Hermann Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund (1930): A Jungian Archetypal Analysis

Abstract

Hermann Hesse is known for his profound exploration of the complexities of the human mind and life, which makes his literary works apt for insightful psychological readings. A Jungian archetypal analysis of Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund reveals that Jungian ideas and concepts shape and drive the story. Jung’s model of the psyche and his theories of the unconscious, opposites, functions, archetypes, and individuation are applied to demonstrate that the two protagonists of the novel, Narcissus and Goldmund, represent opposite tendencies in the psyche: thinking against feeling, spiritual against material, consciousness against unconscious, and masculine against feminine. Each one of them undergoes a process of wholeness through which they develop their superior functions and integrate different aspects of their psyche, growing more psychologically balanced. Archetypes, the universal psychic patterns of human experience, have a central function in the novel as they guide the psychological development of the characters. Hesse exalts art and uses it as the means through which the opposites are unified; it is the way Goldmund comes in touch with the self, the ultimate goal of individuation.