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

previous works such as Klein und Wagner (1919; see example below), Siddhartha, and
Der Steppenwolf (1927), including Haller's humorous conversation with himself in
front of the mirror which betrays his psychological dissociation: 'Im Spiegel stand Ich
[...] «Harry», sagte ich, «was rust du da?» «Nichts», sagte der im Spiegel' (Ste, SW 4,
191). In Siddhartha, the protagonist's disgust at his own reflected image recalls Dorian
Gray's reaction to the sight of his portrait that shows Dorian's moral decay: 'so oft er
[Siddhartha] sein Gesicht im Spiegel an der Schlafzimmerwand gealtert und
hafilicher geworden sah, so oft Scham und Ekel ihn uberfiel' (Sid, SW 3, 425).
The excerpt from Siddhartha also illustrates one of the main functions of the
mirror within Hesse's works: by reflecting and, occasionally, distorting their
contours, the 'mirror' allows Hesse's characters to discover or acknowledge
possibilities and hidden facets of their inner self. This introspective moment, implicit
in the reflection process, often paves the way to a moment of revelation, as in most of
the examples given above and in Klein und Wagner at the point in the story where
Klein inadvertently seizes a 'Handspiegel' (SW 8, 277), from which 'schien ihm sein
Gesicht entgegen, das Gesicht Wagners, ein irres verzogenes Gesicht mit tiefen
schattigen Hohlen und zerstorten, zersprungenen Ziigen' (ibid.). This passage also
shows that the mirror motif allows Hesse to hint at the underlying unity of opposites
through an ideal, optical synthesis. The images of Klein and Wagner are connected
by way of the mirroring process without any physical point of contact between the
two figures.
The 'mirror' also acts as a prism that either multiplies or fragments the
personality of a character in all its elementary components through its refraction.
One morning, Sinclair recognises his friend Demian in the portrait of Beatrice, but
then, he later realises that the features in the painting resemble his own: 'Ich wufite es
nicht. Oder eigentlich doch. Einmal habe ich ein Bild von dir gemalt, Demian, und
war erstaunt, dafi es auch mir ahnlich war' (Dem, SW 3, 340). The multitude of
images that Klingsor incorporates in his self-portrait achieves a similar effect:
'Viele, viele Gesichter sah er hinter dem Klingsor-Gesicht, im grofien Spiegel
zwischen den dummen Rosenranken, viele Gesichter malte er in sein Bild
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