The Magic Mountain: Foil 2 key examples

Despite their close bond and mutual appreciation, Hans and his cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, serve as foils for each other throughout the novel. The stark differences in their personalities and values are highlighted in a passage in which the narrator describes their respective career goals: 

Although damned complicated and demanding, [shipbuilding] was nevertheless an excellent, important, splendid profession and far preferable, given his peaceable nature at any rate, to that of his cousin Ziemssen, who was [...] determined to become an officer. Joachim Ziemssen wasn’t exactly strong in the lungs, of course, but that was precisely the reason why a profession in the open air, one that could hardly be said to involve serious brainwork or stress, was probably just the thing for him—as Hans Castorp had remarked rather patronizingly. For he had the greatest respect for work, although, for his part, he found that he did tire easily.

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Settembrini and Naphta serve as foils for each other in the second half of the novel, each passionately espousing rival worldviews. While Naphta combines communism and Catholicism into a system that, for Mann, borders on nihilism, Settembrini is a stubborn defender of secular rationalism and Renaissance humanism. These differences in temperament and philosophy come to a head when the two argue about the relationship between theology and sexuality. Settembrini begins by identifying himself with the West and Naphta with the East, a schema that Naphta quickly dismisses: 

“Ah, no, I am a European, an Occidental. Your ladder is pure Orient. The East despises action. Lao-tzu teaches that doing nothing is more beneficial than anything between heaven and earth, that if humankind were to stop all activity, perfect peace and happiness would reign on earth [...]” 

“You don’t say. And Western mysticism? And quietism? Among whose adherents one may include Fénelon, who taught that every act is flawed, since the will to act is an affront to God, who alone can will to act [...]  It seems to me that the spiritual possibility of finding salvation in repose is widespread throughout all mankind.”

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