Just a few thoughts in what I see as the mental processes that Despair’s main character

Hermann Hermann goes through. I see Hermann’s true plight as a loss of identity that extends
to the loss of his very self, or even better, of the self itself. This is a theme that appears quite a
bit in Nabokov’s works (not sure if it’s in the novel the film’s based on, though), and is often
the result of the main character’s being yanked out of their homelands, something that
Nabokov himself had to go through. As he becomes more and more devoid of self, Hermann
begins reifying his self in order to actually look for it, which results in his watching himself
watching himself, a reification that reaches a peak when we finally find out that Hermann
object has now entirely become Hermann subject in the scene of the master-servant foreplay.
He has objectified himself entirely. This is quite interesting, since we tend to perceive things in
quite the opposite manner. That is, I see myself always and unavoidably as self, and it is others
that appear as objects to me, it is others that are reified. We rarely see others as selves, unless
we actually make a conscious attempt, and then only seldom, since we’re too accustomed to
consider them as things and ourselves as selves. But with Hermann things have been reversed.
He becomes so empty of self that he starts seeing himself as an object, and starts seeing
others as selves. In a manner, his insanity has made him more keenly aware of reality. He
becomes the perfect actor, since he’s now drained out of self and can therefore acquire
whatever self he wishes; and a subconscious knowledge of that fact brings him to present
himself as an actor looking for a stand-in, which he really is (and which brings about a fantastic
metaness to the film: an actor playing a man pretending to be an actor). And the moment
when this draining out of self has reached a peak point, he bumps into Felix, and since he’s
become a complete walking vacuum, he absorbs Felix’s self, which he immediately perceives.
He actually becomes Felix, that is, Felix’s self becomes his. And he sets himself to acquire also
the identity that’s inexorably linked to that self. In that manner, the circle would be complete.
He goes from losing his identity (with his being rooted out of his homeland), to losing his self,
to acquiring a new self and then a new identity.

But, as it turns out, the world’s not as mad as him (or it absolutely is, considering the Nazi’s
rise taking place around him, except in an entirely different manner), and at some point it
catches up with him. After he’s murdered Felix and attempted to take his place, the whole of
his surroundings start reminding him that he isn’t Felix at all. Hermann then has an epiphany in
front of the broken mirror and, like the film’s subtitle announces, he travels into the light,
except that the truth expecting him there is not at all edifying. He finally becomes fully aware
of his emptiness, so much so that when the detective asks him “Hermann Hermann” he
replies, “yes… no…”, which I don’t think means he’s trying to keep up the farce so much as he’s
saying “I once was Hermann Hermann, now I’m nobody”. So he comes out and gives his
speech about their being in a film (yet another meta moment), since he’s finally accepted fully
his role as an actor, that is, this is a film where a man plays a man who pretends to be an actor,
then confesses he isn’t, then accepts himself as a man who has the role of actor in the world,
that is, he is a man who’s playing an actor. Quite a few levels right there. Rather Nabokovian,
huh?