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Paradox
Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Part 4, Chapter 10: The Thermometer
Explanation and Analysis—Apollo Belvedere:
Hans employs an allusion and personification in a scene in which he accompanies Joachim to his medical exam, administered by Director Behrens and Doctor Krokowski. After Joachim undresses, Hans reflects upon his cousin’s bare body:
He always was concerned about his body, much more than I, or at least in a different way than I, because I was always the civilian, and more interested in a nice warm bath [...] And now his body has stepped to the fore, but in a totally different way, declaring its independence and putting on airs—by means of illness. He’s lambent, still toxic, and doesn’t seem to get any sturdier, no matter how much he wants to be a soldier in the flatlands. Look at him, a perfect adult male, an absolute Apollo Belvedere, to a T. But inside, Joachim is ill [...]
Hans notes that Joachim has always been more “concerned about his body” due to his desire to serve in the military. He is, Hans observes, “a perfect adult male, an absolute Apollo Belvedere, to a T.” This allusion to the Apollo Belvedere, a celebrated statue of the god Apollo dating to classical antiquity, suggests that Joachim’s body matches classical European standards of beauty and fitness. Hans, in contrast, is “more interested in a nice warm bath,” and he enjoys hearty food and drink in abundance.
Despite Joachim’s strict discipline, however, his body has rebelled against him. Here, Hans uses personification, treating Joachim’s body as having its own will, distinct from that of Joachim’s mind. He imagines it as “declaring its independence and putting on airs,” intentionally sabotaging Joachim’s military dreams by contracting illness. Hans’s language in this passage underscores the arbitrary and unjust nature of illness. Joachim has made all the right decisions and behaved responsibly, and yet his poor health hinders him from achieving his goals.
Related Themes:
Part 5, Chapter 7: Research
Explanation and Analysis—Life:
Mann employs extensive personification in a passage in which Hans, after reading a series of books about biology and anatomy, imagines that his own "life" has taken the form of a “voluptuous” woman.
He beheld the image of life, its voluptuous limbs, its flesh-borne beauty. She had loosened her hands from the back of her neck, and her arms—she spread them wide now, revealing the inner surface, especially the tender skin at the elbow with its blood vessels, two large bluish branching veins—her arms were of inexpressible sweetness. She bent toward him, bent down to him, over him, he sensed her organic aroma, sensed the lacelike pounding of her heart. He felt an embrace, hot and tender, around his neck [...] He felt the moist suckle of her kiss on his lips.
Hans, after giving up on the engineering book that he brought with him to the Alps, reads a stack of heavy books on biology and anatomy. In a daze-like state, he envisions his own life as a woman who demonstrates to him her internal anatomy, revealing her “blood vessels, two large bluish branching veins” in a seductive manner. She bends over Hans and he smells her “organic aroma” and feels the “lacelike pounding of her heart” before they embrace and kiss. Hans’s strange act of personifying his life as a woman suggests that he has accepted, at this point in the novel, an understanding of life as a strictly scientific and anatomical phenomenon. Life, he begins to feel, primarily consists of a series of unwilled anatomical motions, such as the flow of blood through the body.
Related Themes:
Part 6, Chapter 8: A Good Soldier
Explanation and Analysis—Death:
Director Behrens, hoping to sooth Luise as the death of her son grows closer, invokes a common notion of death as a personified, male figure:
If at the very end he is unable to sleep, his passing will nevertheless be swift, imperceptible—it won’t even matter much to him, you can be sure of that. It’s always that way, really. I know death, I’m one of his old employees. He’s overrated, believe me. I can assure you there’s almost nothing to him. The drudgeries that do on occasion precede death can hardly be credited to him, since they just prove that someone is alive and kicking [...] But if anyone ever did come back, they could not tell you much about death, since we don’t actually meet him.
Though Director Behrens has been, at times, an ambivalent and even cynical figure in the novel, he shows well-trained compassion to Luise in this scene. After arguing that death will be more or less “imperceptible” to Joachim, he states that he (Behrens) is one of death’s “old employees” and claims that death is “overrated.” Furthering his argument, he states that even the “drudgeries” or pains often attributed to death cannot be “credited to him,” as they in fact prove that a person is not yet dead. Any individual who comes back from the dead, Behrens claims, could say nothing about death since they “don't actually meet him.” In personifying death in this manner, Behrens presents death as an ineffectual or even absurd figure who does not warrant fear or terror.
Related Themes:
