Steppenwolf Paragraphs 648-689 Summary

  • When Harry wakes up he's back in the hallway.
  • He sees himself in the mirror again. Now he's an old man who's had all the experiences that Harry just had in the magic theater.
  • Harry kicks the mirror and shatters his reflection. He knows that Hermine is waiting for him.
  • He opens the last door, and sees Hermine and Pablo, naked, sleeping on a rug.
  • She's got a hicky on her torso and he uses it as his target, plunging his knife right in.
  • Hermine wakes up a little bit, but then shuts her eyes and dies.
  • Pablo stretches and smiles after he sees the dead Hermine.
  • Coldness and music starts coming from Hermine's corpse.
  • He remembers some lines from his own poem, "The Immortals", which he had written earlier that night.
  • Mozart shows up again, and sets up a radio.
  • Harry freaks out, because he hates the way classical music sounds on the radio, all metallic and distorted. Mozart just laughs, and tells him he has to figure out what he should take seriously and when he could just laugh.
  • Then Mozart asks Harry if it was right to stab Hermine. Harry says, no, that he's a beast, and says that it was what Hermine wanted.
  • Mozart laughs and turns off the radio.
  • Harry starts to wonder why he had murdered Hermine, and thinks that maybe it was what he wanted, not her.
  • Mozart tells Harry it's time to face the consequences.
  • He ends up in a prison yard, and the public prosecutor declares him guilty because he has no humor and tried to use the magic theater for suicide. He is sentenced to eternal life and being laughed out of the court.
  • Everybody laughs and laughs.
  • Harry wakes up with Mozart again, who explains to him that his punishment is life because he wants to die.
  • Mozart transforms into Pablo, and gives Harry a funny cigarette.
  • Pablo tells Harry that he's disappointed that Harry didn't see the humor in the theater. He hopes that at least he killed Hermine out of jealousy.
  • Harry knows that he'll try again, and someday he'll learn how to laugh.