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Part 3, Chapter 8
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
Tony and Morten are playing in the sand on the beach. It’s September now, and the vacation season has ended. Morten assumes that Tony will be leaving soon. He’s surprised when she says she hasn’t even thought about leaving. After a pause, Morten at last asks the question he’s been wanting to ask since Tony’s first day here: “who is Herr Grünlich?” Tony looks pained. In a serious tone, she explains that Grünlich is a business acquaintance of her father’s. He proposed to her, but she told him no, finding him silly and frivolous.
Grünlich’s name mentioned in passing clearly piqued Morten’s interest—he’s been secretly thinking about it all this time, seemingly worrying that Tony is romantically involved with someone. This hints at Morten’s interest in Tony romantically, feelings Tony seems to reciprocate. This is an issue, of course: Tony’s parents clearly want her to marry Grünlich, and Morten, with his working-class background, does not belong to the Buddenbrooks’ social class.
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Morten thinks Tony’s treatment of Grünlich is rather cold and unfeeling. He also tells her there’s nothing wrong about a man weeping over heartbreak. Tony’s eyes well, and Morten immediately feels bad. Then he takes her hands in his and nervously stammers, “you won’t mock me if I tell you that…” Tony cuts him off before he can continue. She informs Morten that she knows he has feelings for her—and she has feelings for Morten, too. Morten jumps up and lets out a loud whoop. He kisses her hands, overjoyed.
At last, Tony and Morten confess their feelings for each other. This is a happy moment, but readers may fear that happiness will prove to be short-lived. Morten does not come from the same class background, for one. And in the cutthroat, high-society world the Buddenbrooks inhabit, Morten’s kindness and compassion (which Morten demonstrates in his concern for Grünlich’s feelings despite the fact that Grünlich is for all intents and purposes Morten’s rival) leaves him at a distinct disadvantage.
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Morten gets down to business: Tony will be leaving soon, and he’ll have to return to school. But he'll be a doctor soon enough. Will Tony wait for him until he can present himself as a worthy suitor to Tony’s parents and ask for her hand in marriage? Tony, overjoyed, assures him that she will. They kiss on the sand, then both look away, embarrassed.
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