["Snow" and "Walpurgisnacht". Hans Castorp's exemplary maturation crises in "Zauberberg"].
On the occasion of a rather incidental visit in the sanatorium "Berghof" at Davos, Hans Castorp, the--as to his primary personality--asthenic and low-profile protagonist of the "Zauberberg" is gradually getting caught up in the maelstrom of the there prevailing timelessness and irresponsibility, this being interrupted solely by two tapering to crisis episodes: his amouressness to Mme. Chauchat as an erotic crisis and by the visionary daydream during a snowstorm about the abilities of men as a cognitive, mental crisis. Both events are triggered by a pathoid irritability, following the maxim of Th. Mann that illness, decay and death as borderline experiences may be the presupposition for cognition and reversal. Both crises end without consequences--the "Zauberberg" is the negation of the novel of education and development in the narrower sense. The unsuccessfulness and undecidedness of Hans Castorp's existence culminate in the open end of the novel, regarding his surviving on the battle field, and is in strict contrast to Adrian Leverkühn's determined autoinfection with Lues with the aim of artistic perfection and the creative break-through of "Doctor Faustus". Hans Castorp's regression and self-fragmentation within the decadent-morbid atmosphere of the sanatorium lead to his storming into the battles of the First World War as a last and existential crisis; it is here where finally the individual and national fate are merging. Hans Castorp becomes the paradigma of the German pre-war bourgeoisie and its crisis-prone development.
Heinrich
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K
Hochschulklinik, Psychiatrische Klinik der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.
Walter
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C
D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007063:Identity Crisis; D008093:Literature, Modern; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation
"Schnee" und "Walpurgisnacht". Hans Castorps exemplarische Reifungskrisen im "Zauberberg".