Narcissus & Goldmund

Synopsis

Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a young man who wanders around aimlessly throughout Medieval Germany. The young man, Goldmund, has just left a Catholic monastery school in search of what could be described as ‘the meaning of life’, or rather, meaning for his life. He was brainwashed by his single father into thinking he wanted to become a monk and use his life exclusively to serve God. Narcissus, a young teacher at the cloister school who has the uncanny ability to look into people’s souls and determine their destinies, quickly makes friends with Goldmund (they are only a few years apart, and Goldmund is naturally bright) and instantly recognizes that Goldmund is not meant for the monastery life. This comes as a sickening shock to Goldmund, whose mind had been going against his nature in a series of youthful mental conflicts recently. After straying too far in the fields one day, on an errand gathering herbs, he comes across a beautiful woman and they have sex. This encounter pushes him over the edge and he knows he was not 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 for good and goes wandering around the countryside.

This sets the stage for the rest of the novel, which follows Goldmund on his many adventures on the move. It spans many, many years, zeroing in on specific incidents where Goldmund learns something important, and he often muses on these findings and the ways of life.

The most poignant scene in the novel occurs when Goldmund is assisting a woman in labor. As the child is born, he sees the look of intense pain and suffering on the woman's face. This look reminds him of the look on women's faces when they receive the greatest of natural pleasures. This scene leads us to conclude that pain and ecstasy are on opposite sides of the same spectrum, so they are naturally similar feelings. Many prominent emotions of ours that we can easily pinpoint are exclusive to our species. Greed, hatred, pride, and maybe even the most coveted emotion of all, love, are all strictly human emotions. Many basic natural emotions we possess have been subdued over time because of our intelligence. But the Ecstasy/Pain spectrum is the one major thing that still connects us to the natural world, these pure animal feelings that no one is ashamed of. These feelings come from our nature, and all humanity will forever be attached to it because of our most important emotions, the emotions that form the basis of all other emotions, the worst, most intense pain and suffering, and the greatest feelings of elation and ecstasy you could possibly imagine. We will never be able to escape these physical feelings, no matter how advanced our science or subdued our natural instincts.

Themes

Like most of Hesse's works, the main theme of this book seems to be the struggle between man and nature. Goldmund, as the outdated book jacket is quick to point out, represents art and nature and the “feminine mind”, while Narcissus is science and logic and God and the “masculine mind”.

But above all, the ultimate theme revealed very obviously at the end of the novel is the Plight of Man. Where are we going? What have we done to the World? Now, how do we work with the World and its nature? How does science fit in? And art? And God? If we are opposite of nature, then why are we tied down by love for pain and pleasure?

Through many trials and troubles, including intense pain and suffering, the greatest pleasures known to man (a very ‘natural’ thing), creation of beauty, the feeling of constant rebirth, and several near-death experiences, Goldmund comes to see the web the earth weaves, and realizes all of these painful questions.

The answers aren’t always clear, but if there’s one thing Hesse has to teach us, it's that the answers are never quite as important as the questions.