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
With spring’s arrival, flowers begin to appear in the meadow beyond the sanatorium. Hans picks bouquets of them to bring back to his room to study. He picks them apart, examining their structure and parts, comparing them against the charts he’s seen in textbooks. At night, he studies the stars in the night sky. While walking through town one day, Hans prattles on about the zodiac and humanity, and Joachim accuses him of being just like Settembrini. Undeterred, Hans continues his spiel, describing “primitives” who hold midsummer festivities to impose meaning on and break up the endless cycle of “eternity.”
Spring conventionally represents rebirth and renewal, but the monotonous, stagnant environment of the Berghof complicates this symbolism. Here, the seasons aren’t so sharply defined—spring flowers can unexpectedly give way to snow and an overcast sky. Likewise, residents’ health ebbs and flows, as do the passing fancies with which Hans occupies his time. With all his talk of the zodiac and humanity, he seems already to be moving on from botany.
Themes
Just then, Hans and Joachim encounter Settembrini on the street. He’s engaged in conversation with a stranger. The cousins greet their old companion and pressure Settembrini to introduce his companion—something he initially seems reluctant to do. The man’s name is Naphta, and the cousins learn that he’s another man to whom Lukačnek, the women’s tailor, is renting a room. Naphta is a well-dressed man with a “caustic” appearance and personality. Settembrini explains that Naphta is a professor of classical languages at the Fridericianum.
Naptha’s appearance just after Clavdia’s departure is significant, suggesting that he may function as a replacement for her, embodying a set of traits and worldviews that contrast with Settembrini’s—and thus serving as new competition for the impressionable and naïve Hans’s loyalty.
Themes
Settembrini and Naphta philosophize and argue back and forth. Naphta pokes fun at Settembrini for praising nature’s “austerity” and for being a rationalist. Settembrini, in response, criticizes Naphta for dividing the world into realms of “God” and “nature” for his own amusement. They disagree about what the Spirit and religion brings to humanity. Naphta thinks religion brings freedom, but Settembrini responds that “freedom” is about the love of humankind, not the “nihilism and malice” that Naphta attributes to it. Naphta accuses Settembrini of simply being afraid of nihilism. Joachim and Hans exchange a glance.
Already, the novel makes clear the sharp contrast between Settembrini’s and Naphta’s values. Settembrini maintains his firmly held, humanist belief that humankind reaches its full potential on earth, through rational engagement with the surrounding world. Naptha, on the other hand, suggests that humankind cannot reach its full potential in the earthly realm. Rather, a person reaches their full potential only in the spiritual realm. Settembrini believes that such a worldview degrades humankind and life in general. He astutely points out its inherent contradiction, as well: despite Naphta’s religious affiliation, his view of humanity is fundamentally nihilistic.
Themes
Hans muses that Naphta must value the military life because of its “ascetic” qualities—it’s much like serving the church, in this way. Naphta agrees with him. Settembrini, meanwhile, argues the profession holds no intellectual merit. The conversation’s focus shifts to politics, specifically war. Much to Naphta’s delight, Hans recalls all the times Settembrini has advocated for rebellion in the name of human progress—meaning he is pro-war, and therefore in contradiction with his self-proclaimed humanist bent. Naphta’s stance on war and politics is more cynical. He sees them not as exercises in the democratic process, but rather an outlet for moral compromise. Naphta and Settembrini continue to argue back and forth, aggressively but playfully, until at last they reach their house.
As Naphta and Settembrini argue, each pokes legitimate holes in the other’s arguments revealing the contradiction and underlies their logic. This shows the limitations of rationality and abstract ideals. Ultimately, this is all very confusing for Hans as he struggles to complete his self-education.
Themes
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Before parting ways, Naphta invites Hans and Joachim to come visit him. Once alone, the cousins discuss the small, unpleasant man. Joachim liked some of the things Naphta said but finds him to be a “dubious character.” Hans thinks they should take Naphta up on his offer to visit him—they might learn something. He admits that the more Naphta and Settembrini argued, the more confused he got. Joachim scoffs at Hans’s incessant “learning,” reminding him that they’re here to get well, not to learn. He says it’s better to go through life with “no opinions at all and just do your duty.” Hans thinks this is fine for Joachim as a soldier, but for Hans—a civilian, in charge of himself—thinking and understanding is vital. Plus, he thinks Joachim is wrong to assume that learning and getting well are mutually exclusive—Hans thinks they must be linked.
Hans’s eagerness to visit Naphta despite the fact that Naphta is unpleasant and even seems rather suspect (or “dubious,” as Joachim puts it) shows how naïve and undiscerning he his. He’s unable to differentiate good and helpful knowledge from “dubious” and harmful knowledge and takes everything he learns, whether from Settembrini or Krokowski or Clavdia Chauchat, at face value. When Joachim criticizes Hans for “learning” instead of focusing on getting better, he suggests that Hans’s intellectual curiosity is self-destructive. Implicitly, he's suggesting that Hans’s intellectual pursuits—which remain unorganized, unformed, and abstract—do nothing to improve Hans’s quality of life. Instead, they distract him from what ought to matter: the practical pursuits of getting better and returning to the life and responsibilities he left behind when he came to the Berghof.
Themes
