment.”

Related Characters: Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

Yet, by a strange deception, owing to the duskiness of the chamber, and the antique dresses which they still wore, the tall mirror is said to have reflected the figures of the three old, gray, withered grandsires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness of a shrivelled grandam.

Related Characters: Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Related Symbols: Water
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:

“Yes, friends, ye are old again,” said Dr. Heidegger, “and lo! the Water of Youth is all lavished on the ground. Well—I bemoan it not; for if the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would not stoop to bathe my lips in it—no, though its delirium were for years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!”

Related Characters: Dr. Heidegger (speaker), Widow Wycherly, Mr. Medbourne , Colonel Killigrew , Mr. Gascoigne
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis: