[bapimporb]

A few quick thoughts.

As the next two chapters develop, we increasingly see Klaus Heinrich's world being filled out. There is a sense of decay about the ducal family – in some ways, the malformed hand and the weakness of Albrecht also hints at this. The castles are decaying – formal and state occasions are held in tatty environments. There is an extraordinary scene in the third chapter, where Klaus Heinrich stands alone in one of the formal chambers, the Silver Room, and sees the decay and tries to understand what is expected of him.

We see an idea about the way in which people excuse royalty and make things easier for them – the teachers who create tactics so that the prince cannot be seen to have answered anything incorrectly, for instance. The childhood and youth of Klaus Heinrich is also artificial and stultifying. We see his increasing loneliness – and also that of his brother.

There are ideas put forward about the monarchy's role – that it's effectively to be a live fairy tale for the people, to enjoy and make them happy. Thus an idea of pretty much pointless lives.

And indeed, Mann gives a brief but very cutting portrait of Klaus Heinrich's mother: cold and obsessed with her own beauty, she shows her children no affection – indeed, she has no real interest in them at all – only putting on a show of being a loving mother when there are others to watch. It is a dysfunctional family, playing their empty parts to fulfill a ceremonial role and provide entertainment and, to an extent at least, an 'example' to the people (see the Windsors to this day). That it creates for them all an emotionally frigid life is of no importance when considered against the idea of duty and of their "calling". Perhaps the need or desire to have such a family as the figureheads at the top of the country is a sign of the country's immaturity too?

The shoemaker incident when Klaus Heinrich is still a child shows the divide between the 'ordinary' people and the monarchy, with the bitchy and bullying "lackeys" (who seem to be the ones who reveal snobbishness by virtue of their connection to the monarchy) effectively acting as a barrier between the two groups. Hinnerke is the first real encounter that Klaus Heinrich and his sister have with anyone of the ordinary people and it has a big impact on him. Or does it? Will it be remembered later? What does suddenly become clear for Klaus Heinrich is that the people see him as different – and name their own children after him (as Hinnerke himself had).

The teacher ?berlein is an interesting figure. Fiercely ambitious, from outside aristocracy, he teaches Klaus Heinrich an idea of his duty – almost a sense of idolatry of the role and idea of monarchy. His education is uninspired and there is a sense of Klaus Heinrich being constricted (like the hand, again) in his own personal development. He never rebels, just goes along with what he's told and shows little real character. But the incident at the ball, where he allows himself to get 'carried away' is indicative again of the divide between the people and the monarchy – but it also hints at a side of the relationship that we've not seen before: that there are those who also enjoy seeing members of the ducal family make fools of themselves etc.

Later, the rather delicate way in which Mann explains that it's been carefully arranged for Klaus Heinrich to lose his virginity is delightful and very quietly funny. But again, it's a case of everything being arranged for Klaus Heinrich. He has – or takes – no real control over his own life. He's a puppet of tradition and (apparently) the desire of the people for a fairy tale (how times have changed – now it's a soap opera, in the UK at least).

All in all (thus far): a beautifully detailed description of a monarchy that is fading and decaying, but doesn't realise it. With a court and a people that apparently don't realise it either, and a sense that both monarchy and country need to modernise for the sake of the future. Deceptively light and deceptively simple.