TNTL 119/3

Ton Anbeek

De Tweede Wet van Hermans

Abstract -- The article tries to prove that besides the already known theme ‘the world cannot be known’ another recurrent theme can be found in the works of W.F. Hermans: that of frustrated ambition. One could call this ‘the second law’ of W.F. Hermans: a person almost never succeeds in obtaining his goal; and even in the rare cases that he gets what he strifes for, the result is disillusion. This theme is illustrated with several examples. Furthermore, Hermans’ works are compared with the poetics of his collegue Rosenboom, who also stresses the importance of ‘ambition’ in the build-up of fictional characters. It turns out that a salient difference is the nature of the opposing force: Rosenboom’s heroes fail because of a psychological defect, while in Hermans’ works fate plays an almost sadistic part. Finally, it is suggested that the repetition of failed attempts seems to explain at least partly the comic effect Hermans’ works have on the readers.

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