Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

The name has two meanings. The first refers to ascent or enlightenment. Thus, Anodos represents the ascent to enlightenment. In that sense, Anodos is engaging in the process of growing up. Anodos is also used to mean “pathless,” so Anodos is finding his way or following his own road to enlightenment, taking—in the words of Robert Frost—the road less traveled, if only because every hero must make their own road.

Anodos’s story begins at 21, a number commonly associated with adulthood. Not coincidentally, after a stay in Fairy Lang lasting many weeks, he returns to the ordinary world to find he was gone only 21 days. Initially, Anodos has the impetuosity of a boy. No sooner does he receive good advice from a wiser older person than he does the opposite. He diverges from the clear path and falls into every trap he is warned against.

In his pursuit of beauty, he imposes his will on the Marble Lady, freeing her, but later, trying to seize her against her will and against the explicit request that he not do so. She scolds him for his temerity.

While his actions might make a reader eyeroll at his folly, this is what the youth is supposed to do under the Romantic philosophy.