The Magic Mountain Character Analysis

Hans Castorp

Hans Castorp is the novel’s protagonist. He is a young and impressionable German engineer who comes to the Berghof to visit his sickly cousin Joachim. Hans initially intends only to stay for three weeks… read analysis of Hans Castorp

Joachim Ziemssen

Joachim Ziemssen is Hans Castorp’s cousin. He is ill with tuberculosis and is a resident of the Berghof, where Hans visits him at the beginning of the novel. A soldier, Joachim has a deeply… read analysis of Joachim Ziemssen

Clavdia Chauchat

Clavdia Chauchat is a resident of the Berghof. She is of Russian descent but married to a French man, hence her French name. Clavdia’s husband never appears in the novel, however, and she hardly speaks… read analysis of Clavdia Chauchat

Mynheer Peeperkorn

Mynheer Peeperkorn is Clavdia’s lover. He is an older, retired colonial Dutchman with a bold personality and a taste for the fine pleasures of life. He is adept at entertaining audiences with his personable… read analysis of Mynheer Peeperkorn

Lodovico Settembrini

Lodovico Settembrini is a resident of the Berghof. An Italian intellectual, he is devoted to Enlightenment ideals of humanism, personal freedom, and democracy and loves to talk about them using crafty but compelling rhetoric. He… read analysis of Lodovico Settembrini

Leo Naphta

Leo Naphta is a man from a Jewish family who became a Jesuit as a youth. He intended to become a priest, but his failing health brought his studies to a halt. In the novel’s… read analysis of Leo Naphta

Dr. Behrens

Dr. Behrens is the director of the Berghof. Settembrini detests the man and sneeringly calls him Rhadamanthus, a reference to one of the judges of the dead in the underworld in Greek mythology. Settembrini’s nickname… read analysis of Dr. Behrens

Dr. Krokowski

Dr. Krokowski is Behrens’s assistant. He’s a friendly, spirited man in his early 30s. Krokowksi has a passion for psychoanalysis and regularly “dissects the patients’ psyches” in his basement office. He also presents bimonthly lectures… read analysis of Dr. Krokowski

Pribislav Hippe

Pribislav Hippe was a boy Hans went to school with in the seventh grade. He appeared to be of mixed origins and had narrow, slanted eyes, suggesting Slavic-Wendish roots. His eyes caused the other students… read analysis of Pribislav Hippe

Barbara Hujus

Barbara Hujus is a resident of the Berghof who died prior to Hans’s arrival. Joachim recounts crossing paths with a priest and altar boy on their way to Barbara’s room to perform the Catholic… read analysis of Barbara Hujus

Head Nurse von Mylendonk

Nurse von Mylendonk is the head nurse at the Berghof. She has a harsh, frank personality that rubs many residents the wrong way; Settembrini, for one, quite dislikes her. She carries a bag of… read analysis of Head Nurse von Mylendonk

Anton Ferge

Anton Ferge is a Russian man who is a resident at the Berghof. When Hans first meets Ferge, Ferge is recovering from a pneumothorax that almost killed him. Ferge is one the patients Hans and… read analysis of Anton Ferge

Ferdinand Wehsal

Ferdinand Wehsal is a merchant from Mannheim who becomes a resident at the Berghof. Hans finds Wehsal’s gloomy, self-deprecating disposition rather pathetic. Wehsal has a crush on Clavdia Chauchat (which also annoys Hans), though he… read analysis of Ferdinand Wehsal

Hermine Kleefeld

Hermine Kleefeld is a resident of the Berghof. She’s a mischievous young woman who plays a prank on Hans early in his stay at the Berghof, “whistling” through her side as he passes her by… read analysis of Hermine Kleefeld

Herr Albin

Herr Albin is a resident of the Berghof. He’s a bit of a rabblerouser—early in Hans’s stay, he overhears Herr Albin antagonizing several female patients, playfully (but effectively) intimidating them with his knife and… read analysis of Herr Albin

Tous-les-deux

Tous-les-deux is the nickname residents of the Berghof give to a Mexican woman who has come to the sanatorium to be with her eldest son, who is gravely ill and eventually dies. Her other son… read analysis of Tous-les-deux

Elly Brand

Elly Brand is a young woman from Denmark who becomes a resident at the Berghof sometime after Joachim’s death. She appears quiet and unassuming on the outside, but the other patients soon realize that… read analysis of Elly Brand

Marusya

Marusya is a coquettish young Russian woman who is a resident of the Berghof. She sits with Clavdia Chauchat at the Good Russian table in the dining hall. Hans notices that Joachim tries not to… read analysis of Marusya

Frau Stöhr

Frau Stöhr is a resident of the Berghof who sits at Hans and Joachim’s table in the dining hall. She’s described as having long, “rabbitlike” teeth. She’s an obnoxious woman who tries in vain… read analysis of Frau Stöhr

The Overblown Woman (Frau Zimmermann)

“The overblown woman” is the nickname Behrens gives to a Berghof resident whose real name, Hans eventually learns, is Frau Zimmermann. She’s one of the people Hans visits when he’s going through his phase of… read analysis of The Overblown Woman (Frau Zimmermann)

Leila Gerngross

Leila Gerngross is a resident of the Berghof. She’s gravely ill and expected to die. Hans and Joachim send the young woman flowers and then visit her during Hans’s phase of spending time with the… read analysis of Leila Gerngross

Fritz Rotbein

Fritz Rotbein is a resident of the Berghof. Hans and Joachim visit the young man and bring him flowers during Hans’s phase of spending time with the Berghof’s “poor sick.” Rotbein is so happy to… read analysis of Fritz Rotbein

Karen Karstedt

Karen Karstedt is one of Behrens’s outpatients. She is among the “poor sick” patients Hans and Joachim visit during Hans’s phase of visiting the sanatorium’s “poor sick” in an effort to dignify their… read analysis of Karen Karstedt

Uncle James Tienappel

James Tienappel is Hans’s favorite uncle. He visits Hans at the Berghof sometime after Joachim has left to return to his military service. James’s primary reason for visiting is to convince Hans to leave… read analysis of Uncle James Tienappel

Hans’s Grandfather

Hans moves in with his grandfather following the death of his parents. Hans’s grandfather was a senator and devout Christian, and he was skeptical of change and new ideas. Hans associates him with formality, respectability… read analysis of Hans’s Grandfather

The Austrian Horseman

The Austrian horseman is a resident of the Berghof. The day Hans first arrives at the Berghof, he overhears the man’s horrific, sickly cough, and the experience quite affects him. Indeed, the man’s cough seems… read analysis of The Austrian Horseman

Holger

Holger is the spirit through which Elly Brand supposedly convenes with the spiritual realm—he’s described as her “guardian angel.” After Elly’s supernatural abilities come to light, she leads some other residents in a séance, during… read analysis of Holger

The Loud Russian Couple

Hans’s neighbors at the Berghof are a Russian husband and wife who have loud sex in their adjacent room, behavior that initially puzzles and then later disgusts Hans when he realizes what they are… read analysis of The Loud Russian Couple

Emerentia

Emerentia (to whom the novel mostly refers pejoratively as “the dwarf”) works at the Berghof. Though she appears sporadically throughout the novel, readers only learn her name after a drunk Mynheer Peeperkorn, in his… read analysis of Emerentia

Minor Characters

Fräulein Engelhart

Fräulein Engelhart, a schoolteacher, is a resident of the Berghof. She sits at Hans and Joachim’s table in the dining hall and teases Hans about his obvious crush on Clavdia Chauchat.

Schalleen

Schalleen is a longtime servant of the Tienappel family. When the Tienappels take in the young orphan Hans, she becomes something of a surrogate mother to him.

Consul Tienappel

Consul Tienappel is Hans’s great uncle who became his guardian after the death of Hans’s grandfather. He’s a respected, affluent Consul and ensures that Hans has a comfortable, privileged upbringing.

Luise Ziemssen

Luise Ziemssen is Joachim’s mother. She comes to the Berghof to be with Joachim in his final days. She and Hans are at Joachim’s side when he dies.

Lukačnek

Lukačnek is a women’s tailor. He rents rooms in his Davos-Dorf home to Settembrini and Naphta.

Dr. Heidekind

Dr. Heidekind is a doctor who treats Hans when he is a young boy. Diagnosing young Hans as somewhat anemic, he instructs him to drink a glass of porter each day when he returns from school, a ritual Hans faithfully performs from that point forward.

The Magnuses

The Magnuses are a married couple who are both residents at the Berghof. Herr Magnus is a brewer.