Hermann Hesse Short Fiction Analysis
Although they are not as well known as the novels, Hermann Hesse wrote many short stories; in fact, the short story was one of the two genres (the other was poetry) which preoccupied him all of his life. The stories show a variety of themes; the early ones tend to aestheticism and decadence. Those written in Hesse’s middle years are realistic with touches of humor or irony, and the later ones are frequently magical or surreal. The themes of Hesse’s short stories parallel those in his novels. As in other works by Hesse, the short stories emphasize inwardness and subjectivity and are often autobiographical. Many of the protagonists are outsiders who are alienated from the bleak reality of civilization and who try to find self-fulfillment. This inner quest for self-awareness and fulfillment, frequently unsuccessful, is a central theme in Hesse’s stories.
“A Man by the Name of Ziegler”
“A Man by the Name of Ziegler” foreshadows the surrealistic style of Hesse’s later works and shows his predilection toward Eastern pantheism, even before his trip to the East. In this story, Hesse depicts modern civilization as empty. Ziegler, the protagonist, is representative of modern human beings: He is smug and self-satisfied; he exists rather than really lives. Ziegler is unaware of the emptiness of his own life. At the beginning of the story, Hesse describes Ziegler as one of those people whom one sees everyday yet never remembers because he has a “collective” face. Ziegler is neither stupid nor gifted; he likes money, pleasures, and dressing well and is always concerned about what other people think of him. He judges people only from the outside, by how they are dressed, and treats them accordingly. Ziegler respects money and science; he has no appreciation for beauty but values practical results alone. Because his father has died of cancer, he admires cancer research, hoping that a cure can be found so that he will not suffer the same fate. Hesse shows readers a mediocre, superficial person who is full of his own importance. Ziegler’s life is not ruled by the promptings of his inner nature but rather by prohibitions and fear of punishment. He believes that he is an individual; in reality, Hesse explains, he is merely a specimen. Hesse describes him ironically as a “charming young fellow.”
After arriving in a new town, Ziegler decides to go sightseeing. His choice of where to go is determined by money: The museum is free on a Sunday, and the zoo can be visited for a moderate fee on the same day. The museum bores him. While killing time there until lunch, he notices a display of medieval witchcraft which he dismisses contemptuously as childish nonsense. He nevertheless takes a pellet from the display, and when another visitor enters the room, he hurriedly hides it in his pocket. While waiting for lunch in a restaurant, he smells the pellet and then swallows it. After lunch he goes to the zoo.
To his surprise, the pellet has given him the power to understand what animals say. To his horror, he hears the contempt and disdain that the animals have for humans; to them Ziegler is no better than vermin, “an absurd and repulsive bug.” The animals themselves are more noble than human beings. Ziegler is dejected and wrenched from his usual habits of thought in which he thinks of human beings (and himself in particular) as the pinnacle of creation. Ziegler now also looks at people through the eyes of animals and finds no dignity in them at all; he sees only a “degenerate, dissembling mob...
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of bestial fops.” In despair, he throws away his formerly treasured fashionable gloves, shoes, and walking cane and sobs against the bars of the elk’s cage. He is taken away to an insane asylum. The sudden realization that he is nothing drives him mad.
“Walter Kömpff”
“Walter Kömpff,” set in Gerbersau, a thinly disguised Calw, is a good example of Hesse’s Swabian tales. In these stories, Hesse emphasizes realistic portrayals of people. The humor and irony with which he describes people’s failings is reminiscent of the nineteenth century Swiss writer Gottfried Keller, particularly The People of Seldwyla (1856, 1874) tales. The story opens with the death of Walter’s father, Hugo, whose dying wish is that Walter should carry on the family business. Against the wishes of his mother, Cornelia, Walter accedes to this request. In so doing he makes a fatal mistake, choosing a false way of life at odds with his real nature. Although Walter has certain traits of his father, he also has his mother’s more sensitive soul. In him, maternal and paternal traits are unable to blend and remain in conflict with each other.
Walter’s first position as an apprentice shows him the essential dishonesty of the merchants; he is taught how to shortchange the customer, and his conscience rebels, forcing him to leave the job. His second position with the pietist Leckle is more successful. Later, however, his guardian forces him to leave Leckle in order to travel and see something of the world. For Walter the struggle for money seems crude and cruel; it cannot satisfy the demands of his imagination, and he has to struggle constantly with himself not to run away. Unable to find meaning in life, he becomes melancholy and resigns. He does not remain true to his inner nature, which wants a life of freedom and fulfillment.
Eventually against his will he has to return home to take over the business, and he performs his duties diligently and efficiently. It becomes increasingly clear to his mother, however, that Walter is merely playing a role that has been forced upon him: His heart is not in the work, and he is unhappy, although lulled by routine. After his mother’s death, Walter feels as if he were in a void. His soul longs for freedom and a balanced existence, but his mind is that of a merchant, and these aspects of his personality are at war. In his search for meaning, he turns to God, but the pietist meetings he attends disappoint him since the people he meets there lack spiritual integrity.
Eventually, completely alienated from society and from himself, he closes up his shop. By now his eccentricity, which his fellow merchants do not understand, has made him the laughingstock of the town. Walter realizes that he has misspent his life, but he lacks the energy to begin anew. Instead, he becomes increasingly introverted, helpless, and dispirited; he sinks deeper and deeper into a “morass of self-tormenting speculations.” Even his belief in God has vanished. Walter feels that he has tested God, only to find that He is a myth. In a desperate attempt to force God to give proof of his existence, he blasphemes against him. Finally he hangs himself, unable to live life any longer as a lonely misfit, unable to live a life that has no meaning. At the end of the story, few of the townspeople understand Walter’s fate, but, as Hesse says, few people understand how close they all are to the darkness that Walter experiences.
“The Poet”
“The Poet” deals with the theme of the artist and the divorce between art and life—a frequent theme in Hesse’s works. The story also shows Hesse’s interest in China. At the outset, Han Fook longs to be a great poet. He comes from comfortable circumstances and is engaged to be married. Han Fook attends a lantern festival and watches the festivities from the opposite bank, a lonely observer in the midst of merriment. Although he longs to participate in the festival, his much deeper longing is to observe and then to reproduce the experience in a perfect poem. Alone, he ponders the meaning of art and decides that it is to mirror the world in such a way that “in these mirror images he would possess the essence of the world, purified and made eternal.” Art for him, as for Hesse, is thus a way of transcending the ephemerality of the world. In his musings on the nature of art, he is suddenly interrupted by the Master of the Perfect Word who invites him to join him at the source of the great river to perfect his art. After receiving his father’s permission, Han leaves to join the Master.
After two years with the Master, Han returns home to see his family, but he watches from outside the house, suddenly aware of how incompatible life and art are. He sees that in the poet’s dreams reside “a beauty and enchantment that one seeks in vain in the things of the real world.” Time passes, and again Han yearns for his hometown; he feels a murderous hatred of the Master whom he blames for having, as he believes, destroyed his life. In his hatred, he attempts to murder him, but the Master reminds Han that he is there of his own free will. Many years pass and Hans’s artistic talents grow until, one day, the Master disappears; Han is now Master in his own right. Han returns to his hometown but discovers that all the members of his family have died. A lantern festival is again taking place. Han plays the lute and finds that there is now no difference between the reflections and reality; art and life have merged into one. Despite the lonely years of renunciation for his art and despite the need as an artist always to be an observer rather than participant, Han Fook has followed his inner voice and is at peace with himself.
“An Evening with Dr. Faust”
“An Evening with Dr. Faust,” one of Hesse’s later stories, is a satirical treatment of modern culture. After a sumptuous dinner, Dr. Faust and his friend Dr. Eisenbart are sitting comfortably replete. Faust tells his friend that his famulus (servant) has invented a machine with which they can hear what is taking place in the same room in the future. The machine is brought in and turned on. At first they hear a wild, evil, diabolical howling which makes Dr. Eisenbart turn pale. Then come snatches of a speech in which there is talk of industrial progress and modern techniques, then a banal poem full of clichés. An eruption of strongly rhythmical music, jangling and languid by turns, follows, and then a mysterious couplet (an advertisement). When the demonstration is over, Faust and Eisenbart are perplexed. Dr. Eisenbart believes that future humanity has gone mad, while Faust believes that it is not all humanity but that perhaps there is an insane asylum on this spot in the future or else the people are drunk.
Clearly, Hesse is satirizing the radio here as a representative of mass culture. Unlike the music which Han Fook plays in “The Poet,” which expresses happiness and wholeness, this music is discordant and chaotic. Hesse admired the music of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, which he thought of as music of light and enlightenment. Music for Hesse was a means by which the individual could see into his soul and develop himself. The music in this story, however, is not symbolic of development but rather of anarchy and chaos, typical of the state of society, in Hesse’s view. Not only music has declined but also poetry, as demonstrated by the jangling rhythm and nonsense character of the poem they hear. Although the depiction of Dr. Faust here is ironical—he is not a great, tragic figure searching for self-knowledge but rather a comfortable bon vivant—nevertheless Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust (1808, 1832) and the whole Classical tradition of German literature which Hesse so admired is brought to mind. In comparison with this tradition, modern culture is found wanting.
As these stories show, Hesse’s concern is with the inner life of his protagonists. Only Han Fook in these stories attains self-knowledge and is at peace with himself. Walter Kömpff struggles unsuccessfully to find his identity. In Hesse’s view, it is better, however, to struggle and suffer unsuccessfully than to be complacent like Ziegler. Hesse emphasizes the need for people to grow constantly and develop; otherwise they stagnate and grow self-satisfied. Hesse’s stories are essentially optimistic. Although he is pessimistic about the directions that modern society and culture are taking, he nevertheless believes in human’s ability to transcend themselves and to overcome their limitations—a very Nietzschean view of human beings. Growth and becoming are important concepts for Hesse and the measure of success lies not only in reaching the goal but also in the intensity of the struggle, even if it fails.
