After the “Treatise on the Steppenwolf” through the
meeting with Hermine
Summary
After closing the Treatise and reading his own poem about
the Steppenwolf, Harry reflects on what the Treatise predicts for
his future. Harry’s idea that he will kill himself unless he goes
through a profound change reminds him of other instances in his
life when ego-shattering experiences led to better and stronger
spiritual growth. He recalls two such instances and the terrible
times that followed them: the loss of his career and being chased
out by his wife. Despite the fact that these turbulent events ultimately
had positive consequences, Harry begins to feel too weak to undergo
another painful period. He feels he would rather commit suicide
than face the prospect of such horrible agony. In fact, the idea
of committing suicide on his fiftieth birthday—as chosen by the
Steppenwolf of the Treatise—seems too far off, a full two years
away.
The following day, Harry concludes that the Treatise
is clever and well written but still too general to capture his
own unique situation. He is again wracked by anguish and isolation,
and he searches in vain for the entrance to the Magic Theater and
the signboard man who gave him the Treatise. Harry searches for
some time but finds nothing. One day, following a whim, he joins
a funeral procession, and one of the men in the procession seems
to be the man with the signboard. Harry asks this man where the
show will be that night. The man does not recognize Harry but tells
him to go to the Black Eagle if he’s looking for a show.
Harry runs into a professor, a former colleague of his,
who invites him over for dinner. Harry is initially very grateful
for this instance of human warmth, but later, as he gets ready to
leave for the professor’s house, he resents the impending social
niceties. At the professor’s, Harry’s frustration at the misery
of having to pretend to share the solid, upstanding life of the
professor and his wife gets the better of him. Harry ruins the evening
by dramatically insulting a portrait of Goethe, the celebrated German
poet, which hangs in the professor’s living room. Harry perceives
that the portrait is pompous, which deeply offends the professor’s
wife. Instead of apologizing, Harry makes a clean sweep and confesses
to the professor his utter opposition to the man’s way of life.
Harry realizes the night has been a total victory for
his wolf-half, as he feels he has irreparably severed the very last
of his ties to humanity. Shamed and furious with himself, Harry
concludes that there is no other option but to end his life. He
starts to feel afraid of death, however, and flees from the idea.
Paralyzed and dreading the prospect of returning to his rented room,
where he believes he will commit suicide, Harry wanders through
the city for hours until he finds himself at a public house called
the Black Eagle. At its bar, he meets a “pale and pretty girl,”
who asks him his name. Harry begins to confess much of his situation.
The girl makes him clean his glasses, orders him something to eat
and drink, and mocks his dirty shoes. She calls Harry a baby when
she learns that although he claims that he has taken great trouble
to live life, he has never bothered to learn to dance.
Harry realizes there is something strangely familiar
about this girl. At first, he thinks she reminds him of a childhood
love, Rosa Kreisler, but decides that this is not the connection.
Harry tells the girl about the Goethe incident, and she tells him
he should not have taken the portrait so seriously. She says that
it is hypocritical for Harry to think that he alone is allowed to
decide what Goethe should really look like, and that the appropriate
behavior in the face of such a misguided portrait is to laugh. In
fact, she adds, Harry makes her laugh.
Although she is straightforward, direct, and simple in
her manner, the girl seems to understand precisely what Harry needs.
He is won over by her maternal treatment and wants to obey all her orders.
When the girl eventually gets up to dance, Harry panics but then
oddly follows her suggestion of falling asleep right there at his table
amid the loud noise and merry people. While Harry sleeps he conjures
up Goethe in a dream, which he thinks may also be populated by the
German authors Matthisson and Bürger, as well as Molly, a character
in Bürger’s poems. Harry accuses Goethe of propagating a lie by
teaching optimism in a life that Goethe knew was filled with despair.
But Goethe avoids all of Harry’s questions and says Harry takes
him too seriously. Goethe claims that the proper attitude is humor
and that seriousness is an “accident of time” that stems from placing
“too high a value on time.” Goethe then plays a trick on Harry by
offering him a leg that turns out to be a scorpion.
