Mynheer Peeperkorn Character Analysis in The Magic Mountain

Mynheer Peeperkorn is Clavdia’s lover. He is an older, retired colonial Dutchman with a bold personality and a taste for the fine pleasures of life. He is adept at entertaining audiences with his personable demeanor and bold manner of speaking, though ultimately much of what he says is nonsense, and he’s never able to complete a thought. Peeperkorn represents excess, decadence, and irrationality, traits the novel associates negatively with Eastern sensibilities. Hans responds to Peeperkorn’s arrival with ambivalence. On the one hand, he is jealous of the man’s relationship with Clavdia and resents him somewhat. But he also quite likes Peeperkorn and wants Peeperkorn to like him, too—despite, or perhaps even because of, Settembrini’s warnings that Peeperkorn is a fool. Peeperkorn invites Hans and some others to visit a nearby waterfall with him one day, and he becomes deeply dejected when he tries and fails to entertain his guests, the loud roar of the waterfall rendering his words inaudible. Later that night, he dies by suicide, having injected himself with poison.

Mynheer Peeperkorn Character Timeline in The Magic Mountain

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

Mynheer Peeperkorn, an old, colonial Dutchman from Java and recently retired from the coffee trade, arrives at... (full context)

Peeperkorn has an entertaining, loud personality that attracts an attentive audience at his dining table, even... (full context)

Once, Peeperkorn approaches the serving woman in the dining hall (who has dwarfism) and exuberantly lets her... (full context)

Everyone at the Berghof is quite taken with Peeperkorn, and they all notice the expensive necklace around Clavdia’s neck and look at Hans with... (full context)

...Moscow, her stays at German spas, and a trip to Spain. When the subject of Peeperkorn comes up, Hans scowls and mockingly insults the man’s tendency to ramble and never get... (full context)

Just then, Peeperkorn arrives, interrupting Hans and Clavdia’s stilted conversation. Clavdia introduces the men to each other. It’s... (full context)

...But to everyone, the gambling isn’t the main attraction of the game: it’s witnessing Mynheer Peeperkorn in his element, even if most everything he says is utter nonsense. Peeperkorn orders lots... (full context)

Hans smokes, and Clavdia joins him. Peeperkorn disapproves of smoking, deeming it an “over-refined pleasure[]” that detracts from “the simpler gifts of... (full context)

Peeperkorn praises Hans’s response but admits that he isn’t yet ready to address Hans using informal... (full context)

When Peeperkorn pauses his speech, Hans interjects to argue that, perhaps, enjoying life’s “over-refined pleasures” signifies an... (full context)

Abstract Ideals vs. Lived Experience Theme Icon

Clavdia interrupts to tell Peeperkorn that he isn’t paying enough attention to his guests, who are getting bored. She suggests... (full context)

...Behrens is heading their way to break up the party, and people begin to panic. Peeperkorn calls everyone “spineless slaves,” but he settles down after Clavdia and Hans remind him that... (full context)

Mynheer Peeperkorn stays at the Berghof into the spring. The longer Hans knows him, the more his... (full context)

The day after Peeperkorn’s grand party, all the residents who attended feel quite ill, Peeperkorn included. Hans goes to... (full context)

Peeperkorn offers Hans some of the leftover sparkling wine—it’s the best thing for a swift recovery.... (full context)

From that point forward, Hans sits and listens to Peeperkorn talk. Sometimes, Wehsal and Ferge accompany him to Peeperkorn’s room, as do Settembrini and Naphta.... (full context)

In his bedroom, Mynheer Peeperkorn doesn’t seem quite as grand as he does in an open space. He seems smaller... (full context)

The narrator notes how Peeperkorn’s presence has a “neutraliz[ing]” effect on Settembrini and Naphta’s intellectualism. While Naphta and Settembrini flourish... (full context)

Hans talks about how difficult it has been to see Clavdia in the company of Peeperkorn. He tells Clavdia he can understand why she loves a “personality” like Peeperkorn and asks... (full context)

Clavdia admits that she finds Hans’s “detachment” frustrating, and thus in contrast to Peeperkorn’s effusive passion. Even so, she’s glad that Hans has been respectful toward Peeperkorn rather than... (full context)

Sometime later, Hans pays Peeperkorn a visit at his bedside, effusively proclaiming what an honor it is that Peeperkorn allows... (full context)

Suddenly, Peeperkorn turns to Hans and asks if Hans loves Clavdia. The question flusters Hans, but Peeperkorn... (full context)

Hans backtracks and asks Peeperkorn if he may take a moment to complain about his “life and fate.” Peeperkorn agrees... (full context)

Hans finishes his speech. Peeperkorn looks at Hans meaningfully and expresses regret for the pain that his and Clavdia’s arrival... (full context)

It’s May now, and lately Peeperkorn’s sickness has considerably limited his activities. He hasn’t hosted many social gatherings, and his and... (full context)

...to pick up Settembrini and Naphta at their lodging house. Naphta joins Clavdia, Ferge, and Peeperkorn’s carriage while Settembrini joins Hans and Wehsal’s, and then the party continues on its way.... (full context)

Eventually, they arrive, and everyone hops out of the carriages and stands behind Peeperkorn to admire the majestic intensity of the waterfall. After a while, they retreat from the... (full context)

...tells him Clavdia has asked that he come at once. Hans hurries to Clavdia and Peeperkorn’s living quarters and finds the door to Peeperkorn’s parlor wide open. The head nurse, Krokowski,... (full context)

...Clavdia tells Hans that he had a right to be informed, and Hans agrees, noting Peeperkorn’s having extended him “the brotherhood of informal pronouns.” Now, he feels horrible that he was... (full context)

Sometime after Peeperkorn’s death, Behrens approaches Hans, noting how “bored” and “jaded” Hans seems. He explains that something... (full context)