Dialectic Thought in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain

Abstract

The dialectic character of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain is obvious. It appears in the discussion between Naphta and Settembrini, in the contrast between them down there and us up here, between Clawdia Chauchat, the Russian lady, and Hans Castorp, the gentleman from Hamburg, her unlikely lover, between Joachim Ziemssen's military and Hans Castorp's civilian attitudes, between personality and intelligence as in the encounter between Peeperkorn and Settembrini, to name only a few. Hans Castorp even dreams dialectically, contrasting the idyllic behavior of ideal mankind with the savagery of cannibalism. This paper does not investigate the ideas which Thomas Mann expounds dialectically they could scarcely be presented with greater vigor and clarity but tries to subsume his dialectical positions under certain categories, of which, without claiming completeness, perhaps the following seven might be established: 1) confrontation, 2) symbolization, 3) paradox, ambiguity and cancellation, 4) union of opposites, 5) transcendence, 6) transposition, and 7) balance. All major persons in The Magic Mountain appear dialectically bracketed; they do not live so much by themselves as in contrast to and in confrontation with their partner or partners: Hans Castorp and Joachim Ziemssen, Naphta and Settembrini, Hofrat Behrens and Dr. Krokowski, Clawdia and Hans Castorp, Clawdia and Peeperkorn, Joachim and Marusja, and so on. Until the very end of the story all persons define themselves or are defined by others. Differences between persons and situations are formulated with precision and obvious relish. Now, definition and self-definition are dialectical processes: one thing, one situation, one person is set