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Goldmund’s past suddenly catches up with him, and he is arrested and sentenced to death. When the priest comes to hear his confession, he is surprised to see none other than Narcissus. Narcissus is now the monastery’s abbot and has taken the name John. The two men have a long conversation about why God allows evils like plague.
"Some secret flaw seemed attached to Goldmund's birth, something unspoken that sought expiation" (Chapter 2, p. 15). "Deep inside himself he felt the life he had dreamed of up to now, all his beliefs, all the things for which he felt himself destined, his entire vocation, threatened at the root by the kiss through the window, by the expression ...
Narcissus and Goldmund Quotes. Without a mother, one cannot love. Without a mother, one cannot die. When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something that lasts longer than we do. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is ...
Narcissus and Goldmund. Hesse's novel of two medieval men, one quietly content with his religion and monastic life, the other in fervent search of more worldly salvation. This conflict between flesh and spirit, between emotional and contemplative man, was a life study for Hesse. It is a theme that transcends all time.
A central theme in Narcissus and Goldmund is the conflicting dichotomy present in the world and in every man: good and evil, life and death, joy and sorrow, thinker and dreamer, male and female ...
Narcissus and Goldmund Quotes Showing 61-90 of 141 “But living alone forever and ever, among the quietly sleeping tree trunks, with animals that ran away, with whom one could not speak—that would be unbearably sad.”
Goldmund, named for the golden-mouthed preacher Saint John Chrysostom, is the main character and the complement to Narcissus. Whereas Narcissus is “analytical, a thinker,” Goldmund is “a ...
