This tale is like a fairy tale in that it exists in an indeterminate space, a transformation takes place, and the main characters end up together and live happily ever after. The story is similar to folktales in that the characters are talking flowers. The story is a Kunstmärchen because it evokes a strong irrational desire (desire to travel), a longing, it contains an idea of selfhood (Hyacinth wants to be alone), the misunderstood is crazy, the misunderstood has a fractured relationship, the misunderstood is searching for the extraordinary, and it deals with dreams and religion Hyacinth seems to go on a pilgrimage and only a dream can get him where he wants to go.
I think that the language is poetic and it evokes a power that is only in music. The story uses musical terminology to make things magical. We know in the beginning that the story takes place in a magical place because “the running brook jingled a ballad.” There is a lizard that sings about the lovers. The holy place of Isis is loaded with musical terms a dream “conducted” him, in the background are “loud tones” and “modulated chords” and “distant music surrounded the secrets of the lovers’ reunion.”
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I really like your post. I totally forgot about the happily ever after element of fairy tales, perhaps because I did not read this as a fairy tale when I first read it. I also like the emphasis you place on music. I had only examined the song that frees the naked saint from the wheel as being the musical element. However, by exploring all the elements of music in the story you make a solid case for the power music has in this world.
ReplyDeleteI agree that if you take those musical cues literally, then it has a fairy tale element. However, before it has been categorized as such (so, when it was first written and it had to be put into a genre), those lines would hardly be obviously fantastical. In any other literary genre, they would simply be metaphor for the "magic" of the time and place. However, this magic more appropriately lines up with his musical motif (as in, the lizards sounds were like music) than a kunstmärchen genre (and therefore not that a lizard was jamming out next to the lovers).
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