Oh the Irony

Oh the Irony

One of my favorite elements of Hesse’s Siddhartha is the elements of irony that occur throughout the story.  Decisions that Siddhartha makes at the start of the novel seem to change as the story progresses. One example of this is Siddhartha’s whole purpose of wandering.  Siddhartha leaves his home to join the samanas because he wishes to find deliverance from his ego.  When Siddhartha and Govinda go to find Gautama, the Sublime one, Govinda gets taken in by his teaching and decides to stay with him.  Siddhartha, however, leaves stating that if he were to stay, “I fear that my ego would actually live on and grow big” (33).  Therefore, Siddhartha leaves his “shadow” (Govinda) in order to maintain his own path to free himself from his ego.  The irony occurs later in the novel when Siddhartha’s ego begins to overtake him.  In his quest to free himself of his ego, Siddhartha has an epiphany that he has not taken the time to get to know himself and that is the problem.  However, in doing this, he becomes the very thing that he laughed at; a wealthy merchant that is controlled by his ego.  He states, “Property, ownership, and wealth had also finally captured him” (70).  Despite his determination find deliverance from ego, Siddhartha’s quest led him straight to the opposite.

            The second ironic element in the novel is what Siddhartha expects of his son versus what he expected of his father.  When Siddhartha leaves home initially, he does receive the blessing of his father.  However, this is only after much stubborn actions on Siddhartha’s part.  His father’s initial reaction is, “I do not wish to hear that second request a second time from you lips” (9).  It is clear from this reaction that Siddhartha’s father wishes him to remain home and become a prince among the Brahmins.  Siddhartha does not wish this and leaves to pursue his own interests and dreams.  Siddhartha’s mentality changes greatly, however, once this situation occurs with his own son.  Siddhartha’s son is used to a wealthy life style with servants, extravagant clothes, and plentiful food.  He is not fit to live in a hut on the side of a river.  Siddhartha acknowledges this and realizes the best thing for his son would be to bring him back to the town.  Unfortunately, Siddhartha does not do this because of his own selfish intentions.  Siddhartha does not want his son to be consumed by the ego and be submerged in samsara but would rather him live the life of a samana.  This is not what his son would like to become as is illustrated by his words to his father, “I’d rather be a highwayman and murderer and go to hell than become like you” (108).  In keeping his son at the river against his wishes, Siddhartha is doing the very thing that he fought his father against.   I think it is interesting that both elements of irony seem to occur between what Siddhartha wishes when he was younger, and his actions as he becomes older.  The things that Siddhartha is against as a young boy seem to be the characteristics of his actions as an adult.