Previous
Part 5, Chapter 9
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
Thomas usually rises early and eats his breakfast alone. Gerda often suffers from migraines and tends to sleep in, so he often only sees her after he returns home from the offices on Meng Strasse in the evening. It’s a busy, bustling atmosphere on the lower floor, where business matters play out. But upstairs, the house is quiet and empty. Erika has been enrolled at Sesame Weichbrodt’s boarding school. Klothilde has gone to live in a room in the home of an old widow’s house. Anton has left to work for Thomas’s household. Christian is often out at the Club. Other than the usual family gatherings on Thursdays, Bethsy hardly socializes since Consul Buddenbrook’s death.
From the start, Gerda and Thomas’s marriage doesn’t appear to be particularly warm or affectionate. They have separate lives and don’t even eat breakfast together. Throughout the book, frequent medical ailments—a symptom of a weak constitution—are often tied to excess or overindulgence. Gerda’s migraines thus reflect her artist’s temperament. Tony, meanwhile, enrolls her daughter in Sesame Weichbrodt’s boarding school just as the consul did for Tony when she was a girl. Her choice to do so reflects her respect for family tradition as well as her close relationship with Sesame, who has remained a loyal and supportive mentor to Tony through the years.
Active
Themes
Thomas and Gerda frequently host lavish dinner parties. They invite the important merchant families. Thomas praises his wife’s talent for organizing and hosting these sophisticated events. He much prefers fancy dinner parties, having no desire “to throw a ball and have young people leaping around in here.”
Thomas sets himself apart from his forebearers with his interest in literature and the arts, but he upholds tradition otherwise, blending his family life with his professional life as he hosts elaborate dinner parties for important business associates. His contempt for “young people” and their balls shows him growing more conservative with age.
Active
Themes
In April, Thomas sits beside Bethsy as she reads aloud a letter Tony sent her from Munich, where she’s been visiting her friend Eva. Tony goes on about all the new things she has encountered in Munich so far. Tony complains about the starchy cuisine and the lack of seafood. Also, she’s had a hard time communicating with people due to the language barrier.
Active
Themes
Tony closes her letter with a description of a dinner party the Niederpaurs hosted, where Tony met Herr Permaneder, a hops merchant. She quite liked Permaneder and was pleased when he reported to know of and have great respect for the Buddenbrook firm. She has made plans to see him again, too. Tony goes on, insisting how much she likes Munich (except for the awful sauces) and wouldn’t mind finding someone to marry there. Thomas chuckles, having become exasperated by Tony’s phoniness at this point in her letter. Bethsy chides him to be kind to Tony.
Active
Themes
Get the entire Buddenbrooks LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
