The Magic Mountain

Though Joachim had hoped to make a speedy recovery, he has recently been told to wait another six months for another examination that will determine whether or not he is healthy enough to leave the sanatorium. Frustrated by these delays, which have impeded his military career, he complains that “time is passing [him] by” while he waits at the Berghof, “lounging about” and checking his temperature. Using a simile, he claims that he is “stagnating like an old water hole—a stinking pond.” There is a sense of situational irony to Joachim’s simile, which underscores his downbeat and depressed mood. Though he is at the Berghof in order to heal from tuberculosis, he instead feels that he is rotting there. 

Hans’s grandfather is a conservative figure in local politics who has stuck to his old ways despite rapid cultural and political changes in Germany around the turn of the 20th century. Though Hans reveres his grandfather, the older man is fixated on the past and has little interest in changes in fashion or custom. Ironically, Hans thinks of the painting as being the “real grandfather,” and in turn, regards his grandfather in his “everyday” existence as a “temporary, imperfectly adapted improvisation” of the man he sees represented in the painting. His grandfather’s “eccentricities” appear, to Hans, as “mere imperfections” or “inept adaptations” of the man in the painting. The narrator’s language here is highly ironic, as the painting is itself merely a representation of the actual, then-living man. For Hans, however, there is something artificial or unreal about his grandfather, who does not seem to fit into his modern surroundings due to his refusal to compromise or adapt to the changing times.

Slowly, Hans has come to acclimatize to the atmosphere and comforts of the Berghof despite his initial unease. When he lights his Maria Mancini cigar, a brand to which he is particularly loyal, he finds that it tastes “like paste, like coal, like anything except what it should.” These similes underscore the changes to Hans’s perception as well as his inability to make sense of these changes, which are likely caused by his own worsening illness. This scene is also saturated with a clear sense of dramatic irony, as the reader perceives that Hans is ill despite his stubborn insistence that he is healthy and ready to leave the sanatorium.

Here, the narrator uses metaphors drawn from the spheres of the spiritual and the supernatural. The administrators of the sanatorium, for example, are described as “invisible forces” who only “manifest” in the “management office,” and as “higher powers.” Director Behrens is described, in a metaphor, as the “soul of the place,” who holds the “highest and supreme” authority in the hospital, despite answering to the board of directors, whose job is to maximize profit. Given that the sanatorium presents itself as a modern and scientific institution, these metaphors are notably ironic. The narrator, then, characterizes the Berghof as an institution that lacks transparency and deliberately obscures its corporate structure.

Frau Stöhr presents herself as an educated and refined woman, though she often mixes up her references and uses words incorrectly, to the amusement of other patients such as Han and Settembrini. Here, she speaks with a characteristic mix of cliché and error, describing the difficult path to recovery as taking “two steps forward and three back” and complaining that the doctors have added “another six” months to her “sentence” at the sanatorium. This metaphor imagines the Director as the leader of a jail and the patients as prisoners. However, there is a clear sense of irony here, as Frau Stöhr is, like the other patients, free to leave whenever she wants. The novel suggests, then, that she is merely feigning a desire to escape the sanatorium and in fact hopes to stay there as long as possible. 

Further, she alludes to “the tortures of Tantalus.” In Greek Mythology, Tantalus was a mortal who drew the ire of the gods. In the most well-known version of the myth, Tantalus was forced to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree. Both the fruit and the water would forever elude his reach, leaving him perpetually hungry and thirsty, a state aggravated by the constant sight of the fruit and water. Frau Stöhr, however, has confused her references, as the mythological figure who is forced to eternally “push and push” a boulder to the “top of the hill” is in fact Sisyphus. With a clear sense of verbal irony, Settembrini sarcastically praises Frau Stöhr for adding “a little variety into poor Tantalus’s life” by mistakenly attributing to him an additional punishment. 

Despite insisting, at first, that he is not sick and does not need to receive treatment at the Berghof, Hans begins to regret not booking a longer stay as he reaches his third week there. Around the same time, his symptoms appear to worsen and he develops a fever, though it is unclear whether or not he is truly ill or has merely willed himself ill in order to extend his time at the sanatorium, where he has enjoyed a monotonous but relaxing life devoid of worry or labor.

Hearing of Hans’s high temperature, Director Behrens speaks as if he is impressed, noting that the temperature is “not bad” and characterizing Hans as “not at all untalented for a beginner.” Here, the Director’s language is dripping in verbal irony. Whether or not Hans is truly ill, his high temperature can hardly be regarded as a talent that is sharpened by expertise. The Director’s sarcastic language, then, suggests that he is aware that many of his patients remain at the sanatorium for relaxation rather than treatment, and he is cynically willing to take their money. 

Initially, Hans visited Joachim in the sanatorium in order to take a brief and relaxing break before heading off to begin his apprenticeship as an engineer. Ironically, however, he claims that he will “have to recuperate from my recuperation and sleep for three weeks” once he gets back to “the flatlands,” as he feels exhausted by novelties of the Berghof and the efforts he has taken to acclimatize to this strange environment.

With further irony, Hans notes that he has “caught a cold” as a result of “lying outside in the rest cure,” though the cure is in fact designed to aid in the recovery of the ill. The heavily ironic tone of this scene suggests that the Berghof is not, despite its status as a medical institution, a place dedicated to healing. Though some patients are indeed gravely ill, others remain there unnecessarily, enjoying an extended break from the stresses and realities of their regular lives. Few, if any, characters leave the Berghof in an improved state of health. 

Though he was ambivalent about the Berghof at first, Hans has allowed himself to grow comfortable in its complacent yet peaceful atmosphere. After receiving his X-ray results, which show a moist spot in his lungs (evidence of tuberculosis), he begins to carry them around in a manner that suggests that he is almost proud of being sick, as his illness justifies his stay at the sanatorium. Settembrini, who is deeply suspicious of the sanatorium, sarcastically compares the X-ray results to a “passport or membership card.” These similes underscore his growing conviction that the Berghof is not truly a hospital, but rather, a kind of extended holiday spot for tourists. Like any other tourist, Hans carries his “passport” around with him. Here, Settembrini’s language is dripping with verbal irony, as he clearly does not believe that Hans belongs in the sanatorium but does not yet wish to express his doubts openly.