The Magic Mountain: Part 4, Chapter 5: Hippe Summary & Analysis

Sunday afternoons also deviate from the sanatorium’s normal schedule, with residents taking carriage rides. It’s mostly the Russian women who participate in this activity. Hans watches Marusya and Madame Chauchat get into a carriage, laughing and chatting with each other. Each time he sees Madame Chauchat, he tries to recall the person she reminds him of, but he can’t recall the revelation he had in his dream. Joachim, meanwhile, watches Marusya with sad eyes. After supper that night, Hans parts ways with Joachim earlier than usual and returns to his room, falling fast asleep well before nine.

The following day brings another deviation from the norm when Krokowski delivers a lecture in the dining hall, something he does every other week. This talk is from a series called “Love as a Force Conducive to Illness.” The talks are essentially mandatory. Hans is excited and curious about the talk. But before, he decides to go on a long walk by himself—something that turns out to be a very bad decision. He wants to prove that he’s stronger and healthier than the residents—and he wants to get away from them for a bit, too. Joachim is wary and advises him not to overexert himself.

Hans sets off after breakfast and breathes in fresh, open air. He starts up the slope of the mountain, singing and humming a song about love as a hikes. Soon, he’s singing at full volume, belting out nonsense sounds when he forgets the words. At once, however, he feels short of breath. He tries to push on but eventually must sit beside a pine tree and gather his breath. He feels suddenly overcome with despair and feels his neck spasming. Instinctively, he thinks of his aged grandfather, and the thought disgusts him. Hans continues up the mountain, nonetheless. Later, his nose starts to bleed, staining his suit. Hans lies down until his bleeding stops and feels himself transported out of his body, while his real self travels to an earlier time and place—back to when he was 13. 

In Hans’s memory, he is in class—in seventh grade—talking to a boy named Pribislav Hippe, whom he has admired from afar for the past year. Hippe is a model student and the child of a history teacher. His appearance suggests his mixed origins: German and perhaps some Slavic-Wendish. All the children pick on him for his narrow, slanted eyes. Hans privately thinks of Hippe as his friend, though he doesn’t know him, and he gets a rush of joy whenever they cross paths or Hippe chances to look at him. After that one conversation in class, another year passes, and then Hippe transfers to another school. By that point, Hans has already forgotten about him.

The conversation with Hippe happens when Hans is in drawing class. He doesn’t have a pencil. He has acquaintances he could ask but feels he knows Hippe best—which is odd, since he’s never even spoken to him. Hippe obliges, but he orders Hans not to break the pencil. Their conversation is brief, yet Hans feels happier than he has ever felt before. After he is finished with the pencil, he sharpens it and keeps a few of the shavings, storing them in his desk for a year or two. In the present, Hans wonders what happened to the shavings—he certainty never removed them, and so they might even still be in his desk at Uncle Tienappel’s. It’s Hippe, Hans now realizes, whom Frau Chauchat reminds him of. They look oddly similar.

With a start, Hans realizes he has to head back to the sanatorium to attend the lecture. The walk back is horrible, and he has to stop often to rest. He gets as far as the spa hotel in Platz when he realizes he won’t be able to make it back to Berghof on foot because he’s too spent, so he catches a ride with a delivery wagon headed for Dorf. When he arrives at the dining hall, he finds all the other residents gathered before Krokowski, who is already speaking.