and expectations are forced upon him. Erika Grunlich (Tony’s daughter) faces a similar marital fate as her mother. She marries a man named Hugo Weinschenk, has a daughter, and then her marriage too falls apart after Weinschenk is convicted and incarcerated for insurance fraud. The antics of Christian only serve to further tarnish the Buddenbrook’s social standing. He is lazy, wastes the family’s money by spending his inheritance on drinking, going to the theatre, spending a good part of his time with a “courtesan”. Once the Buddenbrook firm has begun to collapse, other familial tragedies occur. After the death of Madame Buddenbrook (Tony and Thomas’s mother), the family mansion must be sold to the Hagenstroms, the rival family and firm of the Buddenbrooks. Christian marries his courtesan and is soon institutionalized for being mad. Soon after, Thomas collapses in the street and dies of a tooth infection and hemorrhage. Just months later, Hanno, the only Buddenbrook heir (and not particularly promising heir either), dies in a typhoid epidemic at the age of 15. It is with the death of Hanno that the novel concludes. It traces the fluctuation of the power and wealth of the Buddenbrook family, while always demonstrating the continuous decline of the once prestigious merchant family. The novel Buddenbrooks has several themes, but one of the most ubiquitous is that of the magnitude of familial duty in 19th Century Germany. The concept of familial duty is not one that contemporary Americans can relate to easily. There are several reasons for this. The nuclear family is not necessarily the traditional family of the past and the extended family does not play as important a role as before. Historically, the family was the focal point of ones activities and ambitions. Today it is uncommon for someone to follow in their “father’s footsteps”, or to view marriage strictly as a busi...
