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Part 5, Chapter 6
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
Thomas writes to Bethsy from Amsterdam and gives her his consent to accept Tiburtius’s proposal to Clara. Then Thomas adds his own good news: at a banquet held in his honor, Thomas reconnected with Gerda Arnoldsen, Tony’s roommate from boarding school, who comes from a respected merchant family. Thomas liked Gerda immediately, and the two talked for hours. The next day, Thomas went to see the Arnoldsens. The visit went well, and Thomas soon went to Herr Arnoldsen to ask to marry Gerda. To Thomas’s delight, Herr Arnoldsen and Gerda both accepted Thomas’s proposal. Thomas hopes that Gerda and her family will visit Meng Strasse in August, so Bethsy can meet them. He's also pleased at how wealthy his future in-laws are.
Thomas describes his and Gerda’s supposed emotional connection, but the fact that he ends his letter to Bethsy with a passing remark about how wealthy his future in-laws are suggests that money has played at least some part in Thomas’s choice to propose to Gerda, and perhaps even his attraction to her in the first place.
Themes
