The Immortals play a key role within Steppenwolf, although it is not clear until the end exactly what that role is. On one hand, in the beginning, the Immortals separate Steppenwolf from other members of society, the bourgeoisie in particular. On the other hand, through the treatise, the Goethe dream, and the Mozart sequence in the Magic Theater, the Immortals provide the key to Steppenwolf understanding his place within society and the universe. The Immortals teach him about himself and society, thereby providing him with alternatives to suicide.
Steppenwolf’s problems stem from his inability to tolerate the bourgeoisie. Even though he lives among them, Steppenwolf repeatedly denounces bourgeois society and the “fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity” he associates with it. He states, “Ah, but it is hard to find this track of the divine in the midst of this life we lead, in this besotted humdrum age of spiritual blindness, with its architecture, its business, its politics, its men!” Steppenwolf is suicidal because he cannot effectively separate himself from bourgeois society. He acknowledges the presence of the divine; in fact, there are rare moments when he feels at one with God and can see the “divine and golden track” before him. Such moments of enlightenment occur while reading poetry or listening to classical music. The Immortals are the artists whose creations allow him to become one with God.
Steppenwolf uses the Immortals to justify his self-imposed alienation from society. He views the Immortals as superior and separate from everyone else. Even though he continues to live within and among the bourgeois society, Steppenwolf aligns himself with the Immortals in an attempt to distinguish himself from others. In other words, he might live in a middle-class boarding house, but intellectually, he is on the same level as Goethe and Mozart, so he is far superior to the aunt, the nephew, and the other boarders. Because he is superior, he must be alone; therefore, he distances himself from other individuals in an attempt to gain closer proximity to the Immortals. Steppenwolf realizes, however, that such a separation is only temporary. The only way that he can permanently sever all ties with bourgeois society and unite with the Immortals is through suicide. He believes his death will transform him to a higher level—the realm of the Immortals in the stars.
It is ironic that Steppenwolf views the Immortals as the great divider between himself and everyone else when, in fact, the Immortals argue the opposite. The treatise reveals the contradiction as follows:
He must look deeply into the chaos of his own soul and plumb its depths. The riddle of his existence would then be revealed to him at once in all its changelessness, and it would be impossible for him ever after to escape first from the hell of the flesh to the comforts of a sentimental philosophy and then back to the blind orgy of his wolfishness. Man and wolf would then be compelled to recognize one another without the masks of false feeling and to look one another straight in the eye. Then they would either explode and separate forever, and there would be no more Steppenwolf, or else they would come to terms in the dawning light of humor.
One of the obstacles Steppenwolf must overcome on his road to self-discovery is the inability to listen. The treatise reveals that individuals are made of multiple selves and that a soul is divided. Steppenwolf accepts this notion because it validates his theory that he is part human and part wolf. However, he fails to listen to or accept the treatise’s premise that humor is the only way individuals can deal with multiplicity within their lives. As a result, Steppenwolf feels more driven to commit suicide after reading the treatise than before. He believes suicide is the only solution to his fractured nature. Because the wolf and the man cannot coexist peacefully, it’s better to annihilate both all together.
The Goethe dream sequence is important because Steppenwolf is given his first opportunity to dialogue with an Immortal. Steppenwolf is moved by the thought of talking to Goethe, but his excitement is short-lived when he realizes that he is not designated as one of the Immortals himself. He states, “I was a reporter, and this worried me a great deal and I could not understand how the devil I had got into such a fix.” Not only is Steppenwolf excluded from the Immortals’ domain, but he is classified as an individual working a menial job. This is intolerable because Steppenwolf is categorized as one of the blind middle-class fools living a mediocre life revolving around paychecks, office hours, and intellectually stilted individuals. The beginning of the dream is a full-blown nightmare for him.
