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
Hans and Joachim sit down at the sanatorium’s restaurant, where they have an elaborate meal. Hans finds the food exceptional, but Joachim is underwhelmed, having grown accustomed to the cooking here. He tells Hans it’s great to have him here, since things can get pretty monotonous. This shocks Hans, who assumed time would pass quickly at the sanatorium. Joachim explains that time “doesn’t really pass at all,” and that there’s not really “life” here.
Hans’s and Joachim’s opposite reactions to their meal further highlights how Joachim’s familiarity with life at the Berghof has skewed his perspective. The more time he spends there, the harder it is for anything to surprise or excite him. For Hans, meanwhile, who has only just arrived, everything is new and interesting.
Themes
Joachim and Hans chat, and Joachim happily fills Hans in on the daily goings on at the Berghof. He talks about one of the residents, a woman named Frau Stöhr, who is illiterate and loves to gossip. The cousins laugh about her, but then Joachim suddenly turns serious, remembering how much time he’s spent here and not knowing when he’ll be allowed to leave. One can do so much with one’s life “down below,” but here, Joachim feels that he’s wasting away.
Joachim gets Hans up to speed on the people and social norms of the Berghof, initiating Hans’s transformation from uninformed outsider to acclimated insider. Also note, however, that Joachim, despite his familiarity with the Berghof, hasn’t let himself become fully at home there. Instead, he remains cognizant of the world “down below” and the life he lived there—a life he longs to return to.
Themes
Joachim realizes that Hans is drifting to sleep and gets up to guide him to his room. On their way there, they encounter Dr. Krokowski. Joachim introduces him to Hans. Dr. Krokowski is a friendly, energetic man. He’s in his thirties and extremely pale, a trait that emphasizes his dark eyes and long black beard. Krokowski asks Hans if he’s come here as a patient. Hans, detecting condescension in the doctor’s tone, mumbles that he’s totally healthy, has passed his exams—he’s an engineer—and will only be here for a few weeks. Dr. Krokowski explains that this makes Hans quite unusual—he’s never met anyone who’s totally healthy. He asks again if Hans might be interested in seeking physical or psychological treatment, but Hans assures him he won’t be. Joachim and Hans part ways with Krokowski and continue to Hans’s room.
Hans’s inability to stay awake through supper reinforces how far outside of his comfort zone he is up here. His intense physical exhaustion indicates the stress and exertion of being in an unfamiliar place. Just as Hans’s mind can’t yet make sense of what life at the Berghof is all about, his body struggles to adapt to this new and challenging environment. Dr. Krokowski’s appearance is rather ominous: with his pale skin and dark clothing, he cuts a rather morbid figure. Symbolically, perhaps, his appearance reflects his acclimation to the Berghof’s death-saturated environment. It's curious that Krokowski asks Hans if he’ll be seeking treatment here, given that Hans is merely visiting his cousin and isn’t a patient himself. Krokowski’s question suggests, perhaps, that the pull to seek treatment is catching, much like an infectious disease.
Themes
When Hans and Joachim reach Room 34, they find that the concierge has delivered Hans’s things. After Joachim leaves, Hans lies down on the bed but feels suddenly disturbed, remembering that someone recently died there. He falls asleep and dreams nonstop, mostly about Joachim riding down the hill on a bobsled, with Dr. Krokowski steering the sled and the coughing Austrian horseman sitting at the front. Joachim repeats how coughing “doesn’t matter to us—to us up here” and then he starts to cough the slimy, awful cough Hans heard earlier. Hans starts to laugh.
Hans’s unease here reaffirms his present discomfort or confusion about death, especially compared to Joachim, who seems to accept death and suffering as unremarkable aspects of life—so remarkable, in fact, that they hardly deserve much thought. Hans’s dream reaffirms his confused and anxious feelings about all the death and illness he's been confronted with today.
Themes
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