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Part 9, Chapter 1
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
The day after Bethsy’s death, Tony, dressed in black mourning clothes, kneels beside Bethsy’s body to pray. Thomas and Gerda arrive to discuss the matter of Bethsy’s belongings. Thomas and Christian immediately get into a scuffle over who will receive which items. Christian demands to have some of the linens, china, and silverware, which Thomas thinks is ridiculous. Then, Christian shocks everyone when he declares his plans to marry Aline. Thomas lashes out at his brother for his lack of “tact.” Christian angrily defends himself, explaining that he had the grace to wait until after Bethsy’s death to share the news—and anyway, he’s a grown man and can do what he wants with his life. Thomas, unrelenting, insists that Aline is lying about her daughter Gisela’s paternity and that Christian is not the little girl’s father.
The superficial and perhaps even unfeeling way in which the Buddenbrook siblings throw themselves into divvying up Bethsy’s belongings continues the recurring theme of the family’s tendency to blend business with family matters. One could also interpret their behavior as an attempt to cope with their new grief, distracting themselves with trivial matters to avoid the abject sadness they feel at their mother’s death. The heightened emotional state perhaps also explains Thomas and Christian’s major fight, though of course the brothers have been at odds with each other for practically their entire life.
Active
Themes
Christian has had enough and lashes out at Thomas, who has treated Christian with nothing but disdain. He thinks Thomas has no right to judge Christian or treat him the way he has. He thinks that if Thomas were really the superior son, he would have inherited his parents’ “Christian kindness.” But in fact, Thomas is and always has been a miserable and selfish person. When Christian starts complaining of his ill health, Thomas insists that Christian has only himself to blame: his ailments are the consequence of years of debauchery and self-indulgence.
Christian and Thomas’s argument here reveals their lifelong spat to be about more than mere sibling rivalry: at its core, it is about unreconcilable differences in their values. Thomas takes profound moral issue with Christian’s selfishness, laziness, and lack of tact. Ironically, perhaps, his condemnation of Christian has made him into a cold and embittered man unwilling to show mercy to his younger brother or try to find common ground.
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The brothers trade insults some more, and at last Christian runs from the room, still full of rage. The others remain quiet for a beat, and then Tony redirects the conversation to the matter of Bethsy’s furniture—and, more importantly, the house on Meng Strasse. Thomas says the house belongs to them all, but he thinks it’s wisest to sell it, as emotional as that may be. Tony’s head falls, remembering all the happy—and sad—times they’ve had in the house over the years.
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