Joanah Eresechima - Narcissus and Goldmund

In the excerpt of Narcissus and Goldmund given to us, I was immediately drawn to Narcissus and his character. The first paragraph especially pulled me in, with him bluntly telling Goldmund that they are very different, and this difference is important enough for him to emphasize it so vehemently. Wanting a bit more context about how they met and what exactly their relationship was like, I looked for the book and read through it a bit. What I can deduce from my limited reading is that Narcissus is a teacher to Goldmund but also a “friend”. I use friend in quotation marks because it seems each interaction they have with each other only makes Goldmund more frustrated with Narcissus as the older man belittles him. He is constantly talking about how different they are and how their friendship is only meant to show that. Goldmund had suspected that Narcissus thought of him as only a child. His suspicions are proven to be correct when the two of them get into a disagreement about whether a child or “science” could detect differences between a peasant and a king. This conversation seems to represent them, with Goldmund being the child and Narcissus being science. It is made obvious when Goldmund, most likely through his previous frustration, argues that an intelligent child can detect difference just as well as science, which is meant to be a metaphor for how Goldmund is just as intelligent as Narcissus even if he doesn’t have as much life experience. Narcissus pushes back on this, however, adding that he doesn’t take Goldmund’s thoughts seriously since they are on such different levels. I can’t be sure because I haven’t read the entire book but maybe this is his way of guiding him? By acting as an antagonistic force despite being his “friend”, he is a starting point of growth for Goldmund.


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