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Part 3, Chapter 5
Themes
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
Tony wakes the next morning feeling happy. She quite likes young Schwarzkopf, though she can’t remember his name. Tony leaves her room at half-past nine and finds Frau Schwarzkopf and young Schwarzkopf sitting at the coffee table, which has already been partially cleared. Frau Schwarzkopf apologizes that they didn’t wait for Tony, explaining that “we simple folks” get up early. Tony, embarrassed, apologizes and insists that she never sleeps this late.
Tony’s self-centeredness comes through in this scene. Though she insists she genuinely likes young Schwarzkopf, her interest in him isn’t great enough for her to bother to learn his name. Though Tony isn’t a fundamentally bad person, her wealth and status have up to this point made it possible for her to put her own interests and comfort ahead of other people. Similarly, her remorse at having slept in stems not from inconveniencing the Schwarzkopfs but from embarrassment: above all, she cares about her appearance and how she comes off to other people.
Themes
Frau Schwarzkopf gets up to get a head start on lunch preparations, leaving Tony alone with young Schwarzkopf. Tony asks what young Schwarzkopf is reading. He laughs, explaining that it’s a local paper—and not a particularly good one. He recommends some other, better papers to read—even if the King of Prussia might think otherwise (these papers are often critical of the government). When Tony asks Schwarzkopf’s opinion of the government, he appears flustered. Tony, sensing this, suggests they go walking together instead.
The mild tension in this scene as Tony inquires about young Schwarzkopf’s opinion on the government hints at yet another possible snag in the pair’s compatibility as a couple. Morten’s flustered response to Tony’s innocent question seems to suggest that he is aware of the power imbalance between them—he’s not comfortable expressing opinions about power and authority that she may disagree with.
Themes
