To_Participate,_Or_Not

To Participate, Or Not To Participate, or Not Often in natural processes, the role of the scientist is debated. Should a scientist be a participant in the experiment or be solely an observer' Some people feel that the best way to observe an experiment is by taken place in it. Others feel that the participation of the scientist in his own experiment can blur the results. In “Rappiccinni’s Daughter” and “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and poems 328 and 986, by Emily Dickinson, it becomes apparent that both authors have romantic views. They feel the scientist should be an observer, but not a participant, and that nature should be observed, but not tampered with. A case of tragic results from a scientist participating in his own experiment is the story of “Rappiccinni’s Daughter”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this story the scientist, Rappiccinni, is both an observer and a participant. He observes his flowers in his garden, but he also tends to them and experiments with them. In this participation nature is being controlled, when nature is controlled, you cannot have transcendence. He also went as far as to subject his daughter to his experiments: “He would sacrifice human scientist, nature, hawthorne, aylmer, dickinson, birthmark, trying, should, own, experiments, change, both, remove, rappiccinni, georgiana, experiment, daughter, bird, story, shows, science, results, rappiccinni’s, observing, danger, very, poem, participant, observer, feel, because, appreciate, transcendence, tragic, similar