Point of View

Buddenbrooks is told from the point of view of a third party narrator who has knowledge of future events. It is not clear if the narrator is completely omniscient, but he clearly knows the upcoming events of the family. The reader then is given an objective view of the family from the narrator, or at least an impartial view. Part of the interest and excitement that comes form this novel about the decline of a family is the sense, due in large part to techniques in narration, that a character is plunging into an enterprise that is doomed. We get that sense when Grunlich is first courting and then marries Tony. Johann, Tony, and Thomas all seem to think that Grunlich is a fine man and good marriage potential. The reader, though, from the start knows better. It is not anything the narrator tells the reader...