The Significance of Number Seven in the Narrative Progression of Der Zauberberg

The present paper aims to critically address Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain) regarding the observable employment of number seven and its grand effect on narrative progression of the novel, which as Paul Ricoeur declares is a novel about time. Each novel, according to Rimmon Kenan, includes two significant parts that is story and discourse. The former could be stated by means of different media; however, in the novel under consideration the writer has illustrated the events aside from their chronological time in his own specific mode. The numerable utilization of number seven, nevertheless, should be taken into account that is not haphazardly save for deep contemplating and its relation to the very narration of the story and discourse of the novel. Divided up into seven chapters, this work goes through the life of its Protagonist, Hans Castorp, within seven years of his life from 1907 till 1914 that is the inauguration of World War I. It is mainly through the last chapter that the magnitude of the influence of time on the discourse of Der Zauberberg becomes substantial.