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’s second week at the Berghof comes and goes, and he once more pays his weekly bill. Hans tallies up the expenses and still finds the cost to be quite reasonable, even if he’s not making use of the medical facilities—though he has begun taking an evening rest cure, since that’s what everyone else does. Time passes, and eventually Hans only has a few days left. He realizes it’s true what everyone says—three weeks is hardly any time up here. Hans feels bad for Joachim, who clearly isn’t looking forward to losing his companion. Worse still, Hans gets to return to the “flatlands” and do meaningful work in the transportation technology field while Joachim must waste away up here doing nothing.
The narration repeatedly draws attention to the malleable and tenuous nature of time, and its structure embodies those characteristics. While Hans’s first week at the Berghof took up hundreds of pages, the narration uses only a fraction of that space to convey Hans’s second week, indicating that time has started to pass more quickly for Hans now that he’s gotten used to the Berghof.
Themes
As Hans prepares to leave, he observes that he may need a period of rest to recover from his vacation—indeed, he feels run down and even seems to have come down with a cold. It’s probably from lying outside on his balcony during his evening rest cure, which he loves to do, listening to the sound of music coming from the valley in the distance. Hans reasons that Joachim must enjoy sitting on the balcony as much as he does, though he has no appreciation for music, unfortunately.
Hans’s thought that he might need some rest to recover from his vacation is comical: resting is practically all he’s done since arriving at the Berghof. More importantly, however, Hans’s poor physical health suggests that the atmosphere of the Berghof, with its emphasis on rest and inaction, is harming him more than healing him.
Themes
Joachim agrees to put in a word with the “official channels” of the sanatorium and get some medical staff to examine Hans. That Friday, the head nurse, von Mylendonk (the one Settembrini doesn’t like) comes to Hans’s room to determine what’s wrong with him. She asks him a lot of questions rather harshly. She identifies a catarrh and explains that it’s not the result of a cold but of an infection—now, the task is to determine the seriousness of that infection. The nurse is shocked to learn that Hans hasn’t checked his temperature since coming to the sanatorium. In fact, he doesn’t even own a thermometer. She produces a bag with a few different thermometers for purchase for Hans to choose from.
The novel has established thermometers has a symbol of the Berghof’s surreal environment and its alienation from the wider world. Thus far, Hans has resisted taking his temperature, symbolizing his resistance to losing touch with his life back home, however tempting he may find some parts of life at the Berghof to be. But his choice to buy a thermometer from Head Nurse von Mylendonk marks a major shift in his character, signifying that he is ready to leave his old life (and reality in general) behind and accept a new life as a Berghof patient.
Themes
After Head Nurse von Mylendonk leaves, Hans takes his temperature, waiting for seven minutes, as Joachim does. The time passes slowly, but after seven minutes are up, Hans discovers that he has a fever of 99.7—a bit too high. He relays this news to Joachim when he comes to fetch Hans for dinner. He also admits to feeling feverish practically the entire time he’s been at the Berghof. Joachim insists that Hans get in bed, but Hans refuses, arguing that the fever isn’t really that high.
Hans’s temperature is higher than normal, but not worryingly so. In this way, it mirrors his ambivalence toward the Berghof and all the things he’s been exposed to since coming there: he longs for a mentor and yet resists Settembrini’s efforts to teach him, and Clavdia Chauchat both disgusts and attracts him.
Themes
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Hans, despite Joachim’s protests, goes down to dinner. After refusing a drink of beer, he casually explains to his tablemates that he has a slight fever. The news greatly amuses Frau Stöhr. Hans downplays his condition, but nobody believes him. Instead they laugh and tell him he should really make an appointment with the doctor. Frau Stöhr goes off on a tangent about the pleasant sensation of coughing.
Hans’s attitude toward his sickness reinforces his characteristic ambivalence: he wants to write off his illness and return to his regular life as planned, but he also clearly wants his tablemates to acknowledge and congratulate him on his poor health.
Themes
After dinner, Joachim suggests to Hans that he accompany him to his monthly checkup with Behrens tomorrow—he can give Hans a quick look-over then. Hans agrees. They run into Behrens himself not long after and explain the situation to him, and he happily agrees to examine Hans during Joachim’s appointment tomorrow. He even seems delighted to hear that Hans has a slight fever, remarking that Hans is “talented” for having that high a fever so early, especially for “a beginner.”
Behrens’s joy at learning about Hans’s fever is ironic: as a doctor, Behrens should want patients to leave his institution healthier, not sicker, than when they arrived. His humorous remark about Hans being “talented” for getting a fever so early in his stay indicates how impressionable Hans is at this point. Hans arrived at the Berghof convinced that his health was robust and that he was eager to return to his life in normal society, and yet his health started taking a turn for the worse practically the minute he arrived, symbolizing his vulnerability to outside influences.
Themes
The next day, Hans accompanies Joachim to his appointment and watches as Behrens taps on different parts of Joachim’s body, ordering him to alternatively cough and take deep breaths. It’s clear that Joachim is very used to this procedure. Behrens remarks on a deep rattle in Joachim’s chest. Dr. Krokowski, meanwhile, sits in a corner and takes notes. Hans examines his cousin’s body and notes his toned physique. It makes sense that he wanted to become a soldier—he was always more mindful of physical health than Hans. Hans, on the other hand, was more interested in the pleasures of good food and drink. It’s ironic, then, that Joachim’s body is the one that has failed him. Illness, Hans muses, “turns [people] into only a body.”
Joachim’s mindfulness about physical health reflects his pragmatism and his ability to translate his ideals into action: he feels a sense of duty to serve his country, and so he ensures that he is physically fit to do so. Hans, on the other hand, lacks this sense of duty or direction, and he indulges in worldly pleasures instead. The irony of Joachim’s carefully maintained body failing him while Hans’s body has (for the most part) remained healthy speaks to the arbitrary nature of illness and suffering. Ultimately, Hans realizes, illness is only about the body: it has nothing to do with a person’s ideals or intentions.
Themes
When Behrens finishes, Joachim starts to ask him if he can go home soon, but Behrens sternly repeats what he told Joachim the other day—he’ll be there for at least another six months.
This scene reinforces Joachim’s resistance to the Berghof: despite being there for months and despite his poor health, he still can’t bring himself to feel at home there and can’t lose sight of his responsibilities back home.
Themes
Hans gets up for his turn. Behrens spins him around as though he’s a thing, not a person. He taps around on Hans body. After he asks Hans to cough a few times, he steps back and tells Hans that, just as he’s long suspected, Hans has been “secretly one of the locals” all along. Hans and Joachim freeze. Behrens taps a few spots on Hans chest and points out a muffled sound—a clear indicator of a fresh, moist spot in the lungs. He tells Hans it would be no use for him to leave for the flatlands now, as he’d inevitably just wind up back here due to his illness. Before Hans can leave, Krokowski approaches him and, placing one hand on Hans’s shoulder, presents his other hand for Hans to shake.
The physical and emotional symptoms Hans has experienced since he first arrived at the Berghof (the pounding heart, the propensity to philosophize, the increased need for sleep) culminate in this pivotal moment as he completes his transition from visitor to resident. When Behrens mischievously suggests that Hans has been “secretly one of the locals,” he’s suggesting that the ambivalence and unease that Hans’s character have made him a good fit for the Berghof’s atmosphere all along.
Themes
