Narcissus and Goldmund
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Synopsis
Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a young man, Goldmund, who wanders around aimlessly throughout Medieval Germany after leaving a Catholic monastery school in search of what could be described as "the meaning of life", or rather, meaning for his life. Narcissus, a gifted young teacher at the cloister school, quickly makes friends with Goldmund, as they are only a few years apart, and Goldmund is naturally bright. Goldmund looks up to Narcissus, and Narcissus has much fondness for him in return. After straying too far in the fields one day, on an errand gathering herbs, Goldmund comes across a beautiful woman, who kisses him and invites him to make love. This encounter becomes his epiphany, and he then knows he was never meant to be a monk. Goldmund is filled with the desire to experience everything, learn about life and nature in his own hands-on way. With Narcissus’ support, he leaves the monastery and wanders around the countryside, setting the scene for a story that contrasts the artist with the thinker. It spans many years, detailing specific incidents where Goldmund learns important things, and he often muses on these experiences and the ways of life.
Themes
In this novel the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of the Apollonian versus Dionysian spirit is evident. The polarization of Narcissus's individualist Apollonian character stands in contrast to the passionate and zealous disposition of Goldmund. Hesse, in the spirit of the Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, completes the equation by creating Goldmund as an artist (an Apollonian endeavour), and highlighting the harmonizing relationship of the main characters.
Goldmund is presented as completely rounded character as he comes to embody both Apollonian as well as Dionysian elements, thus capturing Nietzsche's conception of the ideal tragedy. Goldmund comes to embody the entire spectrum of the human experience, lusting for the gruesome ecstasy of the Dionysian world yet capturing and representing it through artistic Apollonian creativity.
Like most of Hesse's works, the main themes of this book seem to be the struggle between man and nature, as well as the union of polar opposites. Goldmund represents art and nature and the “feminine mind”, while Narcissus represents science and logic and God and the “masculine mind”. These "feminine" and "masculine" qualities are drawn, of course, from the Jungian archetypal structure, and is quite reminiscent of some of his earlier works, especially Demian. Throughout the novel, Goldmund increasingly becomes aware of memories of his own mother, which ultimately results in his desire to return to the Urmutter (primordial mother).
