![]() ![]() ![]() That country too lay remote from the humanist mean," Castorp muses upon hearing of Clavdia's plan to travel to Spain, "though on the side of austerity rather than softness. This is as significant as Settembrini's Italian descent. ![]() He is of Jewish-Polish background and the product of Spanish Jesuit schooling. He takes over as the chief contestant for Castorp's soul on the side of irrationality. His love of extremes and contempt for all forms of compromise make him defend the Inquisition and the authoritarian aspects of Catholicism and communism.Īs the antithetical element to Settembrini's rationality, Naphta replaces Clavdia Chauchat after Walpurgis Night. His dualism is therefore the basis of his glorification of disease, suffering, and death. Whereas in Settembrini's view death is but the absence of life, Naphta insists that death controls a realm of its own independent of life, death is engaged in perennial battle against it. Naphta's intellectual prowess matches that of the Italian, but his cast of mind is essentially irrational. ![]() Naphta is characterized in terms of his intellectual adversary Settembrini. Mann sketches his characters by pitting them against each other rather than by describing them directly. ![]()
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