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Humans are one of the only species that are expected to meet someone, fall in
love, and mate for life. It is socially engraved in us that we are to marry for
life, and to be completely faithful to that one person. Given a person of
Goldmund's free spirit and constant need for change, and to experience the new,
puts one giant obstacle in his path. He cannot settle down, however much he
craves everlasting love. His one love and possible life long companion, need not
be a 'wife', simply a person to share his soul with. That person is Narziss.
There is, however, one flaw in the equation. Goldmund craves physical love as
well as mental stimulation. Whatever possible mate meets his physical
requirements in a lover, does not stand up to the standards created by
Goldmund's relationship with Narziss. Goldmund is destined to wander, unhappy,
searching for something, though he knows not what he is looking for. His many
relationships with women, and his tremendous commitment to his art prove that
all he ever wanted was for something to totally ensconce him, to totally envelop
him, to fill the emptiness in his heart left by the mother who deserted him.
Goldmund longs for something that can be attained by him at any given point in
time, but the fact is, he longs for something that he doesn't want. Security.
This novel contains a distinct cyclical structure. This structure is contributed
to through characters, themes, ideas, times, and places. Each of these elements
facilitate the development of an organized, creative work, delving deep into the
human psyche to reveal that both Narziss and Goldmund are players in the same
game. There are three separate cycles present in the novel.
The first cycle
occurs during the first year or two after Goldmund has left Mariabronn. It
concludes with Goldmund witnessing a woman giving birth. He sees in her face the
face of all of the women he has ever been with, and this connection between love
and birth purges him of the sterile passion he felt for Lydia. Characters in
this cycle, almost exclusively women, are seen as objects. They are erotic,
sensual, and physical, but nothing else. They have no dimension beyond that of a
sexual outlet for Goldmund's blind passions. There is an impression of
transience present in the mother-world, manifested in Goldmund's many
relationships. This is demonstrated most clearly through Lise, when, after she
and Goldmund make love together, returns to her home for the night. This happens
with other characters as well, most of them having husbands to return to, and
Goldmund feels pain because of this knowledge. All of the meetings between
Goldmund and his lovers occur at night, and bears a strong relationship with
nature, specifically, animals, trees, and plants. As the cycle continues,
Goldmund experiences death as well as life, demonstrated by his killing Victor
over a gold coin. Ideas presented within this cycle include the need for
commitment. As Goldmund was before a spring lover, he is now a hunted murderer,
but he does not at this point in the novel, realize that death, equated with the
season of winter, are elements of the mother world. The second cycle beings
after Goldmund witnesses the woman giving birth. In this cycle, Goldmund sees
death, decay, and the beauty present in each. From Nicholas' statue, Goldmund
begins to see the blending of beauty and pain, and he decides to pursue the
world of art, under Nicholas. Goldmund sees in art a blending of the mother and
father world. The characters Goldmund comes in contact in this cycle give a
definite image of pain and death.
This is exemplified in the plague scene,
wherein Goldmund comes to terms with death, and understands how it transcends,
as art does, the mother and father worlds. Ideas presented in this cycle concern
the Eve-mother, whose face represents all of the women Goldmund has ever known,
and the principle, which unites them all together. There is a complete range of
characteristics in this cycle, including moth love, bliss and birth as well as
cruelty, decay, and death. Time and place play an important role in this scene,
especially in the Plague episode where everything was hurried, and then Goldmund
lived with Robert and Lene outside the city in a house together while the Plague
killed many people that remained in the town. In the third and final cycle,
Goldmund experiences a relationship with Agnes. On the first day he meets her,
he experiences his greatest ecstasy, but on the second day, her husband finds
him and sentences him to death. Only through Narziss does Goldmund escape with
his life. Narziss returns to Mariabronn with Goldmund, and creates for him a
workshop for him to create many pieces that would be placed in the cloister.
Goldmund, however, in all his creations, never brought to life the face of his
Mother Goddess. In final frustration, Goldmund makes the decision to travel once
again, he does not have a quiet soul, but a loud, free spirit inside him,
hungering for the new, and the outside world. He returns to Nicholas, but finds
him dead. Characters in this section are more spiritual than physical, as
Nicholas' aged, worn daughter, as well as Agnes.
Goldmund finishes a full
spectrum of human experiences, but only after the Agnes-episode. In this cycle,
ideas such as everything being transitory are explained, as well as the need for
Goldmund to create something concrete with his life, something that will outlast
him. Time was important here, as it played a role in Goldmund's capture. Place
was important as well, concerning his meeting Agnes in the open fields, and his
leaving for his final adventure. The book concludes with Goldmund dying as
Narziss watched. Goldmund's final revelation to Narziss was that in order to
die, you must first have had to live, and living meant transcending both the
mother world and the father world. In death, Goldmund has surpassed Narziss,
because Narziss will someday die as well. Narziss & Goldmund, by Hermann Hesse,
contains a distinct cyclical structure. This structure is contributed to through
characters, themes, ideas, times, and places. These elements help to present an
intricate and carefully laid portrayal of the human psyche and the transcendence
of the mother and father world.
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