Sara Shapiro

Death in Venice

Death in Venice tells the story of Gustav Aschenbach. a well-esteemed and elderly poet, who is convinced that meaningful art and the experience of pleasure cannot coexist.� Aschenbach courses through life intent on producing ingenious works of art, while continually denying himself of all of life’s pleasures. At a slow point in his career, when he feels as though “his work had ceased to be marked by that fiery play of fancy which is the product of joy”, Aschenbach decides to take a trip to Venice, hoping to find some inspiration for writing (p. 7). What he discovers instead, is a young boy named Tadzio, with whom he falls madly in love. Although the feelings of passion that he experiences are new to him, he becomes so enamored with the boy, that all thoughts of writing disappear. As the story continues, Aschenbach learns that the city of Venice has been plagued with a cholera epidemic, but cannot bear to leave “his lover”. In the end, completely enslaved by his passionate feelings and without having accomplished what he wanted from the trip, Aschenbach falls ill and dies.

In Death in Venice, Thomas Mann focuses most of his attention on the relationship between Tadzio and Aschenbach. Although Aschenbach travels to Venice in search of inspiration for his writing, he instead experiences, for the first time, feelings of passion. Unfortunately his feelings of passion do not inspire him to write, but instead, distract him. In this story Aschenbach notes that poets experience everything in excess; ironically enough, the idea of excess is a main theme throughout the story. In fact, the feelings of excessive passion end up destroying him in the end. If he had not been so enamored with Tadzio, perhaps he would have left Venice before being struck with cholera.

The way in which Mann tells the story of the relationship between Tadzio and Aschenbach is very intriguing, for he only shows us the relationship through Aschenbach’s eyes. Although Aschenbach believes that Tadzio also feels passionately about him, I can’t help but wonder whether this is true. Throughout the story I got the feeling that Aschenbach may have simply been overanalyzing the few looks he received from Tadzio and wishing that the feelings he felt for the boy were mutual. It seems as though Aschenbach is completely lost in his own world, and doesn’t see things for what they truly are. The looks he thinks he receives from Tadzio may in fact be products of his imagination, and simply part of his own fantasy world.

It was also interesting to note the decline in self-esteem that took place as Aschenbach continued to fall deeper in love with Tadzio. Not only did the boy’s youthful looks make Aschebach dislike his own looks, but even being in the presence of the boy made Aschenbach very uneasy. It seems that the more enamored he became with the boy, the more afraid he became of himself. Possibly he had always been self-conscious but never knew it because he had never allowed himself to indulge in feelings of any kind.

Another aspect of the story that struck me as very interesting was the way in which Mann had Aschenbach continually compare Tadzio to greek gods. Unfortunately I am not very familiar with greek mythology and cannot say much on the topic. In the very least, the comparisons made between Tadzio and greek gods served to enhance the reader’s understanding of how enamored Aschenbach was with the boy. Aschenbach continually spoke aloud as if he were talking to Tadzio, and referred to the boy as Phaedrus. I can only assume that this greek figure stood for divine beauty and perfection.

Questions/Thoughts:

1. Does Tadzio really feel passionately about Aschenbach, or does Aschenbach simply convince himself of this?
2. On page 49 Aschenbach compares Tadzio to Hyacinthus, a god who is “doomed to die because two gods were rivals for his love”. Besides Aschenbach, who do you believe is rivaling for Tadzio’s love?
3. Does Aschenbach die at the end, solely due to the cholera, or do you believe that his death had something to do with the impending departure of Tadzio?
4. Do you believe that Aschenbach truly found happiness in Venice, or was his indulgence in emotions too much for him to handle?