HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

foretells the character's manifold transformations, which occur throughout Hesse's
tale.36
Der Steppenwolf, Hesse's most complex novel in terms of narrative structure
(see 3.3), is rich in elements which conjure up images of metamorphosis. The
'wolfish' nature of its protagonist, Harry Haller, recalls both the hybridity of a
werewolf and the character of Lycaon in Ovid's Metamorphoses; Gallagher stresses
this point saying that 'Lycaon's myth has been adapted in Hesse's novel Der
Steppenwolf with the idea of the metamorphosis of a human being into a wolf in the
schizophrenic personality of Harry Haller' (19). Being suspended on two narrative
planes (see Hesse's technique of double perception as identified by Ziolkowski and
discussed in 2.5), Der Steppenwolf leads the reader to a process of continual
reinterpretation (i.e. transformation) of the narrated events.
The 'mask' in the 'Maskenball' and the 'mirror' in 'Magisches Theater' are two
further elements of the novel which contribute to the idea of shifting identities and
realities. The former, as pointed out by Freedman is 'a favourite [literary] device of
the 1920s with a distinguished history as well' (1973,176); the latter, the significance
of which is extensively dealt with in Chapter 6 (section 4), acts as a lens or prism,
distorting and decomposing the images it reflects. 37 A mirror Haller faces in 'das
magische Theater' multiplies his image: 'Einige von diesen vielen Harrys waren so
alt wie ich, einige alter, einige uralt, andere ganz jung, Jiinglinge, Knaben,
Schulknaben, Lausbuben, Kinder' (SW 4,168). Haller himself hints at the gift of
children and certain adults (including poets) to embrace and transform objects in
their inward eye.38 According to Gallagher, Haller's split personality, oscillating
between his primitive instincts and more civilised manners, is an example of
metamorphosis in a modern context, where changes of the body have been
36 As Boulby points out: 'Pictor Mdrchen is, on one of its levels at least, an allegory for the processes of art, of
play' (222).
'In the masquerades of Jean Paul and Hoffrnann, the mask becomes a revolutionary symbol of the disruption
of the established order' (Cardinal, 31).
38 'Denn [Hermine] unterhielt sich mit mir uber Hermann und uber die Kindheit, uber meine und ihre, uber jene
Jahre vor der Geschlechtsreife, in denen das jugendliche Liebesvermogen nicht nur beide Geschlechter, sondern
alles und jedes umfafit, Sinnliches und Geistiges, und alles mit dem Liebeszauber und der marchenhaften
Verwandlungsfahigkeit begabt, die nur Auserwahlten und Dichtern auch noch in spa'teren Lebensaltern zuzeiten
wiederkehrt'(SW 4, 158).
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