Being Crushed Beneath the Wheel of Heteronormativity

The portrayal of Hans’s ensuing relationship with a girl named Emma has a different tone than the bond with Hermann. Whereas the male same-sex romance was described as a “first love,” the relationship with Emma is surrounded by dread (examples will be given below). Female characters in Unterm Rad are thus treated as they are in Hesse’s other novels; that is, frequently referred to with misogynistic language and as means for the male protagonists to reach their full potential.2For further reading, see Murti, “‘Ob die Weiber Menschen seyn?,’” in which it is argued that the lack of agency among female characters in Hesse’s fiction is a result of an unexplored homoerotic dimension. See also chapters 2 and 5 in von Seth, “Outsiders and Others.” The one exception is mothers, who in Hesse’s early work are characterized as care-giving saints.

Heterosexuality is depicted as formal, frightening, and exhausting in Unterm Rad: “[Hans] hated going round with girls with whom he had to be on grown-up terms” (147). Also, when Hans’s hand accidentally touches Emma’s “a feeling of exquisite weakness swept over him and his knees trembled a little and there was a dizzy, rushing sound in his head” (149). Hans becoming “weak” and “dizzy” to the point of his “knees trembling” accentuates a connection with the principal’s earlier warning: “Don’t relax your effort, otherwise you will fall under the wheel.” At this point in the novel, Hans’s anxiety has forced him to quit the boarding school. “Falling under the wheel” now has a heteronormative implication (because of Emma) that coincides with the usual, heteronormative conclusion of a Bildungsroman.

The significance of heterosexuality and homosexuality as a prominent dualism in Unterm Rad can be seen when Hans and Hermann, at one point, talk about it. They are aware of the heteronormative pressure to “become” heterosexual eventually, and Hermann confesses that he has a “sweetheart” at home, a girl he once kissed. Although she reacted by running away, the idea of kissing a girl is a “forbidden garden” (116) that excites both boys. When Hans goes to bed, he lays awake, “thinking about the kiss which Heilner had given his sweetheart” (116). Juxtaposing Hans and Hermann’s romance with Hermann’s sweetheart shows that homosexuality and heterosexuality are equal possibilities in the novel. Bisexuality thus emerges as the main representation of queerness in Unterm Rad—it challenges other norms of sexuality and relationality (heteronormativity, the romantic friendship ideal, and homosexuality). For Hans, however, acknowledging his bisexuality is impossible, not only because Hermann leaves the story, but also because heterosexuality becomes the only available option. This does not mean that Hermann is not on his mind throughout the story, however. Hans remembers “the kiss which Hermann Heilner had given him” (149) and in a dream he is chasing Hermann through a forest. When he catches up with him, Hermann says, “I have a sweetheart” (127) and disappears. The dream, evidently, indicates jealousy on Hans’s part and shows that Hermann may be gone but not forgotten.

During the relationship with Emma, Hans’s weakness becomes a key feature of his character. Moreover, his weakness is entangled with portrayals of masculinity. He is described as “thin and weak” (126), and although he starts an apprenticeship in a workshop, a colleague says: “Your father has already told me you’re no Hercules and it’s pretty obvious” (167). Furthermore, Hans is associated with mental weakness. The reason he has quit the boarding school is because of a “nervous disorder” (126) brought on by performance anxiety. He can thus be compared with George Mosse’s concept of “the countertype,” a type of man that has failed to live up to stereotypical masculinity. In the modern era (including the time when Hesse wrote Unterm Rad), stereotypical masculinity was constituted by self-control, proper appearance, and strength, whereas unmanliness was characterized by lack of impulse control, frail nerves, and other abnormalities. Mosse explains that robustness was a sort of armor protecting the modern man from illnesses and other unmanly traits.3George L. Mosse, The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 56–61.

Hans’s failure to live up to stereotypical forms of masculinity cannot be separated from his failure to achieve heteronormative happiness with Emma. As previously mentioned, their relationship is characterized by dread. When they spend time together, Hans feels weary and avoids her gaze. Emma, however, is determined:

At the end of the novel Hans drowns. It is unclear if his death is an accident brought on by an overconsumption of alcohol or if he takes his own life. Either way, it is conspicuous that several queerly connoted characters die by drowning in Hesse’s writing. In Peter Camenzind, the protagonist’s love interest Richard drowns. Another example is Joseph Knecht in Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game, 1943), a character who embodies “latent homosexuality” and also dies by drowning.4Colin Butler, “Hermann Hesse’s ‘Siddhartha’: Some Critical Objections,” Monatshefte 63, no. 2 (1971): 123. Even Narziß in Hesse’s Narziß und Goldmund accentuates a link between queerness and drowning, since in the Narcissus myth, Narcissus falls deeply in love with himself and drowns in his own reflection. Because Hans fails to achieve heterosexual happiness with Emma, his death at the end of Unterm Rad signifies being crushed beneath the wheel of heteronormativity.