I still think it is missing the point to look for an insight into any other character in this wonderful story other than Siddhartha's own. Are we supposed to understand his lover's or his father's viewpoint? His friend's?His lover's? - It is unnecessary to understand what led her to be his sexual initiation? We are not following them - they are a different story.
We are following the life of one person as if his path were our own. In his place we could only guess or sense the feelings, motives and state of being of anyone else he encounters. We are not supposed to have any divine insight to the other characters; rather I believe Hesse desired the reader to acknowledge that ones own self is the most important entity to understand. We are not meant to possess the eye of god or have the gift of glimpsing others' souls. The story is a simple one. The message in this book (for me) is that human contact (speech/friendship/sex/kinship etc) are only true pleasures if there is a thirst for knowledge of one's self alongside them, because if we abandon that quest for self knowledge (actualisation?) then all else in life is ultimately meaningless?
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Re: Siddhartha and the Female Perspective
[re: Anonymous]
