Barbara Hujus Character Analysis in The Magic Mountain

Barbara Hujus is a resident of the Berghof who died prior to Hans’s arrival. Joachim recounts crossing paths with a priest and altar boy on their way to Barbara’s room to perform the Catholic ritual for the dying. He followed them into Barbara’s room and watched as Barbara kicked and screamed with all her might the moment she realized what was happening. Joachim tells Hans this story, seemingly to teach Hans why the sanatorium tries to hide the dead and imminently dying from its heartier patients—fear can make people behave unpredictably and irrationally, and so it’s best for everyone if the dying accept their fates reasonably and discreetly. Hans finds this attitude appalling and disrespectful.

Barbara Hujus Character Timeline in The Magic Mountain

The timeline below shows where the character Barbara Hujus appears in The Magic Mountain. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...residents. He’d overslept and was in his room later than all the other residents when Barbara Hujus, a young Catholic girl, was brought the viaticum—the Catholic ritual for the dying. She’d... (full context)

...scream, full of “misery and terror and defiance […] and such ghastly pleading.” It was Barbara, who had crawled under her blanket as soon as she saw the priest, desperately refusing... (full context)