The Magic Mountain: Part 5, Chapter 6: Humaniora Summary & Analysis

After dinner one October afternoon, Hans and Joachim sit away from the others in the garden. Hans is a little annoyed that Joachim doesn’t want to sit near the others, but he’s smoking a Maria Mancini—he’s since been able to enjoy the taste of them once more—so he’s not too upset. Just then, Behrens approaches the cousins. He inquires about Hans’s cigar, and then he and Hans exchange brands. They talk a bit about cigars and cigarettes, and then Hans asks Behrens about his occasional painting hobby. Behrens admit that he’s painted a couple portraits. Hans says he’d like to see the doctor’s work. Behrens happily offers to show Hans what he’s done and invites Hans and Joachim over to see his paintings.

Behrens’s quarters are furnished in the “Turkish” style. His paintings mostly consist of landscapes, though there are several portraits of his late wife. Finally, Hans finds what he’s been looking for: Behrens’s portrait of Clavdia. Hans casually mentions that he recognizes the portrait’s subject. He and Joachim study the painting. Clavdia looks a bit older in the painting than she is in real life. Her coloring isn’t quite right, and Behrens’s rendition has also “coarsened” her features. They discuss Frau Chauchat and Behrens’s inability to quite capture her character—while he’s intimately familiar with her insides from examining her as a physician, her outside confounds him. Noting her “slanted and slit” eyes, Behrens declares her a “titillating little mystery.”  He also mentions that the beautiful, external female form is really made up of fat. Hans praises Behrens’s ability to distinguish between the “medical” and the “lyrical.”

Hans goes on a long tangent about all humanistic professions being about the beauty of the human form, when it comes down to it. He praises portraiture as a superior art form and suggests that the portrait of Clavdia might look better hung above Behrens’s sofa. He's not at all self-conscious about his unprompted, long-winded spiel. After, Hans and Joachim follow Behrens into his kitchen, where the doctor brews Turkish coffee for the three of them.

Hans changes the subject, asking Behrens about human skin. He explains that he’s very interested in the human body in general. In fact, he might have become a doctor or a clergyman, had his life circumstances not led him to become an engineer. Behrens, intrigued, describes the skin’s primary function as dispelling danger. He talks about how a person’s expanding blood vessels cause them to blush when they’re embarrassed. On the other hand, when a person sees something physically beautiful, their blood vessels shrink, causing their skin to appear pale and feel cold. Behrens explains that scientists theorize that all psychological responses are geared toward protecting the body. 

Hans eagerly asks Behrens to expand on his earlier mention of the lymphatic system, and Behrens obliges. Hans exclaims at how interesting he finds all this—“the formation of breast milk…the lymph of the legs.” He pleads with Behrens to tell him what the body is made of. Behrens replies that Hans will be disappointed to know the body is mostly water—and the parts of it that aren’t water are mostly “egg white, or protein,” with a bit of fat and salt thrown in, too.

Behrens then talks about the protein that causes rigor mortis, a phenomenon Hans happily admits being familiar with. Hans then muses that a person interested in life is really interested in death. Behrens disagrees, though, noting that there is a difference: life is about “retain[ing]” a form, whereas death isn’t. Behrens teases Hans for his exuberance today. Then he excuses himself, explaining that he’s begun to feel rather melancholy. Once alone, Joachim admits that Hans’s idea to talk to Behrens at least changed up their schedule a bit.