Passion

The Theme in the Work

The passion begins with a door. In Chapter III, the glass door of the dining room slams during breakfast, and Hans Castorp feels a deadly hatred for the noise; at lunch he sees who slams it, Madame Clavdia Chauchat, thinks "A female, of course!" and is struck by a vague memory that he cannot place. At night he dreams that he asks her for a pencil in the schoolyard, and that she holds out the palm of her hand for him to kiss.

Chapter IV supplies the missing name. After a nosebleed on a solitary walk, Hans Castorp remembers Pribislav Hippe, the schoolmate with Kirghiz eyes to whom, at thirteen, he lent a pencil; at Dr. Krokowski's lecture, which teaches that every illness is transformed love, he recognizes Pribislav's eyes in Clavdia. His heart, which used to beat without connection to his soul, now makes sense, and Miss Engelhart discovers her name for him.

In Chapter V the thermometer (see the thermometer) follows the passion: the mercury falls when Clavdia looks at his yellow shoes and rises when she returns his good morning. On Walpurgis Night, the Carnival game gives him an excuse to ask for a pencil, and Hans Castorp declares his love in French, the language in which speaking is speaking without responsibility, as in a dream. Clavdia announces that she leaves the next day and goes off asking for her pencil back. In Chapter VII she returns to the Berghof at the side of Pieter Peeperkorn; Hans Castorp refuses to kiss her on the forehead in front of him, is kissed by her in the vestibule, does not deny the past when Peeperkorn questions him, and only kisses her on the forehead after the Dutchman kills himself.

Hans Castorp's passion is always a second time: Clavdia is loved because she repeats Hippe, and the pencil passes from one scene to another as proof. Krokowski provides the theory, the thermometer provides the measure, and the novel never separates love from fever. The ending is as ironic as possible: the rival Hans Castorp does not confront is the one who offers him brotherhood, and the kiss on the forehead that he refused in front of the living Peeperkorn happens only in front of the dead man.

Where It Appears

• Chapter III, A Female, Of Course!: At lunch, Hans Castorp sees Madame Chauchat slam the glass door, thinks "A female, of course!" and feels a vague memory, without knowing of what or whom, when he sees her face.
• Chapter III, Satan Makes Dishonorable Proposals: On the night of the first day, Hans Castorp dreams that he is going to ask Madame Chauchat for a pencil in the schoolyard and, in a dream that repeats itself, she holds out the palm of her hand for him to kiss.
• Chapter IV, Hippe: After a nosebleed on a solitary walk, Hans Castorp recalls Pribislav Hippe, who lent him a pencil when they were thirteen, and notices that the schoolmate looks like Clavdia.
• Chapter IV, Analysis: At Krokowski's lecture, Hans Castorp sits right behind Madame Chauchat and recognizes in her eyes those of Pribislav, the schoolmate who lent him the pencil.
• Chapter IV, Table Talk: Miss Engelhart discovers that Madame Chauchat's name is Clavdia, and Hans Castorp begins to wait for each meal as a new encounter with her.
• Chapter V, Caprices of Mercury: Clavdia's glance at Hans Castorp's yellow shoes drops his temperature for two days, and the good morning she returns on the path to the woods makes the mercury rise again.
• Chapter V, Walpurgis Night: On Walpurgis Night, Hans Castorp asks Clavdia for a pencil, speaks with her alone in French and, on his knees, declares his love; she runs off asking for the pencil back.
• Chapter VI, Transformations: Six weeks after the Carnival night and Clavdia's departure for Daghestan, Hans Castorp keeps her spectral portrait over his heart.
• Chapter VII, Mynheer Peeperkorn: The Dutch coffee planter Pieter Peeperkorn arrives at the Berghof on the same train as Clavdia and lodges with her, and Hans Castorp, caught by surprise, decides to keep his resentment under extreme reserve.
• Chapter VII, Vingt-et-un: Drunk, Peeperkorn orders Hans Castorp to kiss Clavdia on the forehead, and Hans Castorp refuses.
• Chapter VII, Mynheer Peeperkorn (continued): One night in the vestibule, Clavdia asks Hans Castorp for a stamp and a cigarette, the two talk alone and kiss, and afterwards Peeperkorn asks whether he was her lover.
• Chapter VII, Mynheer Peeperkorn (end): After Peeperkorn kills himself, Hans Castorp talks with Clavdia at the edge of the bed and kisses her on the forehead, in the symbolic presence of the dead man.

Passages

At the first lunch, Clavdia's face reminds Hans Castorp of someone he cannot name.

In Krokowski's lecture, the memory gains a name.

Hans Castorp explains why he declares himself in a language that is not his own.

On his knees, he gathers into one sentence the body, love, and death.

Peeperkorn says aloud what everyone keeps silent.