After reading “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, I wrote this opinion piece on whether or not I thought the “Elixir of Life” from the Fountain of Youth was worth drinking. As a note, this post contains some spoilers for the short story in question, and I definitely adopted far more of its formal vernacular than strictly necessary.
In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” we see four elderly characters sample the Elixir of Life, granting them, if only briefly, a return to the height of their youth. While this may seem like the ultimate gift, I would argue that the Elixir of Life, is, in fact, more a curse than a blessing.
I freely admit, some of my stance on the Elixir comes from my broader opinion on eternal life, which is that it would be a rather unpleasant experience. The fact of immortality is that you will, inevitably, watch the world pass by, as everything changes and everyone else lives and dies as is natural, while you merely linger. It seems to me there can be few existences more painful than outliving everyone you might ever love, or alternatively, condemning them to the same eternal lingering as your own.
There is also, however, something to be said for the means of immortality. To be blessed or cursed with it, depending on your standpoint, only once, to hold true for eternity… that would be one thing. But the temporary nature of the Elixir’s effects in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” suggest that one must constantly be consuming it if they wish to maintain that coveted youth. So allow me this query: if one must constantly be retrieving water from the Fountain to stay young; if one’s singular focus, as the ending of the tale implied it might become for the doctor’s friends, is to maintain that youth… is that a life worth living? It seems to me that a life spent intent only on prolonging itself is a life that is no longer truly being lived, a life that has been drained of its value by its all-consuming need to persist. Dr. Heideggar’s friends forgot, it would seem, that a thing is not beautiful because it lasts, but because of the mark it makes in the time that it is given.
Granted, some things are meant to last. For instance, the wisdom we gain from experience, which the four test subjects were shown to have lost when they drank the Elixir. They thought it ridiculous, “the idea that… they should ever go astray again,” and yet they immediately did so, as apparently youth of figure brought with it youth of mind. This, to me, seems like the greatest nail in the coffin — would a drinker of the Elixir, addicted to its effect as the characters became, not simply become caught in an endless, vicious cycle of making the same mistakes over and over again? What a torment that would be, truly.
Yes, it seems to me that the Elixir of Life would not be wise to consume — after all, it is not the length of a life that defines it, but its quality.
