Demian (Characters)

Characters

Beatrice

While in boarding school, Sinclair sees a young woman from a distance, walking in the park. He becomes infatuated with the woman, to whom he never speaks. He thinks of her as Beatrice, a reference to Dante, based on a painting he has seen of the fictional Beatrice. Sinclair describes Beatrice as "tall and slender, elegantly dressed," with "a touch of exuberance and boyishness in her face." Sinclair first sees her during his period of debauchery, when he is often drunk, failing in school, and in financial debt. The sight of Beatrice, however, sparks his imagination, inspiring him to reform his drunken, rebellious ways. He states that his thoughts of Beatrice have a "profound influence" on his life, inspiring him to turn away from the "dark," sinful side of life and strive for "purity and nobility." He becomes self-reflective, and starts painting images of Beatrice. To Sinclair, the figure of Beatrice is an object of worship; he says that her image "gave me access to a holy shrine," and "transformed me into a worshiper in a temple." Eventually the image of Beatrice fades, but Sinclair continues to live out the transformation he underwent as a result of her place in his imagination.

Alfons Beck

Alfons Beck in an older boy at Sinclair's boarding school who encounters Sinclair on the street one evening and takes him to a bar, where Sinclair gets drunk for the first time in his life. After this night Sinclair enters a period of debauchery, during which time he gains a reputation for excessive drinking and raucous, rebellious behavior.

Max Demian

Max Demian is the central influence in Sinclair's personal development. Sinclair first meets Demian in grade school, when Demian encourages him to question traditional interpretations of biblical stories. Demian saves Sinclair from being tormented by Franz Kromer through means which are never revealed, although it seems as if he threatened Kromer with physical harm. When Demian enrolls in the same confirmation course with Sinclair a few years later, the two boys become friends. Demian continues to express unconventional ideas about religion, which Sinclair finds intriguing yet disturbing. After leaving his home town to attend a boarding school, Sinclair loses touch with Demian. He encounters Demian only once during his high school years, while in his drunken phase, and is embarrassed by his own behavior, which is rude and a turnoff to his childhood friend.

When Sinclair experiences a personal transformation, the image of Demian continues to haunt him, although he has completely lost touch with him. Sinclair next encounters Demian while he is attending university. The two young men immediately revive their friendship, and Demian takes Sinclair home to meet his mother.

Demian is a formative influence on Sinclair's life because he is the first person to open Sinclair's mind to a questioning of traditional values and ideas. Demian also has a strong symbolic significance, as he represents the true, deep inner self which Sinclair strives to discover. As the novel ends, Demian has died in an army hospital after being injured in combat during World War I. Sinclair, however, understands that Demian has become one with his own deep self, and now represents his "daemon," or true inner self.

Frau Eva

Frau Eva is Demian's mother. As a schoolboy, Sinclair never meets Demian's mother, although the two boys are friends. While on vacation from his boarding school, Sinclair comes across a picture of Demian's mother, and recognizes hers as a face from one of his dreams. He becomes overwhelmed with the desire to meet her, but has no idea where she and Demian are living. When he moves to a new town and enters university, Sinclair encounters Demian walking down the street, and Demian brings Sinclair home to meet his mother. Sinclair immediately recognizes Frau Eva as the image from his dream. He subsequently has many conversations with Frau Eva which help him further along the path of discovering his inner self. Frau Eva symbolizes many elements of Sinclair's search for himself, representing a mother, a lover, and a figure of the feminine element of his own psyche. Critics have interpreted the symbolic significance of Frau Eva in a variety of ways, psychoanalytically, religiously, and philosophically. Frau Eva is one of the most important elements of Sinclair's search to find his inner heart.

Dr. Follens

Dr. Follens is a young assistant professor in one of Sinclair's courses while at boarding school. In the course of one lecture, Dr. Follens mentions the ancient concept of the god Abraxas, who represents both the dark and light elements of the world. Although the professor mentions Abraxas only as an aside to his lecture, the idea sparks Sinclair's imagination, and becomes a central element of his personal belief system.

Knauer

Knauer is a younger boy at Sinclair's boarding school who seeks out Sinclair in search of greater wisdom and insight. Knauer is a sort of young disciple of Sinclair, in the same manner in which Sinclair himself was a sort of disciple of Demian during his school days. Knauer expresses to Sinclair his suicidal despair, his desire for insight, and his urge to discuss deep religious and philosophical concerns. Sinclair tells Knauer that he cannot show the younger boy the way to his true inner self, that each person must discover on his own his "innermost heart" and purpose in life. Knauer clings to Sinclair, always asking questions and seeking spiritual guidance, which Sinclair insists he cannot provide. Sinclair later realizes that he had learned important lessons of his own from the questions and ideas brought to him by Knauer. Toward the end of Sinclair's stay at the boarding school, Knauer slips out of his life.

Franz Kromer

Franz Kromer is a boy in Sinclair's home town who has a significant impact on Sinclair's life when Sinclair is ten years old. Franz Kromer is a tough kid, the type with whom the sheltered Sinclair rarely played as a child. However, one day, Sinclair tries to impress Kromer by making up a story that he had stolen some apples from a local farmer. Kromer claims he knows the farmer whose apples were stolen, and threatens to hand Sinclair over to the police for his crime unless Sinclair pays him a sum of money. Over the next few weeks Kromer bullies Sinclair into stealing change from his own parents and offering other gifts to the older boy in fear of being reported for the fictional crime he had supposedly committed. Sinclair's life becomes completely dominated by Kromer's threats and demands. When Demian learns that Kromer is the source of Sinclair's troubles, he engages in an unspecified confrontation with Kromer, after which Kromer leaves Sinclair alone and never bothers him again.

Pistorius

Pistorius is one of the important influences on Sinclair's development. He is an organist at a church but does not himself conform to any conventional religion. Sinclair hears Pistorius's organ music while out walking, and often sits outside the church on the steps to listen to the music. Eventually Pistorius invites him into the church to listen. One evening he invites Sinclair home with him, up to his attic room, where they lie on the floor staring into the fire. Pistorius is an unconventional thinker, and exposes Sinclair to a wide range of religious and philosophical ideas. He teaches Sinclair about the god known as Abraxas, who represents both the dark and the light elements of the world. Sinclair spends many nights in discussion with Pistorius throughout the remainder of his boarding school days. Shortly before leaving school, Sinclair learns that he has outgrown his teacher; he finds himself criticizing Pistorius for the first time, an event which brings an end to their friendship.

Emil Sinclair

Emil Sinclair is the protagonist and narrator of Demian, which is subtitled, "The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth." Emil is a semi-autobiographical figure based on the youth of Hermann Hesse, and is the result of Hesse's own experience of self-exploration through psychoanalysis. Sinclair tells the story of his personal development from age ten to approximately age twenty. He is influenced in his personal journey of self-discovery by a number of people he meets during this period, most significantly Max Demian, a fellow schoolboy. Sinclair describes his major formative experiences and friendships that aid in his inward journey. Demian opens Sinclair's mind by inviting him to question traditional interpretations of biblical stories. Sinclair is discomfited but intrigued by the unconventional ideas expressed by Demian.

Sinclair attends a boarding school in his high school years, during which he goes through several distinct phases of development. In his drunken, rebellious phase he becomes an unruly and undisciplined student, with a reputation for drinking and carousing. This phase of self-loathing ends abruptly when he sees a young woman from afar, to whom he never speaks, but who he thinks of as Beatrice. She represents an image of almost religious perfection which inspires him to transform himself overnight into a sober, self-reflective, conscientious person. During this period, he begins to paint faces and images from his dreams. Sinclair's other major influence is Pistorius, a freethinker who spends many evenings with Sinclair discussing a broad range of religious and philosophical ideas.

While attending university, Sinclair encounters Demian, with whom he had lost touch, and Demian introduces him to his mother, Frau Eva. Sinclair regards Frau Eva as a dream-image representing a spiritual, psychological, and emotional ideal. He becomes part of a larger circle of open-minded, freethinking people who congregate at the home of Frau Eva and Demian. Sinclair develops a clearer sense of his inner self and his own personal identity. When World War I breaks out, Sinclair becomes a soldier. The final step in his personal development comes when he finds that Demian himself has died. He then realizes that Demian represents his own inner "daemon," or true self, and resides within his own soul.

Sinclair's Father

Sinclair's father represents the good, "light," pious world of his family. After Sinclair feels he has entered the "dark" world associated with Franz Kromer, he feels not just distant, but actually superior to his father, as if he possesses knowledge his Father does not have. When Sinclair mentions to his father Demian's alternative interpretation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, his father immediately dismisses it as incorrect. While Sinclair is at boarding school, his father writes him many times to express disapproval of the rebellious, drunken life he is leading. At one point, his father even comes to the school to threaten Sinclair with expulsion if he does not reform his unruly ways. After Sinclair makes the transformation from his period of unruliness to his period of striving for purity, his father's letters to him at school become more congenial. Sinclair's father is a symbol of the traditional way of thinking, from which Sinclair breaks away in order to develop his own ideas and personal identity.

Sinclair's Mother

Sinclair's mother represents the good, "light," pious world of his childhood family life. After Sinclair becomes involved with the "dark" world of Franz Kromer, he feels distanced from his mother. By the end of the novel, Demian's mother, Frau Eva, comes to represent Sinclair's true spiritual mother. While Frau Eva is extremely open-minded in her ideas about religion and philosophy, Sinclair's own mother is very traditional in her beliefs.

Sinclair's Sisters

Sinclair mentions his two sisters, but makes no distinction between them and does not name them. His sisters represent the good, "light," pious world of his childhood home. After his experience with Kromer, Sinclair feels distanced from his sisters because he no longer feels a part of their world of "light" and good.