Themes & Motifs of Time, Love & Morality in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Themes, Ideas, and Mentalities

Herman Hesse's Siddhartha stands as the epitome of grade-school literature, as this novel focuses on many aspects of life, family, and love for example. For a fiction novel encompassing life, self-salvation, and nirvana, Siddhartha is one of the most influential works in our time. 

Though somewhat plotless, lacking in excitement or appeal to the reader, these books are rich with meaning and teach substantial lessons in the ways of life. In one of Hesse's many essays, he explains the element of love in his works as "natural growth and development"  (Ziolkowski), and this is drawn and related to by readers.

Most of the people that would read and enjoy this work of literature would be around the age that the development of love and relationships may begin to set in and take form. Siddhartha gained many insights and learns several lessons through the entirety of the book, and the reader relates to all of them.

Throughout the book, he travels with the Samanas and becomes an ascetic, learns to fast and respect nature, and he begins to hate those around him. Next, he follows the teachings of Kamaswami, and learns to enjoy life, and the materialistic things it can hold, he then begins to hate himself. He gains the knowledge and skill of love from Kamala and the riches from Kamaswami. “And yet, he envied them, envied them just the more, the more similar he became to them. He envied them for the one thing that was missing from him and that they had, the importance they were able to attach to their lives, the amount of passion in their joys and fears, the fearful but sweet happiness of being constantly in love” (Hesse 71). From all this, Siddhartha finally had experienced all necessary aspects of life, he had been in everyone's shoes.

He had finally reached his goal, he had achieved Nirvana. This book holds many different themes and motifs, for those who look and search for them, they can easily vary, person by person, mindset by mindset. Of the many obvious and visible themes, one of the more important is time. Time is used as a metaphor for death, as in Siddhartha's world many characters run out of time and die. Many of the characters in this story that died affected Siddhartha in more ways than one, for example, Kamala, the Ferryman, and the Buddha. Throughout this book, time goes fast, the pages go month by month, and it's a theme commonly used by Hesse. Siddhartha learns the principals of time from the ferryman, he learns the mentality that within the river, time has no meaning. “It is this what you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"" (Hesse 111). This mentality is explained by the fact that the river is everywhere at once, lacking a timeframe, not on any schedule. Looking to Kamala, ” For a long time, he sat, read in the pale face, in the tired wrinkles, filled himself with this sight, saw his own face lying in the same manner, just as white, just as quenched out, and saw at the same time his face and hers being young, with red lips, with fiery eyes, and the feeling of this both being present and at the same time real, the feeling of eternity, completely filled every aspect of his being.

Deeply he felt, more deeply than ever before, in this hour, the indestructibility of every life, the eternity of every moment” (Hesse 118). This quote is essentially the embodiment of the meaning of time, how meaningless it is. The only thing that changed between the two of them was the physical appearance, and with that, they both changed the same way. "And gradually his smile became more and more like that of the ferryman; it became almost as radiant, almost as illumined with happiness, similarly glowing from a thousand little wrinkles, just as childlike, just as aged. Many travelers, when they saw the two ferry men, took them to be brothers” (Ziolkowski). Time brought the two closer through the experience of the river and the knowledge of the ferryman. The world can easily learn from time, as the idea echoes through many essays and writings, "Eternity springs from the world's unity” (Shmoop Editorial Team 3). Understanding the role of one's past and future actions is essential in understanding the present and working towards enlightenment.

With the many present themes in Siddhartha, a second possibility is love. Siddhartha learns the essential human values of love and sadness from two people, Kamala, and Siddhartha's son. Kamala teaches the art of love and lust to Siddhartha, who proves especially adept. After this experience Kamala becomes pregnant, and Siddhartha leaves Kamala. "He had finished with that. That also died in him. He rose, said farewell to the mango tree and the pleasure garden. As he had not had any food that day he felt extremely hungry, and thought of his house in the town, of his room and bed, of the table with food. He smiled wearily, shook his head and said good-bye to these things” (Hesse 84). Siddhartha left without the knowledge that Kamala was pregnant with his child, he left without telling anybody, as he was a Samana, a pilgrim. “When he left Kamala she had known that she would bear him a child, but she did not tell Siddhartha because she realized that she could not and must not hold him back, that Siddhartha had to go his own way” (Malthaner). Even missing the experience of his unknown son growing up, he eventually comes back, where meets his son. By this time, the son has turned eleven, and Siddhartha has to take him in as Kamala dies on her way to see the Buddha. Thanks to Kamala's influenced and rich lifestyle, Siddhartha's son is spoiled and rude, but he learns to love him. Siddhartha asks his son to assist him with a chore, “Bring your own twigs,' he shouted, foaming. 'I am not your servant. I know that you do not beat me; you dare not! I know, however, that you continually punish me and make me feel small with your piety and indulgence.

You make me want to become like you, so pious, so gentle, so wise, but just to spite you, I would rather, become a thief and a murderer and go to hell, than be like you. I hate you; you are not my father even if you have been my mother's lover a dozen times!'” (Hesse 123). After this outburst, Siddhartha's son abandons him as Siddhartha did his father, and from the ferryman states in reference to Siddhartha's son, “But him, you shall let run along, my friend, he is no child any more, he knows how to get around. He's looking for the path to the city, and he is right, don't forget that. He's doing what you've failed to do yourself. He's taking care of himself, he's taking his course'” (Hesse 124). From this Siddhartha learns the pains and sorrows that his father felt when he left to become a Samana, as his own son leaves to find his own way. The feeling of sorrow is something that stems from love, and the absence of love causes sorrow, which is something all people can relate to.

A third and final motif to focus on is Mortality. As seen by the theme of time in this novel, many people run out of it and die. Each death of these characters adds to Siddhartha's experience with mortality and the effect that it has on his life and his mindset. Siddhartha even attempts meeting his own mortality, by attempting suicide in the river. After falling out of touch with himself and his priorities, he is ready to dive headfirst into the river, but Govinda stops him. "You are Siddhartha' cried Govinda aloud. 'Now I recognize you and do not understand why I did not recognize you immediately. Greetings, Siddhartha, it gives me great pleasure to see you again” (Hesse 92). Death is seen as insignificant, enlightenment takes priority. Siddhartha spends nearly the entire book tempting mortality and abusing his body for enlightenment.

"Siddhartha's final interview with Govinda makes it clear that he has been able to attain his affirmation and union with the All only because he eschews the easy way of convenient words and phrases as explanations of reality.  

‘Words are not good for the secret meaning. Everything is always slightly distorted when one utters it in words—a little falsified, a little silly.' He goes on to confide that he does not make distinctions between thoughts and words. 

“To be perfectly frank, I don't have a very high opinion of thoughts. I like things better."  (Ziolkowski). His mentality was changed and distorted each time he met with Govinda, and in this case, she saved his life. If not for Govinda, Siddhartha would have died at war with himself, but in contrast, Kamala died at peace with herself. She had found a spiritual outlet in the Buddha, a way to be at peace with her state of enlightenment. "Silently she looked at him and he saw the life fade from her eyes. When the last pain had filled and passed from her eyes, when the last shudder had passed through her body, his fingers closed her eyelids" (Hesse 113).

In the end, Kamala died with her lover, Siddhartha, with the man with whom she had a child. Siddhartha saw death as meaningless, as thoughts of reincarnation and the pursuit of enlightenment won him over. However, after Kamala's death, he began to see meaning and usefulness in a human life. As demonstrated by Buddha in Siddhartha, death just meant another beginning, “news had spread the exalted one was deadly sick and would soon die his last human death, in order to become one with the salvation” (Hesse 113). After all of his experiences, his outlook and thoughts about mortality drastically changed.

This book contains different themes and motifs, for those who look and search for them, they can easily vary, person by person, mindset by mindset. As demonstrated in the book and the following, many different examples are shown. Some of which are Love, Mortality, and Time. Hesse at one point Called Siddhartha an “Indic Poem", demonstrating its ability to read and criticized with a lyrical aspect in mind. “The book achieves a unity of style, structure and meaning that Hesse never again attained with such perfection after Siddhartha”  (Ziolkowski). 

The book achieves this level by showing its capability of totality and simultaneity of the human race. “In order to achieve this understanding, however, he must experience a vision that reveals to him the true meaning of Om, the sacred word that Hindus chant when meditating upon the cosmic unity of all life” (Bennet). He learns more towards the meaning of Om, and the meaning of life throughout his journey. As much as his own, he learns more towards the usefulness of others and their intentions as well. Within the other themes available in the book, Siddhartha learns a whole new outlook and new aspects on his life. Regardless of what he chose to do, his path in life was drastically different than what could have happened initially.

Works Cited

1. Bennett, Robert. Novels for Students. N.p: Gale, 1999. N. Print.
2. Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. New York: New Directions, 1951. Print.
3. Ison, Bethany. "The Fascinating Favors of a Faithful Friend." The Fascinating Favors of a Faithful Friend (2015): 1-12. Indian Hill High School. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
4. Malthaner, Johannes. "Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha.”The German Quarterly. 2nd ed. Vol. XXV. N.p.: n.p., 1952. Print. March
5. Shmoop Editorial Team. "Siddhartha Themes." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
6. Ziolkowski, Theodore. "Siddhartha: The Landscape of the soul - The Beatific Smile and The Epiphany.” The Novels of Hermann Hesse: A Study in Theme in Structure. N.p: Princeton UP, 1965. Print.