4 - Going to Leipzig

Summary

ADRIAN'S DECISION IN CHAPTER 15 to change the center of his approach to life from theology to music is the most significant decision in his life and must, therefore, be analyzed very carefully. It is this decision that he defines in his Faust story in chapter 47 as the beginning of his Faust's association with the Devil (DF, 662). When the argument for this decision is read in the context of Die Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, the significance of the fact that Mann's Faust is a musician becomes clear. Music, Protestant theology, and German nineteenth-century liberal humanism are virtually synonymous to Mann, and speaking of one is speaking of the others. This is literally the case in Doktor Faustus, and Adrian's sometimes cryptic and sometimes trivial remarks about music often make better sense when understood as about German Protestant culture, or liberal humanism, or politics. The relationship between politics and music in the novelis made clear by Hanns Eisler's comment that “a certain social situation leads to a certain musical technique which, in turn, when applied in practice makes this particular social situation possible.” Adrian's political argument in the novel is presented through his discussions of music, which are political analogies during the entire course of the novel.