Hans Castorp
Hans Castorp is the protagonist of the Magic Mountain. A 23 year old German, Hans has just finished engineering school when he goes to visit his sick cousin, Joachim Ziemssen at a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. Hans originally only plans to stay for 21 days, but ends up remaining at the sanatorium for 7 years. His stay ends when he leaves to fight in World War I.
Hans, described as a remarkably "ordinary" man and "One of life's problem children, recieves a abundence of tutaliage at the sanatorium. Hans's growth during his seven year stay is the main driver of the plot and he is buffeted about between the teachings of Settembrini, Nafta, Peeperkorn, Behrens and others. The intellectual challenges and growth these pedigoges provide Hans is the main source of tension and action in the novel. Hans also enjoys a passionate fling with Clavdia Chauchet, a Russian patient at the sanatorium.
Joachim Ziemssen
A soldier, Joachim is Hans's cousin and a patient at the Davos Sanatorium. Joachim curses his fate and longs to return to his military regiment in the 'flatlands'. Joachim is a staunch, formal man with dark, kind eyes. He possesses a strong loyalty to what he deams his 'duty'. Joachim eventually grows frustrated with what he sees as the pointlessness of the sanatorium and storms off to rejoin his ranks in the flatlands. This ultimately leads to his demise, as his time away from the sanatorium leads to his tuberculosis flairing up, and he returns to the sanatorium where he eventually dies.
Director Behrens
The director and head doctor at Davos Sanatorium. A mercurial, moody man who consistantly sentences patients to long stays at the sanatorium. He lives alone at the sanatorium, and the loss of his wife to tuberculosis seems to haunt him and contribute to his mood swings.
Lodovico Settembrini
An Italian and a staunch humanist, Settembrini loves to extoll the values of education, reading, writing, and skepticism. He is one of the first people Hans meets at the Sanatorium, and acts as a constant pedigogue to Hans at the Sanatorium. Settembrini is poor, and eventually moves out of the exppensive sanatorium to a nearby town to live with Naphta. Settembrini and Naphta are opponents for Hans's intellectual attention throughout the second half of the novel, and eventually become so angry with each other that a duel takes place, in which only Settembrini comes out alive. He is a constant presence with Hans through the novel, and tirelessly explains to him the humanist values of individual liberty and enlightenment. Settembrini is also a member of the illuminati, a secret society that claims to be about human progress but has its roots in occult eastern tradition and rituals, things Settembrini professes to be against.
Professor Naphta
Naphta is a caustic, little man who lives with Settembrini during the second half of the novel. Naptha is a member of the Jesuit order and a professor at a Jesuit university. While he outwardly exalts Jesuit values, his pugalistic conversations with Settembrini reveal that he, philisophically, identifies as a nihilist. Naphta is often portrayed as a contradiction of a man. He claims to be Jesuit but is nihilistic, he seems to live a ascetic lifestyle but his living quarters and possesions are quite lavish. These contradictions often come to a head during his debates with Settembrini. Eventually, their intellectual disagreements become so heated that a duel is proposed. In the duel, Naphta purposely allows Settembrini to get the drop on him, but when Settembrini refuses to shoot at Naphta, Naphta is driven to kill himself, exemplifying his contradictory nature and nihilistic mannerisms .
Clavdia Chauchat
Clavdia Chauchat is a enigmatic Russian patient at the Sanatorium. Long, slender, and quite beautiful, her name translates from the French to mean 'Hot Cat'. Chauchat lives up to this monniker, as she gracefully slinks around the Sanatorium and even purrs in dulcet French tones during her night of passion with Hans Castorp. Although married, she is a siren song to Hans throughout the novel, and he obsesses over not only her good looks but the unbridled freedom that her illness brings her, which manifests itself in poor manners such as constantly slamming the dining room door. Chauchat leaves the sanatorium after a night of passion with Hans, but later returns in a relationship with Mynheer Peeperkorn.
Mynheer Peeperkorn
A Dutch business tycoon, Peeperkorn does not appear until late in the book, but his powerful personality is a captivating presence. Peeperkorn has a knack for saying hardly anything of substance, but he captivates every single character in the book with his commanding gesticulations and convincing personality. He is in a relationship with Chauchat when he comes to the sanatorium, but his deteriorating health seems to have rendered sexually impotent. This frustrates Peeperkorn, as he holds physical pleasures and experiences in high regard. Peeperkorn captivates Hans with his imposing physcial presence in a way that Settembrini and Naphta's intellect cannot. This is exemplified in Peeperkorns penchant for throwing wild Bacchanalias late into the night at the sanatorium that Hans cannot bring himself to leave. Ultimately, Peeperkorn's failing health motivates him to go out on his own terms, and he kills himself using a syringe modelled to look like a snake's fangs.
Dr. Krokowski
Dr. Krokowski is the heavily-beared Lieutenant of Dr. Behrens at the Davos Sanatorium. Whereas Behrens constantly deals with the physical side of illness, Krokowski treats illness as a manifestation of unhealthy repression. Krokowski seems almost Freudian, he engages in a Tuesday lecture series that deals with repression and illness and he also analysizes the dreams of his patients and dabbles in the occult, staging a seance near the end of the novel. Krokowski always seems cloaked in a shroud of mystery and is often associated with the color black. His occult mannerisms and Freudian analysis often make him the target of Settembrini's humanist distain.
Heir Albin
A cavalier young man who often brandishes his pistol and threatens suicide. Albin exemplifies the notion that sickness brings a certain freedom from sociatal constraints.
Ellen Brand
A Scandanavian girl who demonstrates supernatural talent in being able to talk to the deceased. Krokowski uses Brand as the medium during his seance.
Heir Ferge
A simple Russian fellow who does not understand any of the intellectual debates in the novel but often accompanies Hans, Settembrini, and Naphta during their excursions.
James Tienappel
Hans Castorp's Uncle. Briefly Visits the sanatorium to try and convince Hans to leave. He notices the strange effect that the sanatorium has on people, as he becomes attracted to a buxom lady there and becomes morbidly interested in how bodies decay. He hurries to escape the deadly pull of the Sanatorium, leaving Hans in peace and content.
Fraulein Engelhart
She sits at Hans's table during his early years at the Sanatorium. She is a sharp-witted former schoolteacher who gossips with Hans and needles him about his affection for Chauchat.
Pribislav Hippe
A boyhood classmate of Hans's. Hans admired him often from afar, and possibly even had strong romantic feelings toward him. Hippe had slanted eyes and asiatic features that almost perfectly mimicked the features of Chauchat. He also possessed the same voice as Clavdia Chauchat. Hans has a dream about Hippe soon after he visits the Sanatorium. Hans's attraction to both Hippe and Chauchat show the strong pull that the Asiatic worldview has on Hans's character.
Karen Karstedt
Hans, both disgusted by the way the dying are treated at the Sanatorium and to impress Chauchat, decides to perform acts of kindness to the moribundi (patients close to death). Hans spends ample time with Karen, taking her to town and bringing her flowers. Most notibly, Hans accidentally leads her to her future burial site. Karen forces Hans to face questions about physical sickness and whether it is noble or simply bodily failure.
Hermine Kleefeld
A bubbly patient at the Sanatorium who frightens Hans on his second day because of her ability to whistle through her pneumothorax, which is a hole in her lungs due to a common surgery.
Marusja
A giggly, round-eyed Russian woman with an ample bosom who sits at the same table as Hans and Joachim. It is obvious that Joachim is attracted to her, but due to his higher calling to obey his duty, he does not act on that attraction.
Frau Stohr
A crass, uneducated old lady who shares a table with Hans and Joachim. She has a a knack for humorous malapropisms.
Wehsal
An Austrian fellow who also loves Clavdia Chauchat and is both jealous and reverant of Hans's night of passion with her. Wehsal is a masochist who basks in the idea of being a tortured, spurned lover. The name Wehsal is German for sad or sorrowful.
