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

his way to enlightenment, is attuned more to Vasudeva's instinctive, unspoken
truths than to Gotama's teachings:
Er war ein sehr einfacher Mensch, Vasudeva, er war kein Denker, aber er
wufite das Notwendige, so gut wie Gotama, er war ein Vollkommener, ein
Heiliger. (SW 3, 464-65)
Boulby points out that Narzifi is similarly 'contrasted with the simple, pious, humble
abbot Daniel as well as with Goldmund' (217). In Der Steppenwolf, Haller's
sophisticated musical tastes are challenged both by the ordinary, naive musician
Pablo and by Mozart, who epitomizes Haller's idea of music. Hermine, who can be
seen as Haller's female counterpart, introduces him to Maria, whose uncomplicated
sensuality reveals to him a hitherto unknown dimension of love. 41
Hesse uses characters like Maria, Vasudeva, and Teiser, who attain profound
truths through avoiding the circuitous paths of the intellect, to establish the contrast
between the 'intellectual' and the 'ingenuous', as discussed in Chapter 2 (section 2) as
well as in Chapter 3 (section 4 and 5). 42
1.6 Hesse's novels: Autobiographies or reflections of his soul?
Hesse's dialectics also resonates with the autobiographical imprint of his fiction,
where his personal history intrudes repeatedly. The protagonists of his novels often
show Hesse's parentage through their first names (e.g. in Hermann Lauscher) or
initials (e.g. Harry Haller in Der Steppenwolf, H. H. in Die Morgenlandfahrt). Hesse
appears, as Boulby points out, as a 'literary double' (5) in Hermann Lauscher, where
the protagonist makes direct reference to his relation with the author: 'Ich hatte dort
ein langes Gesprach mit Hesse, [...] Hesse will mir einen Artikel iiber Tieck abjagen'
(SW 1, 324).43 The streets of Tubingen, where Hesse used to work in a bookshop, are
41 'He [Haller] discovers in Maria the type of women, naive sensual creatures, who fulfil him in a way their
intellectual predecessors in his life had never been able to do' (Boulby, 200).
42 In Peter Camenzind, Richard is a further example of a character who, like Vasudeva and Teiser, combines
wisdom with childlike attributes: 'Oberhaupt schien Richard mir oft, obwohl er alter, kluger, besser erzogen und
in allem beschlagener und raffmierter war als ich, doch im Vergleich mit mir das reine Kind zu sein' (SW 2, 40).
43 The motif of the 'double' will also be discussed in the context of the theme of the mirror in Chapter 6, section
4.
30