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Part 6, Chapter 4
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
Permaneder moves into Meng Strasse and immediately sets about getting to know Tony’s friends and extended family. The ladies at Breite Strasse find him amusing. Sesame Weichbrodt finds him tiresome. Permaneder turns out to be a perpetually cheerful man, and he’s always happy to indulge in a good “smoke, drink, and chat.” It’s late in the season, so Thomas doesn’t formally introduce Permaneder to society, but he sees to all Permaneder’s needs. Bethsy treats him with polite friendliness. Tony blushes shyly when Permaneder does or says something uncouth.
Permaneder’s manners are poor, even if he doesn’t mean any harm. The Buddenbrooks put up with his unrefined manners because of his business connections. Tony is visibly embarrassed by Permaneder because he doesn’t fit in with Lübeck’s polite society. Tony is a Buddenbrook through and through, and appearances matter to her a great deal.
Themes
The night before Permaneder is set to return to Munich, Tony lies awake in bed, too anxious to sleep. Tomorrow, Permaneder is supposed to join the family for an outing. Tony suspects he will propose to her. She’s not sure how she should answer and summons Ida for advice. Ida asks Tony if she likes Permaneder. Tony admits she does. He’s not especially attractive, but so what? He’s kind and honest—unlike Grünlich. And though he’s not very wealthy, he’s easygoing.
Tony’s uncertainty about whether she should marry Permaneder reveals how unconfident she is in her convictions. She constantly looks to her family and their associates for reassurance about how she should feel and how she should act. Her incessant need for her family’s approval leaves her totally out of touch with her own wants and needs.
Themes
Then Tony segues into her concerns. She really liked Permaneder in Munich, when he was surrounded by people who are as easygoing and down to earth as he is—that’s how they are in the south. But Tony worries that Permaneder might think she’s a richer woman than she really is—Bethsy can’t afford to give Tony much of a dowry, Tony knows. Tony also finds that she feels rather embarrassed by Permaneder when he’s surrounded by Northerners, who are all so much more “ambitious and dignified, so to speak.”
Tony’s embarrassment reinforces how superficial and concerned with keeping up appearances she remains, a consequence of her upbringing.
Themes
Ida reassures Tony that none of that will matter when Tony is living with Permaneder in Munich. Tony agrees, but she’s worried about everything that comes before that—all the parties that will take place following the engagement. She’s worried about how embarrassed she’ll feel introducing him to all the important Northern families, like the Möllendorpfs and Kistenmakers. Still, Tony reasons that she must marry. It's been 10 years since she married Grünlich, and she’s not getting any younger.
Tony’s anxieties, however superficial and unfair to Permaneder, show how conflicted she is about marrying him. That alone should bar her from going through with the wedding, should Permaneder propose. But she manages to talk herself out of her doubts, due both to her anxieties about aging out of marriageability, as well as an unspoken sense of duty to her family—marrying Permaneder, after all, gives the Buddenbrooks a potential business connection in the south.
Themes
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Ida protests that Tony shouldn’t do something she doesn’t want to do, but Tony reassures her governess that she’s “not a silly goose anymore.” She knows from Tom’s treatment of Permaneder that this is what he wants her to do. He’s looked into Permaneder’s business, which seems to be in good shape. Tony’s marriage to Permaneder would allow for the formation of a beneficial alliance for the Buddenbrook firm. Still, Tony admits, it’s a shame. She is 30 now, and yet she still feels so young. But in the end, that’s the card she was dealt.
Tony’s recurring refrain of being (or in this case, not being) “a silly goose” returns in this scene. Here, Tony uses the phrase to indicate that she has learned her lesson about not dragging her feet in submitting to her family’s wishes for her, as she did with Grünlich. She knows based on how Tom treated Permaneder that he wants Tony to marry the Southerner—and she knows based on her previous marriage that she really doesn’t have a choice in the matter, even if people claim she does. Her family and their legacy come first, full stop.
Themes
