Buddenbrooks: Part 10, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Autumn arrives. Dr. Langhals suggests that Thomas spend some time in Travemünde; it will do wonders for his health. Christian offers to join him. Though Thomas doesn’t really want him there, he doesn’t protest. Christian has recently given up his job in the champagne and cognac industry due to his poor health. The “‘ache’ in his left side” is still there and has gotten worse in recent years. Christian has never been one for “tact,” but his poor manners have gotten worse of the years. He says whatever is on his mind, no matter how grotesque or inappropriate. When he’s not at the Club, he busies himself with intellectual pursuits, learning different languages.

Thomas goes to Travemünde because his doctor ordered it, but he doesn’t enjoy himself. He grumbles with the other men at Travemünde about the decline of society these days. Alfred Lauritzen, of Sturmann & Lauritzen, was recently elected to the senate, and Thomas isn’t happy about it. The man comes from a middle-class background. Things sure are different than they used to be.

The men’s conversations inevitably turn to business. Thomas laments how little joy business brings him these days. Gosch grumbles that Strunck & Hagenström is the only firm making any big deals lately. Tony visits Thomas in Travemünde every so often. Sometimes they walk together to the Temple of the Sea. On these walks, she talks disparagingly of class hierarchy and preaches the equality of all people, much to Thomas’s amusement. She has remained, throughout the years, full of “childishly self-important words.” Despite a life of disappointment and hardship, she hasn’t let anything wear her down. She believes that God will punish those who have wronged her.

Now, it is autumn. Thomas and Tony go walking hand in hand and arrive at the Temple of the Sea at dusk. Thomas stares out at the sea and remarks on the waves, which are “bleak and pointless,” yet simultaneously “calming and comforting.” He muses that if a person finds meaning in “the wide simplicity of external things,” it’s because they are “weary from the chaos within.” Tony considers this in silence a moment and then pulls away from Thomas, telling him that such thoughts are best kept to oneself.