The Theme of Age in Dr.

Heideggers Experiment The journey of human life begins from childhood which develops into youth and ultimately culminates at the old age. But it is a difficult predicament of man that he remains dissatisfied with the stage in which he is, and yearns for his past or future life. The nostalgic fascination with the playful childhood and youthful adulthood haunts the mind of old people and makes them look for elixir of life which should take them back to their idyllic existence. Dr. Heideggers Experiment deals with this universal theme which seems to conclude that every stage has its own importance in the human life cycle: be it childhood, youth or old age. Human desire to convert ones existence into another one is futile and indicates a dissatisfied and fickle nature of man. The lesson of the story is that every age demands a specific behavior and man looks foolish if he pretends to be otherwise. This longing seems to be at the highest level in those who have not made the best use of a specific stage of life as Heideggers group members have squandered some specific feature of their past existence, specially youth, and now regret and a feeling of waste dominate their thought and they think that they would at least be given one chance to relive their childhood and youth in order to re-relish the numerous pleasures that once were their bosom friends. The initiated man is Dr. Heidegger who knows the real secret of living. All others do not even know what has happened. He seems to have realized that all stages have their own charm and they are a necessary part of the human life cycle. His quintessential wisdom is expressed this way, For my own part, having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no hurry to grow young again (Hawthorne 171). In the light of protagonists wisdom we can say that any attempt to reverse or change the cycle is bound to meet failure as is the case of Dr. Heideggers friends.

Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Dr. Heidegger's Experiment and Other Stories. Koln: Konemann, 1999. Print.