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

of the novel, Emil Sinclair, has to cope with the intrinsic chaos of existence. In Das
Glasperlenspiel, Joseph Knecht7s enigmatic death may point to the impossibility of
reconciling real life and Castalia's spiritual ideals. 64
As far as Der Steppenwolf is concerned, part of its originality lies in the fact that
it is an open-ended novel. Karalaschwili points out that this work is atypical of
Hesse's prose and notes: 'Der Roman klingt aus, aber endet mcht' (187). 65 In
'Magisches Theater', Haller has peered into the realm of timelessness for a short
while and has been allowed to see his life and the existence of the whole of humanity
from the perspective of 'die Unsterblichen'. He feels regenerated by the experiences
he has undergone in Pablo's 'Bilderkabinett', where he has gained a wholly new
perspective on life; however, he is somewhat uncertain and confused about his
future, and the reader is left to wonder which path he will follow in the end. There is
no Romantic resolution or appeal to an ideal unity to rely on, but rather the
Existentialist acceptance of the discords of life, mingled with a soaring sense of
hope.66
The lack of a clear solution recalls, by analogy, the consequences of Wagner
stretching the boundaries of traditional tonality in Tristan und Isolde. Both works stem
from their authors' discontent with forms and concepts inherited from the past and
no longer adequate to express their ideas: Wagner struggled with the ties of tonality;
Hesse felt the portrayal of any Romantic ideal of unity or transcendence at the end of
his work to be unsatisfactory. The melody of Tristan und Isolde flows and soars as
though it were in danger of resting on the hinges of tonality, whilst the atmosphere
and action at the end of Der Steppenwolf is suspended, almost to avoid any Romantic
'pronouncement'. Wagner and Hesse were far from foreseeing the ultimate
consequences of their intuitions; however, they both brought an element of novelty
64 'Hermann Hesse's grand Utopian vision of a cultural realm called Castalia [...] is notable for the fact that his
hero, Joseph Knecht, ultimately turns away [...] from the ideal he loves in order to bear its vision and values
back to the real world' (Ziolkowski 2007, 214).
65 'Auf den ersten Blick ist das Ende des Romans [Der Steppenwolf] fur Hesses epische Kunst nicht typisch - im
Unterschied zu den gedra'ngten, hochst konzentrierten Schlussszenen der anderen Werke ist es hier unUblich in
die Lange gezogen und nimmt beinahe ein Drittel des Gesamtumfangs ein' (Karalaschwili, 174).
66 Der Steppenwolf 1 does not present a firm solution, but ends with the hope of one' (Rose, 92).
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