La Tonya Jordan’s Reviews > The Magic Mountain > Status Update

In Doubts and Considerations Part of Chapter 4 Director Behrens had the disease tuberculosis and treated himself and others. Can a doctor effectively do this? He does not have the disease anymore. Can Director Behrens be objective? Questions to answer. Hans Castorp thinks not.

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In particular, the orator constantly used the word "love" in a gently irresolute sense, so that one was never quite sure whether he meant its sanctified or more passionate and fleshly forms - leaving one feeling slightly nauseated and seasick.

In Analysis in Chapter 4 Dr. Krokowski talks about love, illness, bourgeois, and the connection to the divine. He wants the patients who are non-moribundi, not terminally as of yet, to come to him to be dissected mentally. Hans Castorp is not having any part of this. He is not a patient.

In Hippe Part 4 Hans Castorp has a nose bleed while walking by himself to feel as though he is not a patient. He has a childhood memory. He had to hitch a ride on the back of a wagon to return to the sanatorium because he was too weak to walk. Hippe is a childhood memory. Frau Chauchat reminds Hans Castorp of Hippe a childhood school mate.

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Settembrini said with a smile. "Music is invaluable as the ultimate means for awakening our zeal, a power that draws the mind trained for its effects forward and upward. But literature must precede it. By itself, music cannot draw the world forward. By itself, music cannot draw the world forward. By itself, music is dangerous. And for you in particular, my good engineer, it is absolutely dangerous...."

In Politically Suspect in Chapter 4 Settembrini gives his intellectual explanation of what music is and how it can be dangerous instead of enjoying music as relaxation and enjoyment. The best description of the scene is when Hans Castorp watches the young people enjoying themselves at the concert even though they are deathfully ill.

In He Tries Out His Conversational French in Chapter 4 where Hans gives his condolences to the Mexican woman in pale black known as Tous-les-deux The description of the woman was so vivid and the speaking of French was described as you were seeing a ceremony.

Han Castorp for the first time sees a moribundus, someone near death. His reaction was priceless.

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Conversely, rich and interesting events are capable of filling time, until hours, even days, are shortened and speed past on wings; whereas on a larger scale, interest lends the passage of time breadth, solidity, and weight, so that years rich in events pass much more slowly than do paltry, bare, featherweight years that are blown before the wind and are gone.

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It was, however, striking - in the best sense of the word - that precisely those rules that corresponded exactly to their overseers' economic interests enjoyed unconditional veneration, whereas rules for which said correspondence was less applicable were more likely to be winked at.

Illness is definitely not elegant, and certainly not venerable - such a view is itself a sickness, or leads to it.

In Chapter 4 Part Excursus On The Sense Of Time - we hear Hans Castorp talk about time has passed slowly and fast at the sanatorium. When he first arrived time moved slow. Now, that he has been there for a few days and knows the routine time is moving fast. Hans Castorp is getting sicker.