Theatre in “Steppenwolf”

Abstract

Once more I stood in the round corridor, still excited by the hunting adventure. And everywhere on all the countless doors were the alluring inscriptions: The series of inscriptions was endless. One was This seemed to me to be worth looking into and I went in at this door. I found myself in a quiet twilit room where a man with something like a large chess-board in front of him sat in Eastern fashion on the floor. At the first glance I thought it was friend Pablo. He wore at any rate a similar gorgeous silk jacket and had the same dark and shining eyes. ‘Are you Pablo?’ ‘I am not anybody,’ he replied amiably. ‘We have no names here and we are no persons. I am a chessplayer. Do you wish for instruction in the building up of the personality?’ ‘Yes, please.’ ‘Then be so kind as to place a few dozen of your pieces at my disposal.’ ‘My pieces – ?’ ‘Of the pieces into which you saw your so-called personality broken up. I can't play without pieces.’ He held a glass up to me and again I saw the unity of my personality broken up into many ...