I admit that I didnçt read all of Hesse works. I started to read Steppenwolf and Glass bead game but I simply couldnçt read it till end. Perhaps I was too young when I was reading itŸI remember that Steppenwolf was simply too dark/depressed for my taste at that time. The last book that I read was Narcissus and Goldmund. I was really fascinated by that book. In a very short time I read it twice. He put much of himself in this bookŸall the ambivalence in his own nature he manifested it into two characters Narcissus and Goldmund Ÿall the dualism of life, the questions that everybody is sooner or later asking is marvelously presented in this bookŸ But anyway I noticed that in his works (the one I read) women donçt have any ‚character dimensionsç. Did he ever really love a women also as a spiritual being? Or did he see women only as a object for pleasure?

This is only a minor suggestion ... but maybe rereading Steppenwolf would clarify your question ...