“The Magic Mountain” by Thomas Mann (post 6): Character is repeatedly referred to as “a personality”

Mr. Peeperkorn, who is not introduced until page 538, is gone by page 616, and is not expected to have any relevance in the remaining ninety pages of the novel, has nothing about him to suggest multiple personality, except that he is repeatedly and frequently referred to as “a personality,” which is how one would refer to an alternate personality.

In the novel, “a personality” is used in the sense of a personage, and is meant to convey that this character is of a distinctly higher social status than the protagonist. So why wasn’t “personage” used? Is this just a matter of translation? Or did the author slip and reveal a subjective sense that this and other characters were his alternate personalities?

1. Thomas Mann. The Magic Mountain [1924]. Translation from the German by John E. Woods. New York, Vintage International, 1996.

Added July 15: Coincidentally, unrelated to the above, in the next chapter, the narrator uses the phrase "a high-placed personage" (1, p. 620), so "a personality" had probably not been an issue of translation.