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

'Witzbold und frechen Bettler' (SW 4, 382), and indirectly associated with the
hardships and uncertainties of his vagrant life:
Goldmund, noch wenig mit dem Galgenhumor und dem Vagantenlatein
dieser Gattung bekannt, fiirchtete sich zwar ein wenig vor dem langen
struppigen Flegel und dem wenig angenehmen Gelachter, mit dem er [Viktor]
seine eigenen Spafie begleitete. (SW 4, 378)
In Die Morgenlandfahrt, gallows humour is explicitly connected with the fear of death:
Todesfurcht und Galgenhumor' (SW 4, 560). What all these examples have in
common is that 'Galgenhumor' entails the concurrent emergence of opposite feelings
(e.g. 'Hoffnungslosigkeit' and 'Lacherlichkeit'), which is concordant with the
definition of humour discussed in the first section of this chapter, and surfaces in
situations where the individual feels dispirited (as in the case of Hesse and
Goldmund), and the self is humiliated (see Haller's execution) or endangered (e.g.
fear of death). In other words, 'Galgenhumor 7 poses a threat or undermines the
principium individuationis and, as in the case of Goldmund's menage a trois and in
Mailer's situation in 'Magisches Theater', stems from the clash between the ideality of
a given state (love for Goldmund, ideals for Haller) and the actual condition in which
the characters find themselves (unfaithfulness for Goldmund, despair in Haller's
case).
Like 'Galgenhumor' irony too is based, as a means of expression, on the
contrast between what is said and what is actually meant: 'I have had enough of my
holiday, I cannot wait to go back to my underpaid job!' is an illustration. In Roflhalde,
Hesse provides a subtler example of this linguistic device. Veraguth's son, Albert,
replies angrily and defiantly to his father's request to stay at the table where they are
having lunch together. Veraguth's response is ironic and mocking:
Meinetwegen, du bist ja Herr im Hause, nicht wahr? Falls du iibrigens Lust
hast, wieder einmal mit Messern nach mir zu werfen, so lafi dich, bitte, nicht
durch irgendwelche Vorurteile davon abhalten! (SW 3, 86-87)
Veraguth obviously means that Albert is not the 'Herr im Hause' and, although he
seems to exhort his son to show his rebellion more overtly, he is in fact aiming to
smother any such future insolent gesture. Along with an essentially linguistic
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