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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Buddenbrooks, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Sacrifice
Tradition, Modernity, and Change
The Protestant Ethic
Personal Fulfillment and Self-Knowledge
Pretense and Etiquette
Summary
Analysis
Bethsy Buddenbrook sits in the landscape room (so called for the tapestries depicting pastoral scenes that adorn its walls) next to her mother-in-law (Antoinette) on the sofa, listening to her eight-year-old daughter, Tony, recite scripture. Tony’s eagerness makes her grandfather, Johann Buddenbrook, let out a robust, mocking laugh. Out of respect, the others laugh along with Johann. Johann’s wife, Madame Antoinette Buddenbrook, laughs just like her husband. Antoinette’s daughter-in-law, Bethsy Buddenbrook, née Kröger, is elegant and confident, though rather plain. Her husband, the consul, has inherited his father’s “blue, watchful eyes,” though his face looks rather more anxious than Johann’s. Now, the consul chides Johann for poking fun at religion.
The novel opens with the core members of the Buddenbrook family gathered in an idyllic scene, underscoring the central role that family and family dynamics will play in the story. The elegant furnishings of the Buddenbrook home, namely the tapestries depicting peaceful pastoral scenes, immediately reveal the family’s wealth. They are not lacking in material comforts, and they are indeed comfortable. As the novel’s subtitle (“The Decline of a Family”) suggests, this abundance and prosperity won’t last forever.
Active
Themes
The family has only just moved into the large house on Meng Strasse, which the Buddenbrook firm recently purchased (the Buddenbrooks are a wealthy north German family of grain merchants). It’s October, and today is Thursday, the day on which the extended Buddenbrook family gathers every other week. It’s four o’clock now, which means the guests will be arriving soon.
The fact of the newly purchased house further illustrates the family’s wealth and success. The fact that they have regular family dinners reinforces the value they place on maintaining a strong family bond.
Active
Themes
Tony addresses her grandfather Johann excitedly, telling him a fact she’s learned about lightning and thunder bolts. Tony’s excitement annoys her grandfather (Johann), even more so when he hears that she learned it from her governess, Ida Jungmann. Johann is far less trusting of outsiders than the consul is, and he was furious when the consul returned from a trip to West Prussia with Ida Jungmann, “the consul’s act of Christian charity.” Even so, Ida turned out to be an excellent housekeeper and governess, and “her Prussian sense of hierarchy and loyalty” makes her a good fit for the family.
Active
Themes
Ida appears in the doorway, holding hands with young Klothilde. Klothilde, the daughter of one of Johann’s nephews, comes from a line of the Buddenbrook family that does not own any property. Now, Ida announces that everything is ready and that Klothilde has been a great helper in the kitchen. The consul praises Klothilde for her good work ethic, especially compared to Tony, who is rather lazy and self-absorbed. Tony looks downward and waits expectantly for her grandfather to defend her—which he does. Not long after, the evening’s guests begin to arrive.
Active
Themes
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