Question

An allegory is a story that uses characters and settings as symbols that carry a deeper meaning beyond the obvious meaning of the story. Which excerpt from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" best reveals the allegorical nature of this short story?

-A strange chillness, whether the body or spirit they could not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. They gazed at one another, and fancied that each fleeting moment snatched away a charm. 

- But the doctor's four friends had taught no such lesson to themselves. They resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to Florida, and quaff at morning, noon, and night, from the Fountain of Youth.
(CHOOSE ONE)

Answer 1

-A strange chillness, whether the body or spirit they could not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. They gazed at one another, and fancied that each fleeting moment snatched away a charm.

Step-by-step explanation:

An allegory is, in this sense, an artistic theme or a literary figure that allows us to represent an abstract idea through other forms, these being human, animals or objects. In this case, the phrase "be the body or the spirit" is an allegory because it represents something other than its actual meaning.