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Part 8, Chapter 3
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
After Tony leaves to visit Hanno upstairs, Thomas tries to read his newspaper, but he can’t concentrate. He looks at himself in the mirror and finds his own face has become almost “unrecognizable” to him. He is only 42, but he feels so tired. People tell him how important he is around town. Mayor Oeverdieck has died, and his replacement, Dr. Langhals, considers Thomas his “right-hand man.” But the Buddenbrook firm isn’t nearly as prosperous as it once was. Thomas deeply regrets building his big, new house. He feels it has cursed him. Lately, the family has been cutting back where it can, having dessert only on Sundays. They fire Anton, their loyal butler.
Thomas’s aged appearance shows what a toll his work has taken on him. Rather than filling him with purpose, it has made him a shadow of his former self. Thomas’s political career has gained him some social clout, but try as he may, he cannot restore his family’s firm to its former prosperity. Given the Buddenbrooks’ enormous appetite for rich foods, it’s a big deal that they’ve had to limit their dessert intake to once per week. Thomas’s feeling that his new house has cursed him emphasizes how out of control he feels in his life.
Active
Themes
Thomas wonders if this period of misfortune might be good in the long run: might it strengthen him? He wonders why he was so opposed to doing business with Herr von Maiboom. Someone like Hagenström wouldn’t turn down such a deal—so why is Thomas so adamant about maintaining such high ethical standards? The tremendous blow the firm suffered in 1866 taught him how cutthroat the business world is; when his friends heard about it, they responded not with compassion or care but with “suspicion.” Time and again, no matter the suffering it causes him, Thomas can’t bring himself to become callous.
Thomas is conflicted about doing business with von Maiboom for moral and practical reasons. The human side of him (what remains of it, anyway) thinks it’s wrong to buy the desperate von Maiboom’s crop at a below-rate price. The practical side of him is skeptical of doing business with someone he knows nothing about. He also has a precedent to uphold: his elders didn’t do business with nobility, and he feels obligated to continue that pattern.
Active
Themes
Thomas has always been lauded as “a man of action.” But as he reflects on his life now, he wonders if this is right. Can the course of his life be attributed to his direct actions, or has it merely been fate that has led him to where he is today?
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Themes
Thomas recalls the anecdote he told Tony about Count Strelitz. He meant for the story to demonstrate Thomas’s unwavering self-confidence—but was that exactly it? After all, even a confident businessman “knows only one thing, understands only one thing, values only one thing—his profession.” Then Thomas remembers a remark Christian made at a dinner, “that every businessman is basically a swindler.” At the time the comment enraged Thomas. But now he is only furious with himself. At once, he decides that he’ll make the deal with Herr von Maiboom. Who cares about “all his moral scruples.” If the deal is a success, it could restore his family’s fortune.
Active
Themes
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The next day, May 28, Thomas tells Tony that he’s changed his mind and will offer von Maiboom the loan, suggesting that it’s the right thing to do, as he doesn’t want to put von Maiboom at the mercy of a potentially more “cutthroat” lender. On May 30, Thomas leaves to meet with von Maiboom. The next few days after that, Thomas is in a great mood and joking around happily with his family. On June 3, he gives a well-received speech at the senate on some banal issue that enables him to humiliate Hagenström.
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Themes
