History Literature / Buddenbrooks

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Kai's father, who's a Graf (Count). However, the old glory of his family has long passed, and Kai is easily the poorest student in their class, despite most of them not being from nobility background.

* BlackSheep: Christian.

* TheClan / BigScrewedUpFamily / DysfunctionalFamily: The Buddenbrooks. The Hagenströms are also TheClan, but definitely not so much of the other tropes.

%%* ImpoverishedPatrician / LandPoor: Kai's father, who's a Graf (Count).
%%** Herr von Maiboom who married Tony's former classmate Armgard von Schilling is an overly indebted patrician and [[spoiler:commits suicide at the end.]]
%% Please resolve the indentation, slashing, and the ZCE.

* IllChild: Hanno has suffered from various diseases since he was a baby. A particularly nasty toothache almost killed him when he was a child, [[spoiler:And he dies of Typhus at the age of 16]].
* ImpoverishedPatrician / LandPoor: Kai's father, who's a Graf (Count).
** Herr von Maiboom who married Tony's former classmate Armgard von Schilling is an overly indebted patrician and [[spoiler:commits suicide at the end.]]

* TheOneThatGotAway: Tony had a promising teenage romance with the aspiring doctor Morten, but as he didn't belong to the same social class, in the end she agreed to the ArrangedMarriage with Grünlich. While she never outright states it, she regrets not having waited for Morten he entire life. This is evidenced by her quoting Morten's political views for her entire life, and even using their inside jokes as "proverbs" even decades later.

* WrongfullyCommitted: It's implied that this is what happened to [[spoiler:Thomas]] in the end. While he indeed had some mental health issues, he was never really insane, but his wife formed a pact with the treating doctor to keep him confined in an asylum.

* The book starts with Gotthold, the first son of Johann, to be disinherited to keep the family wealth together. The rest of the book sees the family wealth slowly disintegrating, often towards malicious, fraudulent or deceptive friends and spouses.
* If Sesemi wishes people good luck or happiness, they always tend to become unlucky and unhappy in their lives.

* CheckovsClassroom: Tony's teenage lover Morten studied medicine and explained to her what a pulmonic edema is. [[spoiler:Decades later, her mother dies from it and Tony is still able to correctly detect the disease and its symptoms.]]

* AmbiguouslyJewish: It's not mentioned directly, but you can find pointed out the one or other time that Hermann Hagenström's nose is hooked — a typical Jewish stereotype.
** Earlier drafts of the book contained more jabs at them, like one character stating that the German revolution (of 1848) was cooked up, or at least inspired at "Jewish teatables in Berlin".

* {{Neologism}}: In the original German version, one character says: "Einen ''congflick'', da verstehe ich mich drauf!"[[note]]In the English version: "“A congflick, I tell you, 'nd I know something about what that means.[[/note]] This word doesn't exist anywhere outside of this novel, and it's uncertain what it was supposed to mean.

* DisinheritedChild: Gotthold Buddenbrooks, the son of Johann's first marriage, is cut off from the will, officially to "keep the family wealth together".

* TheOneThatGotAway: Tony had a promising teenage romance with the aspiring soctor Morten, but as he didn't belong to the same social class, in the end she agreed to the ArrangedMarriage with Grünlich. While she never outright states it, she regrets not having waited for Morten he entire life. This is evidenced by her quoting Morten's political views for her entire life, and even using their inside jokes as "proverbs" even decades later.

* DramaticIrony: Quite a lot. Prominent example: If Sesemi wishes people good luck or happiness, they always tend to become unlucky and unhappy in their lives.

* GenerationalSaga

* {{Doorstopper}}

* AtomicFBomb: When Tony catches her second husband in the act with their (female) cook, a row ensues, which culminates in Permaneder insulting her, "Go to hell, you dirty swinish slut!" Divorce ensues.

* {{Oktoberfest}}: Tony's second husband, Permaneder, is a Protestant Bavarian who likes drinking beer more than doing business.

* SpoiledBrat: Young Tony is like this

* InadequateInheritor: Hanno

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Hanno. It's not funny.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted, there are three Buddenbrooks named Johann, not counting the firm's founder Johan.

* AdultFear: Ruin, burnout, early death