The Magic Mountain: Part 3, Chapter 2: Breakfast Summary & Analysis

Joachim greets Hans and asks how he slept. Hans grumbles about his strange dreams and about all the noise the Russian couple has been making. He asks about an older woman dressed in black (Tous-les-deux) whom he’d seen walking in the garden that morning. Joachim say she’s Mexican and doesn’t speak German. She’s visiting her son, who will almost certainly not recover and will likely be dead soon enough. And since then, her other son, who had only come to visit, has gotten deathly ill, too. As Hans thinks about this, his eyes turn red and puffy, as though he’s been crying—just as they did yesterday when he heard the man’s horrible cough.

As Joachim and Hans walk to breakfast, Joachim tells Hans about the sanitorium’s various residents. Hans refuses to meet the noisy Russian couple, whom he despises. Joachim says this is fine—they’re barbarians and sit at the “Bad Russian” table. There’s also a “Good Russian” table, where the more civilized Russian residents sit, but it’s unlikely Hans will meet any of those Russians, either.

In the dining hall, Hans and Joachim sit down at one of seven long tables, and Hans is pleased to see how elaborate breakfast is. One of the workers asks him what he’d like to drink, and Hans realizes that she’s a dwarf. This shocks him, but Joachim is totally unfazed. As Hans eats, he observes Joachim and the other residents, “companions in misfortune,” all eating and chatting happily together. He also observes the hall’s décor, which is sleek and modern but also with “a dash of fantasy” to it.

Frau Stöhr sits at their table. Trying to appear “refined” as she talks, she raises her upper lip to reveal long, “rabbitlike” teeth. A man sitting next to her has a disgusted look on his face and says nothing. He doesn’t try to get acquainted with Hans, and Hans speculates that perhaps he’s too sick to see the point in making any new acquaintances. Joachim chats politely with Frau Stöhr, who complains to him of her health, noting her high temperature that morning. Hans joins in on the dull conversation. Inwardly, he considers how normal the dining hall feels—he’d worried it would be depressing being around sick people, but it feels perfectly ordinary. 

On their way out of the dining hall, Hans and Joachim run into Director Behrens and Dr. Krokowski. Behrens, a tall, very thin man, introduces himself to Hans. He has purple cheeks that stand out against his white surgical clothing. Krokowski is also dressed in his professional clothing and behaves exactly as one would expect an assistant to behave, never speaking but making silent, knowing glances. Behrens notes that Hans—unlike Joachim whose military background has made him bad at being sick—will make a great patient. Hans, Behrens insists, is “civilian” and “comfortable.” 

Behrens notes Hans’s pale complexion and declares that he’s anemic. He suggests that Hans should work on improving his coloring if he wants to do well with lady residents. Then, he gives Hans some advice: “to live for a while as if it were a slight tuberculosis pulmonum,” increasing the protein in his blood. Then he turns to Joachim, reminding him to stick the “mercury cigar” in his mouth and record the results for his checkup on Saturday.