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

While Tristan und Isolde yearns for the eternity of death, Hesse, like Sartre, points to
life as the ultimate and sole reality of human existence in Steppenwolf. 70 As Hesse
points out in his 'Nachwort zum »Steppenwolf«', 'die Geschichte des Steppenwolfes
[stellt] zwar eine Krankheit und Krisis [dar], aber nicht eine, die zum Tode fiihrt,
nicht einen Untergang, sondern das Gegenteil; eine Heilung' (SW 4, 208). 71 Hesse's
novel not only betrays Existentialist positions but it also transcends them since '[t]he
novel ends on an optimistic note' (Ziolkowski 1965, 222). 72 Harry is condemned by
the Immortals to eternal life and to play with the various aspects of his personality
time and time again: 'Wir [die Unsterblichen] verurteilen infolgedessen den Haller
zur Strafe des ewigen Lebens' (SW 4, 201). 73 Like Sisyphus, Haller has to repeat the
same task endlessly, yet he embraces his penalty as a revitalising opportunity:
There is no end to Sisyphus rolling his rock, just as there can be no end to
Haller's growth. Hesse and Haller seem to have a vitality, affirmation and
optimism that Camus and most of the Existentialists lack. 74 (Lange 1970, 79)
The finale of Der Steppenwolf is a call to life and action which is by no means isolated
in Hesse's documents of this period. 75 As he notes in a letter of 1955 to Ziolkowski,
although translating proves to be an attainable ideal, since it is virtually impossible
to transfer all the nuances of a poem or novel into another language, 'man [mufi]
iibersetzen und das im Grund Unmogliche immer wieder versuchen' (GB 4, 452). In
70 As noted above (see note 60), '[Sartre] does not preach disenchantment but commitment in the world; like
Nietzsche, Sartre remains "faithful to the earth" and says, "Life begins on the other side of despair'" (Kaufmann,
46). In analysing the role of Pablo as Haller's mentor in the Magic Theatre, Weibel underlines that he is 'ein
praktischer, nie verzweifelnder, hermetischer Mensch' who masters 'diesseitige Leben' (126).
71 Karalaschwili, who echoes Hesse's statement ('[Die] Krise [Harry Hallers] endet mit der Heilung', 360),
identifies two stages in the process that leads Haller to a 'life-affirmative solution' (Lange 1970, 62): a first
moment characterized by the longing for a realm informed by 'Geist' which leads Haller to faith ('Glaube'), and
then, once he has peered into that realm, Haller discovers that the world of senses (the realm of
'Verganglichkeit') he initially rejected is blessed by the same divinity he caught a glimpse of in the realm of
'Geist': 'Die Bewegung entwickelt sich also in zwei Richtungen. Erstens: zum Geist, zur Geistigkeit - das
schliefit das Verneinen der Verganglichkeit und der empirischen Welt ein -, und zweitens: vom Glauben wieder
zuriick, zur objektiven Wirklichkeit, die dem Individuum nun nicht mehr als absurd, sondern als gottliche
Einheit erscheint' (370).
72 'Hesse has not been sufficiently credited with this positive aspect so central to Steppenwolf. [...] It is not that
Hesse has failed to approach the Existentialist position, but rather has shared it, and moved beyond it to
affirmation and action' (Lange 1970, 32; original emphasis).
73 The oxymoronic formula 'ewigen Lebens' indirectly captures the intersection of immanence and
transcendence.
74 In 'Magisches Theater', Haller comes to the realisation that the discovery of the self is an open-ended process:
'Die Individuation ist ein unendlicher ProzeB und das Selbst - allein schon seinem Wesen nach transzendent -
ein unerreichbares Ideal' (Karalaschwili, 101).
75 'Heidegger and Hesse share not only what we may call "the detached contemplative solution" (Being), but
also "the involved active solution" (direct action)' (Lange 1970, 73).
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