Excellent question. I would want to argue that the central
conflict within this wonderful allegorical story concerns the conflict between the
foolishness and beauty of youth and the wisdom and decrepitude that comes with age. Dr.
Heidegger, by conducting his little experiment on his guests, wishes to discover if,
when given an opportunity to live their lives over again, they are able to learn from
their mistakes and not fall into the same patterns that resulted in them being so
unhappy in their old age. Note the response after they have quaffed the magical
water:
Youth,
like the extremity of age, had effaced the strongly marked characteristics of middle
life, and mutually assimilated them all. They were a group of merry youngsters, almost
maddened with the exuberant frolicsomeness of their years. The most singular effect fo
their gaiety was an impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude of which they had so
lately been the victims.
Note
how Hawthorne creates an opposition here between youth and old age, and how he clearly
presents the guests as not having learnt anything from their mistakes. They each fall
into their old vices very easily and quickly, with the men vying for the attention of
the preening Widow Wycherly. The way in which the guests go in search of the Water of
Youth at the end of the story show that they have not learnt anything from the lesson
that Dr. Heidegger has taught them. Dr. Heidegger never would drink from the Water of
Youth, as he has managed to learn from his experiences in life and appreciates the
wisdom he has thereby gained. His foolish guests, on the other hand, have no such
perspective. Thus the central conflict in this story is between youthful foolishness,
and old age and wisdom.
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