Buddenbrooks: Part 10, Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Tony sprints up the main staircase of Thomas’s home. She finds Gerda upstairs, her face stricken and horrified. The women embrace. Ida appears in the doorway, holding a basin, her eyes red. Tony enters Thomas’s bedroom, where Dr. Langhals is bent over Thomas, listening to his chest. Tony pleads with Thomas not to leave them. The elderly Dr. Grabow appears later to examine Thomas himself. He suggests that they send for a nurse for Thomas.

Hanno sits in the corner and looks on, his face blank. In the back of his mind, he considers the homework he ought to be doing. Each time Tony comes to him, he manages to cry. Meanwhile, he expects the arrival of “that odor, that strange and yet so oddly familiar odor.”

Later, Tony takes Dr. Langhals aside and asks him to be frank with her: will Thomas survive the night? Langhals looks away and mutters something vague about not knowing anything for certain. Tony takes this as confirmation that Thomas will soon die, and she sends for Pastor Pringsheim. Pringsheim arrives later and gives Thomas his last rites. The doctors come and go throughout the day. Thomas makes an “agonized gurgling” sound every so often. That evening, Thomas sobs a couple times, and then his lips stop moving. Dr. Langhals arrives shortly after and confirms that Thomas has died. Tony kneels before the bed and weeps loudly and without restraint.

Christian arrives not long after. Someone went to the Club earlier to inform him of Thomas’s fall, and he left straight away. But, unable to deal with what he might find at Thomas’s house, Christian switched course and went on a long, meandering walk beyond the town gate. By the time he learned how serious Thomas’s condition was, it was too late. Now he staggers into the room, his eyes blank and unseeing. Thomas was never sympathetic to Christian’s sufferings and shortcomings in life. And now, he has died and “left them all helpless in their shame.” Christian lowers his head and gently kisses his brother’s hand.

Various friends and family drop by to pay their respects. That evening, the family sits down together to compile a list of people to send death notices to. Tony bursts into tears now and then. Christian feels too numb to cry and feels guilty about it. Hanno begins to laugh, upsetting and angering them all. He laughs so hard he begins to snort, and he can’t seem to help himself. The adults try to convince themselves that he’s sobbing, but they know that’s not what’s going on. In the end, Gerda sends him to bed.