The Magic Mountain Literary Elements

Bildungsroman

Davos, the decade before World War I

The story is written using third-person narration

In general, the mood of the story is calm; event the deaths of some people are described as if it is not something grievous. The author imagines everything as if it should be so, and not in other way.

The protagonist of the story is Hans Castorp, and the antagonist is actually the sanatorium and its influence on Hans.

The major conflict takes place between Hans Castorp and sanatorium, in which the Europe and its influences are embodied.

The culmination of the story takes place when Hans gets to know about the beginning of the war. Then he seems to wake up from the deep sleep in the sanatorium and comes back home from the mountains.

The author shows the influence of politics on the people’s minds, shows the illnesses of the world of his time (and ours as well), warns to be careful, to notice our illnesses (metaphorically) and to treat them instead of just living in some sanatoriums and doing nothing but for talking about these illnesses.

The author intentionally understates the meaning of time, its length: 3 weeks are like 3 hours for Hans, and 7 years are like 7 days.

The author uses this method a lot: he alludes to Shakespeare’s “Faust”, to the “Iliad”, to the Bible etc.

See imagery section

Mann uses this method when describing Frau Chauchat: she is a beautiful woman, but she always slams the door, gnaws her nails etc. She is said that: “She is so heedless. A charming creature.”

The author describes the weather and Hans’ state in parallel: the worse Hans feels himself, the worse is the weather outside: for example when he gets to know that he is ill, it starts snowing (though it is August)

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The author uses this method when writing about “the breath of the panting engine”, “Space, rolling and revolving between him and his native heath, possessed and wielded the powers we generally ascribe to time.”