Within and Without by Hermann Hesse

First published: "Innen und Aussen," 1920 (English translation, 1935)

Type of plot: Psychological

Time of work: The 1920's

Locale: Germany

Principal Characters:

• Friedrich, the protagonist, a man who loves rationality and despises superstition
• Erwin, his friend

The Story

Friedrich is described as a man who loves and respects rationality, especially logic and the sciences. In contrast, he has little respect for unscientific forms of knowledge. Though tolerant of religion, he does not take it seriously. He considers mysticism and magic to be pointless and outmoded in the scientific age. In fact, he despises superstition wherever he encounters it, especially among educated people. Those who question the supremacy of science in the wake of recent war and suffering infuriate him. He grows increasingly disturbed as he senses a rising interest in the occult as an alternative to science.

One day, Friedrich visits Erwin, a close friend whom he has not seen for a while. Friedrich thinks that Erwin's smile is indulgent and mocking. He recalls that he sensed a rift between them when they last parted—Erwin was not vehement enough in supporting Friedrich's hatred of superstition. Now they speak awkwardly of superficial matters, and all the while Friedrich is uncomfortably aware of a distance between them, as if he no longer truly knows Erwin.

Then Friedrich spots a paper pinned to the wall, which awakens memories of his old friend's habit of noting an interesting quotation. To Friedrich's horror, however, the line written on this paper is an expression of Erwin's recent mystical interests: "Nothing is outside, nothing is inside, for that which is outside is inside." Friedrich demands that his friend explain the meaning of this sentence and learns that Erwin sees it as an introduction to an ancient form of knowledge, "magic." In disappointment and anger, Friedrich tells Erwin to choose between this superstitious nonsense and Friedrich's respect and friendship. Erwin explains that he really had no choice in the matter—magic "chose him." He begs Friedrich not to part in anger but to accept their separation as inevitable, as if one of them were dying. Friedrich agrees and asks a final favor, to have those mysterious words explained. Erwin tells him that they refer in part to the religious idea of pantheism, in which God is in all things and all things are divine. Also, once one learns to pass beyond the habitual separation of the world into opposites, such as inside and outside, one can be free of such limitations, and that is the beginning of magic. To illustrate this experience, Erwin gives Friedrich a small clay figure, tells him to observe it from time to time, and asks Friedrich to return when the object "ceases to be outside you and is inside you."

Friedrich takes this object, a glazed clay figure of a two-headed god, to his home, where it gradually begins to obsess him. He moves it from place to place in his house, annoyed by its presence, yet finding his eyes continually drawn toward the ugly little idol. Its presence torments him; he grows restless and begins to travel often. After one such trip, he feels especially anxious and unsettled the moment he enters his house. Searching for the cause of his distress, he discovers that his maid broke the idol while dusting and disposed of its shattered remains. Friedrich immediately feels relief that this hateful and annoying reminder of superstition is finally gone, but he soon finds that he misses the figurine. Its absence is almost tangible, causing a growing emptiness within him. From hours of observing the two-headed god, he is able to recall the slightest details of its grins, its crude shape, and the colors and textures of its glaze. Even the word "glaze"—Glasur—upsets him and, spelled backward as "Rusalg," reminds him of a book, Frank Wedekind's Princess Russalka (1897), which both horrified and fascinated him.

The loss of the idol so consumes his thoughts that Friedrich wonders if perhaps it was magical. Perhaps Erwin had placed a spell on him through this figure, and Friedrich was a victim of the war of reason against such dark powers. However, he forces such ideas from his mind, thinking that he would rather die than admit even the possibility of magic. He cannot control his terror, however, and he finally wakes in fear one night, to find himself mumbling the words "Now you are inside me." Realizing that indeed the idol is torturing him from within himself, Friedrich hurries to Erwin's house to ask his friend how to remove the idol from inside himself. Erwin patiently explains that Friedrich must learn to love and accept what is now within him and stop tormenting the idol, which is really himself. Friedrich has unwillingly taken the first step beyond such pairs of opposites as inside and outside and now can begin to learn the secret of magic: freely controlling the exchange of inside and outside and becoming free from the slavery to what is inside him.