Steppenwolf The Disintegration of Harry Haller as it...

Steppenwolf : The Disintegration of Harry Haller as it Relates to Music Among the many themes present in Hermann Hesses 1927 novel Steppenwolf, two stand out as basic threads around which the story is constructed: the isolated nature of the artist and the duality of existence (Benà ©t 471). Harry Haller, the protagonist of the novel, is portrayed as an outsider to society and to modern life; he must struggle with his own outmoded ideals and bestiality to embrace humanity and reality. His Zerrissenheit, or disintegration (literally translated, the state of being torn apart [Benà ©t 1142]), culminates in the Magic Theater at the finish of the novel. Here, he finds himself a changed man, with a clearer†¦show more content†¦He appears to experience the most meaningful of emotions and a sense of spiritual fulfillment. For a man who is consistently depressed and withdrawn, this sudden enlightenment is especially significant. Indeed, as Haller relates the experience himself, I sped through heaven and saw God at work. I suffered holy pains. I dropped all my defenses and was afraid of nothing in the world. I accepted all things and to all things I gave up my heart. It did not last very long, a quarter of an hour perhaps; but it returned to me in a dream at night, and since through all the barren days, I caught a glimpse of it now and then. (30) Hallers experience gives him access to spirituality and peace. He relies on this feeling of freedom to aid him in times of darkest depression, when he feels the man and the beast within him scrapping together to such a degree that his only other possible release is his razor. Increasingly, Haller finds his only solace in classical music and poetry-anything of the contemporary sort he automatically discards. His very survival depends upon Mozart, Goethe and Novalis: such is Hallers mindset at the beginning of his Zerrissenheit. Even as he retreats so fully into Mozart, Goethe, Novalis and the old masters, Haller displays some tendency towards change. Without this slight crack in his stern