Conclusion

Abstract

In the Introduction, some characteristics were proposed to indicate the primal differences between male and female in Mann’s scheme. The female principle, on this basis, seemed to be distinguished by passivity and by a different relationship to individuality and time from that of the male. To verify the hypothesis and mainly to see whether theoretical statement is implemented in artistic practice—in the construction of character and the structuring of relationships between characters—, one female figure from a major work was examined. Clavdia, in The Magic Mountain, was investigated first as a substantive embodiment of the female qualities, and the actual character did confirm the principles I had proposed. Secondly, the functional implications that were tentatively stated in the Introduction—the facilitating and “barometric” or “thermometric” nature of the female element—were also reinforced. The ambiguity of the dialectic and the continuity of the male and female realms was also apparent in Clavdia who is partly a reincarnation of the boy Pribislav Hippe. There was an association with death, at times direct, at times implied in her general tendency to destroy the self—in her negative attitude toward individuation.