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Part 1, Chapter 10
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
Two and a half years pass. It’s April 14, 1838, and spring is in full swing. Johann sits beside the cradle of his new granddaughter, Clara, who was born just that morning—somewhat prematurely. In the next room, the consul writes in the family records, describing his daughter’s early entry into the world and thanking God for looking after the family. The consul writes several pages more and then decides he’s written enough. He looks through past entries and marvels at all God has blessed him with.
A premature birth can cause health complications today, but it would have been an even greater cause for concern in the 1800s, when the novel takes place. Clara’s early and somewhat harrowing entry into the world thus points symbolically toward the tenuous hold the Buddenbrooks have on their good fortune, and it foreshadows the gradual decline the family will undergo as the years go by. The consul’s documentation of Clara’s birth in the family records serves a practical and symbolic purpose, recording an important event so that it is not lost to the ravages of time while also showcasing the family legacy as a key source of pride for the Buddenbrooks.
Active
Themes
The farther back the consul goes, the more aged and yellow the record’s pages become. He turns back to Johann’s account of his marriage to Josephine, his first wife, with whom he only had one year—her pregnancy with Gotthold was difficult, and she ultimately died in childbirth. Based on some remarks Johann made in journal entries, it seems to the consul now that Johann despised Gotthold from the start.
The color yellow is an important symbol in the book, sometimes representing moral or spiritual decay. The yellowed pages of the family records show their age, but they also point toward the unavoidable truth that everything grows frail and weathered with age—even the impressive and mighty Buddenbrook family legacy. Johann’s writings about his estranged firstborn son reveal that his ire toward Gotthold isn’t purely a matter of business: it’s also subjective and personal, perhaps stemming from the (unfair) blame he places on Gotthold for the death of Josephine, who died giving birth to him.
Active
Themes
Elsewhere in the family records, Johann has outlined the family’s genealogy, tracing their roots all the way back to the 16th century, when a Buddenbrook became an alderman in Grabau. A later ancestor—a merchant tailor—married into a wealthy family and had many children—“had done very well,” Johann’s penmanship stresses.
Active
Themes
The clock chimes, and the consul returns the book of family records to its rightful place in the back drawer of the secretary desk. Then, he joins his family in the other room, where Johann and Antoinette are gathered around baby Clara as Bethsy lies happily in bed. Bethsy is tired but happy. Madame Antoinette praises Clara’s plump form, and Johann suggests the child looks like his Netty.
Active
Themes
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