HARMONY OF DUALITIES IN HERMAN HESSES STEPPENWOLF

The personal life of the German- Swiss Nobel Laureate Herman Hesse (1877 – 1962) can be regarded as a period of crises, aggression, depression, cultural pre-conditioning and dogmatism. Despite his pietistic upbringing, he suffered adversities, resulting into mental trauma, emotional turbulence and inconsolable disgrace. These unpleasant experiences caused extreme depression and he had to receive Jungian psychoanalysis from Dr. Lang and Dr. Jung. This refuge in psychoanalysis brought him solace. Pietism, once a pain, became a life-long support for his spiritual journey and literary yearnings. He was, however, diagnosed with bipolar-II disorder due to his intense mood shifts, the factors being ambivalence, guilt, aggression and sexual conflict. The current work is an attempt to exemplify the impact of this disorder in his novels with special reference to his cult classic Steppenwolf , wherein the protagonist Harry Haller portrays the dichotomy of the personality, being split between a human being and a wolf. This novel which was published in 1927 is a complex, philosophical novel and deals with the themes like identity crisis, duality of human nature and quest for a meaningful life, to ultimately attain spiritual transcendence and harmony of dualities.