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Part 6, Chapter 7
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
In a letter home, Tony complains about her struggles to adapt to life in Munich. She struggles to communicate with domestic staff, not understanding the south German dialect and slang. Tony’s marital troubles begin almost immediately when Permaneder funnels the entirety of Tony’s dowry into investments—and then decides to retire. Permaneder insists that he’s worked hard his whole life, and now he deserves to relax. He rents out certain floors of the couple’s house to supplement his investments, and he spends his evenings drinking and playing cards with friends. Tony is irate but tries to make the best of her situation.
As readers may well have predicted, Tony is unhappy in Munich, feeling out of her element in the southern city, where her family name carries little-to-no weight and where the cultural norms are totally alien to her. To make things even worse, Permaneder, like Grünlich, uses Tony’s dowry to serve his own interests, funneling the funds into investments so he can quit work and relax—and ignore Tony. In this way, history repeats itself: Tony marries a man to please her family, only to end up miserable and unfulfilled as a result.
Active
Themes
Things start to look up for Tony when she becomes pregnant, but that changes when her baby—another girl—dies only a few hours after birth. Tony herself is in poor shape following the birth. Bethsy is old now and can’t travel like she used to, so Thomas and Gerda travel to Munich to tend to Tony, who gradually recovers. Thomas is dismayed to find that the death of the child hasn’t seemed to bring Permaneder and Tony closer together. After a brief period of visible grief, Permaneder is back to “takin’ things easy” with his friends, and Tony’s letters home consistently evoke a tone of “hopelessness.” Then, toward the end of 1859, things take a turn for the worse.
Active
Themes
