Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Magic Mountain, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Time
Coming of Age
Death and Illness
East vs. West
Abstract Ideals vs. Lived Experience
Summary
Analysis
The narrator introduces the protagonist of their story, Hans Castorp: an “ordinary” young man. Castorp’s story happened very long ago. In fact, the story’s “pastness” is its defining feature, specifically the fact that it takes place just before the Great War (World War I). The narrator resolves to take their time telling the story, taking care to be very detailed and thorough, for Hans’s story spans the course of seven years, though it’s hard to believe it lasted that long.
From the start, the narration’s emphasis on “pastness” establishes the subjective experience of time as one of the novel’s central themes. In addition, the detail that Hans is an “ordinary” young man establishes him as average, unremarkable, and perhaps not well versed in worldly matters.
Themes
