Part VI Summary

Part VI begins with the Consul and his mother sitting down in the Meng Street home for breakfast and reading Tony's recent letter from Munich. Tony discusses the strange, mostly gibberish sounding dialect of the Bavarians as well as their strange, and to her mind, barbaric Catholicism. She mentions the good time she is having and also writes of a hops dealer in Munich named Permaneder that she seems to like. The matter ends there though and in April, Tony returns to her home in Meng Street.

While she has been gone, discord between the two brothers has only grown. Christian spends his time cavorting around town, going to the theater, having affairs with women, and generally, to Thomas' mind, behaving disreputably. More than that it is Christian's frame of mind, his introspective nature, that bothers Thomas. The matter comes to...