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

Druck [des] Lebens': a feeling of crushing defeat needs to be experienced before an
individual can discover 'Humor', as Mozart puts it before Harry's execution in Der
Steppenwolf. 'Humor ist immer Galgenhumor' (SW 4, 200). Secondly, 'Humor'
represents an attempt to bridge the gap between ideal and reality. Finally, in line
with his idea of polarities, Hesse regards tragic and comic as mutually dependent.
Chapter 1 dealt with polar opposites and their complementarity; my present
concern therefore rests with examining Hesse's 'Galgenhumor' as the direct filiation
of the antithesis of ideal and reality which, as will be discussed, is also the backbone
of the concept of Romantic irony. The discussion will then move on and highlight the
crucial ethical divide between Hesse's 'Galgenhumor' and 'die romantische Ironie'.
In 'Zum Gedachtnis' (1916), Hesse indirectly provides a lucid example of
'Galgenhumor', or 'the irony of despair' (Hollis 1973, 48). Although the word is not
mentioned, Hesse's recollection of the moment he learns of his father's death in
March 1916 captures the essence of 'Galgenhumor':' Auf meinem Tisch lagen Briefe,
und dariiber lag das Telegramm, und ich las und mufite lacheln' (SW 12, 300). As an
expression, 'Galgenhumor' chiefly appears in four major works of the last two
phases: Die Nurnberger Reise, Der Steppenwolf, Narzifl und Goldmund, and Die
Morgenlandfahrt.30 The need for gallows humour is indeed felt on certain evenings of
Hesse's journey to Nuremberg: 'Ich verbrauche an solchen Abenden viel von ihm,
von Humoren jeder Art, namentlich von Galgenhumor' (SW 11,163). In Der
Steppenwolf, the expression crops up several times, and in one case it is also evoked
by the oxymoronic slogan on one of the doors of 'Magisches Theater': 'Die lachende
Tram Kabinettftir Humor' (SW 4,179; original emphasis). Goldmund experiences the
'tiefe Hoffnungslosigkeit' (SW 4, 371), but also the 'Lacherlichkeit' (ibid.) of his love
for Lydia, when his lips are close to her while his hands caress Julie's (her sister) legs.
In this novel, 'Galgenhumor' is also associated with Viktor, whom Goldmund calls
30 The idea of Galgenhumor' is, however, as 'Zum Gedachtnis' suggests, prefigured in earlier works: Lulu
knows that 'die Kunst des Lebens [besteht] im Leidenlernen und Lachelnlernen' (HL, SW 1, 276); recalling a
small, pink flag in one of Luigi's paintings, Klingsor notes that all the sorrows of the world and their risibility
seem concentrated in that detail: 'In dieser kleinen, dummen Rosafahne ist alles Weh und alle Resignation der
Welt, und auch noch alles gute Lachen iiber Weh und Resignation' (SW 8, 292).
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