Previous
Part 10, Chapter 3
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
In 1873, Weinschenk is released from prison several months before the end of his sentence. Secretly, Tony isn’t pleased with this—she likes living with just Erika and baby Elisabeth at Linden Platz, and she’s recently reconnected with Armgard, who moved to town following the death of her husband. But Weinschenk won’t be able to make a life for himself there after his imprisonment.
Despite the setbacks she has experienced in her years, Tony has managed to build a reasonably happy life with her daughter, her granddaughter, and her close friends and confidants. Her displeasure at the thought of Weinschenk returning and disrupting that life illuminates the tension between duty and personal happiness.
Active
Themes
One day, Tony asks Erika seriously if she really loves Weinschenk so much that she’s willing to follow him wherever he must go. Erika breaks down in tears in response—just as Tony herself responded when the consul posed a similar question to her so many years ago. So, Tony assumes that Erika will soon separate from Weinschenk.
Tony’s question to Erika mirrors the consul’s question to Tony years before concerning Grünlich. To her credit, Tony shows her daughter the same mercy and compassion the consul showed Tony years before, letting Erika’s happiness take priority over the potential social consequences of living as a divorced woman.
Active
Themes
Weinschenk is mopey and dejected upon his release. People see him as guilty and dishonest now, and he spends his days smoking cigars. Within a couple weeks, he insinuates that a position has opened for him in London. He says he’ll go alone now but will send for Tony and Erika once he’s settled in. Several days later, he writes, informing Erika that he won’t be sending for them—or staying in contact with them—after all. That’s the last they hear of him. Erika and Elisabeth move in with Tony at her apartment on Linden Platz.
Active
Themes
