9. Death in Venice

Art is What You Can Get Away With

Submitted by KRiS10 on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 15:33
How art is used as an excuse in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.
Art is a term that can be defined in many ways. One possible definition can be that art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. Another accepted meaning of art is skill in conducting any human activity. Whichever definition one prefers, there is a unifying aspect that was once captured by the great Andy Warhol, and that is the idea that “art is what you can get away with.”

In Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, the character of Aschenbach – is overwhelmed by passion and beauty. He is infatuated with Tadzio, and in a sense, it is because of art that Aschenbach convinces himself to carry on with his passionate pursuit. Tadzio acts as Aschenbach’s muse. His innocent and illuminating beauty draw Aschenbach’s attention from the beginning, freeing him from his previous inability to be inspired. Aschenbach “ longed to work in Tadzio’s presence, to model his writing on the boy’s physique, to let his style follow the lines of that body, which he saw as godlike, and bear its beauty to the realm of the intellect, as the eagle had once borne the Trojan shepherd to the ether” (Mann, 86). Tadzio filled Aschenbach with emotion that inflamed his soul and haunted his thoughts, but even so, Aschenbach still had moments where he questioned his own motives and subsequent actions. While harnessing these thoughts though, he manages to use the excuse of art as a way to succumb to his infatuation while still maintaining his dignity. He ponders the criticism of his ancestors, and longs to know how these “manly” figures would react to someone so “involved in such exotic extravagances of emotion” (Mann, 106). Aschenbach goes on to reassure himself that although he may feel different things, he parallels his ancestors in many ways, because “he too had served; he too like so many of them, had been soldier and warrior, for art was war, a grueling struggle that people these days were not up to for long” (Mann, 106).

It’s interesting to think of art as war because usually when one thinks of war, they do not view images of beauty and appeal, but rather ones of darkness and destruction. Because of the irony, the idea of art as an excuse becomes even more potent. In a physical sense, art is very subjective. It’s very well that a single piece of art may never be viewed in the same way. Because Aschenbach believes that the creation of art presents a struggle, the production of art and the emotion behind it become that much more significant. In this case, art does not just exist, but must be created with a deep emotional perseverance. Whether it’s in relation to finally finishing a piece of writing, or garnering the courage to release all other inhibitions and put forth all of one’s energy into mastering the art of living passionately, art is what one can get away with. 
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Aschenbach's Love For Tadzio

Submitted by MAIA on Mon, 11/08/2010 - 16:35
Creepy or Respectable?
In reading Thomas Mann’s Death In Venice, I was immediately struck by the romantic relationship and center of the book, which is Aschenbach’s love for a little boy, Tadzio. At first I thought the love was strange, bizarre even. When delving father into the novel, though, I started to appreciate this love in several different way and saw it as less of a shocking NAMBLA endorsement and a more respectable story. First of all, the love between an older man and a younger boy is commonly seen in ancient Greek mythology and is, at least on some level, an allusion to that. However there are many other points that redeem this love in my eyes.

I think Mann tries to portray Aschenbach’s love for Tadzio in a perverse, erotic way to shock the reader when in actuality the love is much more subdued than he makes it out to be. I believe that Aschenbach’s love for Tadzio is basically just an extreme admiration. Aschenbach’s wanderlust and many other aspects of his personality indicate that he is growing old and probably finding it hard to come to terms with his age. At this time in ones life, one feels nostalgic about years past. Aschenbach is probably jealous of Tadzio for all the things he has in his youth that Aschenbach lacks: smooth skin, a quick brain, a sharp memory. If the relationship is considered in this way it seems far less creepy.

Another way to consider Aschenbach’s love for Tadzio is by thinking about the strength of his love. It is quite respectable when you think about the fact that he truly will do anything for love, despite its societal consequences. Aschenbach is willing to sit for hours staring at Tadzio, and whatever deep underlying reasons he has for this, it still shows the boundless nature of love. In a way, Aschenbach is a hero in the classic sense of the word. The ability to do anything in the name of love is a true characteristic of a hero, one we can all respect.

When Mann wrote Death In Venice, he must have known he was being controversial. He obviously knew that people would not look highly upon the relationship between a man and a boy. And he obviously knew he would throw people off by not inserting any of his own moral judgment about the matter. He doesn’t make it clear whether he believes Aschenbach is right or wrong in the situation, he purely tells the story and allows the reader to make their own judgments, which I appreciate in a book.
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Like in Antiquity

Submitted by parkb on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 13:53
Paul Bowles' abyss rears its ugly head once again in Death in Venice
Reading Death in Venice, I was often reminded of Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky.  There is a lot of talk about “the abyss” in both novels and falling into it.  Everyone seems to fall into it in their own special way and it also seems you can’t avoid falling into it.  Aschenbach’s abyss is clearly the boy who he is obsessed with, but his environment (Venice) only further edges this abyss-directed mentality on.  Mann is telling us that travel can make you “drunk” and this drunkenness can lead you into the abyss like it does for Aschenbach.  The notion that a traveler somehow becomes the city they are in, in state of mind at least, is also brought up by Mann: “…the adventure of the outer world that merged darkly with the adventure of his heart and fed his passion with vague, illicit hopes,” (pg. 107).  Aschenbach and Venice are one, and they will go down with the ship together.
 
The reader also gets the sense that throughout the book, Aschenbach is travelling within himself: “…enmeshed as he was in so illicit an experience, involved in such exotic extravagances of emotion…” (pg. 105).  He is locating parts of himself that he never found before or never bothered to investigate.  Travel shows us sides of ourselves we have forgotten about or didn’t know existed.  Confronting reemerging aspects of oneself can be overwhelming and exhilarating: “Emotions from the past…were now reappearing in the strangest of permutations,” (pg. 91).  This can also be a bad thing though as evidenced by Aschenbach’s behavior.  The reader gets the sense that Aschenbach never really addressed or experienced these emotions correctly when he was younger so they are coming out now, at the wrong time, “in the strangest of permutations”.  They are the right emotions just aged and misdirected.
 
In the end, Aschenbach becomes the man in the beginning on the boat, in appearance at least, who was trying so hard to be young.  Aschenbach let himself fall into the abyss because all the elements fell into place around him and encouraged him to (Tadzio, Venice).  Anything loved too much, chased after too much, becomes the abyss because it leads to constant, unremitting action, constant whirring of the gears in the mind (“…knowledge…is in sympathy with the abyss; it is the abyss,” (pg. 137)) and the chase will never end.  Travel elevated this sublimated abyss within Aschenbach.
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The Real Tadzio

Submitted by Ben on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 13:35
How Mann's life influenced his writings
Many of the books we’ve read have been semi-autobiographical, and Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice proves no exception. As Mann stated, “Nothing is invented in Death in Venice” (Adair), so, with that said, we see that the novel parallels the life of Mann almost directly.
 
Starting with motives for embarking on their sabbaticals, both Mann and Aschenbach sought a break from their daily lives, with Mann seeking refuge from health related issues and Aschenbach fleeing from the harsh, daily routines of his work. Once abroad, they experienced “cold and cheerless” (Adair) weather and inhospitable hotels, thus forcing them to find new locations to live. This move is the cause of the love and obsessive relationship the older men develop with the young boys. Both boys were Polish and both were on vacation with three elder sisters and a caregiver. The primary difference between the two stories lies with how old each boy and each man was. In the novel, Adzio was fourteen, almost at adolescence, however, in real life, the boy Adzio was inspired by was eleven years old and was named Wladyslaw, while Mann was only in his thirties, as opposed to the fifty year old Aschenbach.
 
In searching for beauty and art, Aschenbach finds it in Adzio. He constantly relates him to different Greek gods, like Narcissus for his beauty, and Hyacinthus for his heroic divinity (Frank). In his eyes, Aschenbach found a beautiful human, a piece of art. From this point, we see how his wonder for Adzio motivated him to watch him at the beach, follow him throughout Venice, and stay in the disease-ridden city after all others had evacuated. His actions seem quite similar to those carried out by Jake in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, for both were influenced to act in ways they normally wouldn’t have in order to please their loves. 



Frank, Bernhard. "Mann's Death in Venice." Explicator45.1 (Fall 1986): 31-32. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 80. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 2 Nov. 2010.
 
Adair, Gilbert. "The real Tadzio of Thomas Mann." The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide10.6 (2003): 14+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 2 Nov. 2010.

Travel as a Source of Break and Inspiration

Submitted by emiliana on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 13:32
Auchenbach gets a breath of fresh air and time for contemplation away from home...
 Just like the protagonist Aschenbach is the “union of dry, conscientious officialdom and ardent, obscure impulse,” the novella has a theme that lies on the tension between Apollonian and Dionysian views.
 
Aschenbach was “pushed on every side to achievement” and “never knew sweet idleness”; his life consisted of hard work and dedication, not based on joy but on pain and suffering. In fact, the “formula of his life and fame[, ] the key to his work” has been about poverty, destitution, pain, suffering and vain. Although he has earned fame that he believes to be the ultimate goal of any artist, has won the aristocracy title, and has maids and men who serve him, Aschenbach is not happy at all.
 
One evening after encountering an unpleasant, hostile gaze from a random, creepy red-haired man, Aschenbach is struck by a sudden longing to travel and leaves his home town for a journey. Abroad, in fresh scenes without any associations, he sees a disturbing old man pretending to be youth, an immoral “fake” gondolier, a beautiful boy, the Russian family, all of which awakens the Dionysian side in him.
 
Tadzio he remarks as the “god like beauty of the human being” gives him new inspirations for his art. Where as Aschenbach drew his work from one single line of inspiration all his life, after he is struck by the perfection of the beauty of this young Polish boy, he is inspired and his “intellectual world [is] challenged for its opinion on a great and burning question of art and taste.” Writing in Tadzio’s presence, Auchenbach serves the lines of the boy’s figure as his inspiration and finds work so much pleasurable. 

Reading Death of Venice, I was reminded that t's not just the different sceneries, cuisine, atmosphere, and architecture that can inspire travelers but the people you see or meet while abroad. Aschenbach's example shows that it doesn't even need to be the locals or natives of where you visit but just anyone. Sources of inspiration, perhaps, is present everywhere  and it is not the matter of going somewhere foreign that rejuvenates your heart but a sense of being a stranger that makes it easier for people to see the world from a different light and be inspired or awestruck by beauty of life.
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Art & Travel

Submitted by wanderer on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 13:10
Aschenbach's travels are a subconscious need for art-inducing discomfort.
Again, we read a novel about a writer, a homebody looking to expand both their knowledge and understanding, and their perception of the world around them. Of course, such protagonists always feel most connected when they are at rest in their study, jotting down notes and rephrasing sentences to make them sound more eloquent. In Death In Venice, Aschenbach’s persona is not unfamiliar to the reader, for we have discovered many a character just like him. Aschenbach hopes to leave the routine of his “note-jotting” and “sentence-rephrasing”. This leads to the mystique of a tourist: the moment when they first decide to travel, and what possesses them to leave their comfort zone and belongings to explore foreign places.
 
At first, Aschenbach’s frustrations with travel are noted within the initial few pages of the novel, as he regards travel, tourism specifically, as a “hygienic practice” (Mann, 7). While Mann gives no specific definition for “hygienic practice,” it can be inferred that it is a routine maintenance activity for cleansing the mind, a regular affair that everyone should do just for the sake of doing it, and just because they feel obligated to do it to keep up with their neighbors.
 
Even though Aschenbach decides to travel two weeks later, her demonstrates cynicism towards the flippant custom: “The thought of leaving his desks for months to go gallivanting around the world seemed to frivolous and disruptive to be taken seriously.” (8) Aschenbach disregards the benefits of travel, and the amount of stories and raw material for his novel he will undoubtedly bring back with him upon his return. Like a true artist, Achenbach becomes so involved with their work he begins to see it as a “duty”, a “humdrum routine of a rigid, cold, passionate duty.” (8)
 
Many attempt to define “art”, failing to capture its allusiveness in a simple sentence. Mann’s focus of defining art within the first chapter sheds new light on how art can be perceived. For many artists, some struggle was present in making their body of work. It seems to be a common pattern among artists: messed up family, death, suicide, drugs, alcohol. Aschenbach states that “everything great owes its existence to ‘despites’: despite misery and affliction, poverty, desolation, physical debility…”  (16) By stepping outside of the comfort of ones home, these “despites” are bound to find the artist. Achenbach’s decision to travel becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: he travels to seek his own pain, his own “despite”.
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Why Venice?

Submitted by Amanda on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 12:23
Aschenbach's decision and its implications

Gustav von Aschenbach, at the age of fifty, made the life changing decision to embark on an impromptu vacation to Venice. His initial reasoning for the trip lies in his desire to change scenery in order to become successful as a writer. The impetus for his voyage lies in the meeting of a strange man at a cemetery; this is not exactly what would be expected.
 
The redheaded man dressed as a tourist locked eyes with Aschenbach as he was reading the headstones around him, a creepy situation that perhaps has implications of foreshowing Aschenbach’s eventual death. “Letting his mind’s eye lose itself in the mysticism emanating from them, served to distract the waiting man for several minutes.” This statement seems to be alluding to death in reference to a “waiting man”, as if by deciding to visit Venice in this instance beckoned this man, death, to follow him. “There was something of the overseer, something lordly, bold, even wild in his demeanor”, such that the narrator makes this man out to be some soft of all-knowing being. The whereabouts of the strange man’s entrance into the cemetery are unknown to Aschenbach, which aligns with his ignorance at the death that would await him in Venice. He almost allows himself to ignore the oncoming illness in Venice and chooses to stay even though essentially all other tourists had already left.
 
The reader is also given a first look into Aschenbach’s characteristics in this scene. He stares with “half-distracted, half-inquisitive scrutiny” at the stranger and was “lacking in discretion”. These same qualities of his personality would arise later in Aschenbach’s obsession with Tadzio. “A minute later he had forgotten the man.” This quote shows the character’s propensity to block out unpleasant aspects of his life, as he does with the cholera.
 
“Wanderlust” ensued after the stranger showed up and thus Aschenbach’s desire to travel was acknowledged. “His desire sprouted eyes” as if this desire would be the leading factor for the rest of the journey, and in a way it was. The idyllic landscape pictured by Aschenbach created images of happiness and harmony, neither of which were actually gained in the visit to Venice.
 
Aschenbach then opens up about the problems he is facing in life such as egoism and the pressure to start raising a family due to his old age. These usual conventions don’t seem to work for him though and the temptation to travel became greater. By referring to the desire to travel as “the sudden and belated impulse” the author creates a sense curiosity as to how the small action of seeing a stranger could connect to the longing to travel, as well as in what way the desire was “belated”. Aschenbach considers the implications of leaving his work for such an extended period of time but the “urge to flee” from common everyday tasks to the wonder of Venice overcame him. Aschenbach appears to become obsessed with any idea that provides him with hope or any person who interests him, which is how the trip to Venice came to be.
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Theres no going back

Submitted by sunflowerseed on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 12:14
How Aschenbach's sudden immersion in passion and beauty ultimately causes his death.
Similar to Port’s story in The Sheltering Sky,Aschenbach’s story in Death in Venice,represents a relentless pursuit of passion. Port is passionate about death and darkness and his search for understanding of these two parts of his life eventually leads to his death. Comparably, Aschenbach is passionate about art, but has spent his entire life suppressing this passion to retain his dignity.  This “reflection of his origins in the strict milieu of North Germany” (Christopher Smith) is quickly turned on its head when Aschenbach travels into lively, easygoing Italy.  
 
Because Aschenbach was brought up to stifle the true fervor and beauty in writing, his inspiration was a matter of force. As a result, when he travels to Venice and sees the real-life representation of aesthetic beauty, Tadzio, he is unable to repress his feelings any longer. The fact that Aschenbach long repressed passion will get the better of him is shown through the many symbolisms of death such as the coffin- like gondola that ferries him to Lido (then disappears) and especially the gondola-driver’s ominous words, “You will pay” (Mann, 40).
 
Once Aschenbach experiences a true taste of beauty and ardor through the apparition, Tadzio, He is unable to go back to the strict, regulated life he led before. Even when the quick development of the disease strongly foreshadows the fact that Aschenbach is getting too involved in his passion, he is unable to leave. He instead goes to the barber and gets a complete make-over. This represents the fact that Aschenbach’s body has internally and externally been taken over by the beauty of art. The way the Barber works on Aschenbach is suggestive of the way in which a painter works on a painting, thus literally turning Aschenbach himself into a work of art.  His new-found zeal for art and love for Tadzio (the physical representation of art) get the better of him and in the end, cause his death. 
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Hey Guys! It's the Abyss!

Submitted by rosencrantz on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 01:31
traveler vs. the vacationer. Which better suits Aschenbach?

Throughout Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, Gustav von Aschenbach is often referred to as a traveler. The narrator calls him “the beguiled traveler,” “the ever obstinate traveler,” “the solitary traveler” and “the love smitten traveler.” (101,118,124,134) Why traveler? Ignoring the questions that come up because this is a translation, why would Mann use the word travel? Does he want to emphasize the fact that this particular voyage is one that involves work (travailer in French means to work) and is not one that he took for pleasure? 

 

In a way, obsession in itself is like work. Actively following Tadzio in a gondola because, “all he cared about was keeping track of the vision he was so ardently pursuing,” Aschenbach gives up his desire for the “bit of spontaneity, an idle existence,” that prompted him to take a trip in the first place. If he had not been enthralled with the young boy to such a crazed extent, he probably would not have stayed in Venice during the epidemic and may not have died. 

 

Which leads to my next quandary. Why did Tadzio’s family stay in Venice for as long as they did? Everyone else had either left or died. What prompted them to ignore the warnings and continue their trip? Aschenbach obviously stayed to keep an eye on the boy, but what was the family’s motivation? This is a legit question, not a rhetorical one so feel free to comment and provide thoughts and reflections. 

 

Bear with me as I make an odd comparison. There is something bizarrely similar about Death in Venice and American Beauty. Yes the men are in different times and very different places, but they both find this reason to live by obsessing about young beauties. While Kevin Spacey’s character is drawn out of his mid-life depression mode by his daughter’s friend, Aschenbach uses the Polish boy to give him a purpose and a meaning to get up in the morning. The routine that Tadzio provides is comforting to the protagonist in a way that only a schedule could be. Without the boy, Aschenbach would be wasting away his day. 

 

In fact, he is only called the “traveler” by the narrater after his full on obsession takes hold. Before, he was called “the writer.” Is Mann trying to say that being a traveler is a full on occupation? If Aschenbach had not found Tadzio, would he still be the traveler in the working sense or would he just be a writer on vacation? Essentially, a vacation is what he originally wants. A vacation has the connotation of an escape and Mann describes Aschenbach of having “an urge to flee...this yearning for freedom, release, oblivion--an urge to flee his work” (8).  He wants to get away from his work, but immediately gets caught up in his self created mission. Donc, il travail encore. (So, he continues working)

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Places and Extremes

Submitted by eric on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 00:27
How Mann foreshadows death and Tadzio's role
To be honest, it’s creepy how Aschenbach stalks Tadzio for 100 pages. I noticed the role of the sea in Thomas Mann’s Death In Venice. When it first comes up, Aschenbach is trying to make it to Lido of Venice by gondola. He had always approached travel in the wrong way, but his new urge to travel spurred by the red-haired man causes him to try going by sea. He says, “…he mused that arriving in Venice by land at the railway station, was tantamount to entering a palace by the back door and that one should approach this most improbable of cities only as he had now done by ship, over the seas”(34). He feels stealthy and discreet moving along the silent waters. “How calm and yet calmer his surroundings became!”(37). The silence of the sea feels like it foreshadows the Indian Cholera epidemic similar to the calm before a storm.

When Aschenbach does reach Venice, the air and feel of the city drive him away at first. Once he realizes the perfection of the Polish boy, he finds his place. Aschenbach views Tadzio as a god and epitomizes every facet of his character. The way he walks, plays in the water, and interacts with his friends all seem perfect in his motions. His facial features and body are comparable to Greek statues. However, Tadzio is the cause of Aschenbach’s ultimate demise. Aschenbach gets too hung up over Tadzio’s beauty and insists on following him around for over four weeks. Tadzio is aware of his existence and his follower. He might even believe he’s a guardian of sorts for his sickliness, but Aschenbach does not flee at the warning of an epidemic. He remains contemplating whether he should warn Tadzio or not and decides not to. A dream occurs that night and Aschenbach realizes the futility of his actions as well as envisions his own demise.

Also, Aschenbach suffers from the change between two extreme lifestyles. He goes from a devoted artist who never experienced a carefree day in his life to a lax beach goer who can follow a boy for days. He finds true love and stays by it. His heart skips beats at the passing of this perfect child. Even after noticing Tadzio’s anemia and fragility, Aschenbach feels a slave-like devotion and compares him to several Greek Gods including Hyacinth and Narcissus. Mann may be warning the reader of the dangers of such extremes and how one needs balance in life. There can be extreme pleasure and satisfaction in either path, but Aschenbach’s extended vacation led to his death.
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How a Simple Vacation Turns Into an Obessive, Unfortunate Journey to Relive One's Youth

Submitted by John on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 00:06
How beauty, envy and obsession help pave Aschenbach's stay in Venice.
Death in Venice  by Thomas Mann deferred away from the common framework  that many of the stories that we have read thus far have had. This story focuses on the travels of one main character, Gustav von Aschenbach. Throughout the story, the reader is exposed to a sense of obsession and reflection by Aschenbach. Upon arriving in Venice, he encounters a “beautiful” young man who defies anything that Aschenbach has ever seen. Although slim and even resembling the body of a sickly person, Aschenbach defines Tadzio as Greek god-like. Throughout his time in Venice, we see how Aschenbach develops an obsession with Tadzio’s beauty and  how this obsession may be the missing section of Aschenbach’s life that may make it complete. This journey is the beginning and also the end of a new life for Aschenbach.

In the beginning of the novel, we get the sense of how bleak Aschenbach’s life has been up to this point. Thomas Mann describes it as, “He grew aware of a strange expansion of his inner being, a kind of restive anxiety, a fervent youthful craving for faraway places, a feeling so vivid, so new or else so long and outgrown that he came to a standstill” (5). Aschenbach has never been the travelling person. He experiences a new, unique feeling that makes him resemble an experiential tourist. He is looking for a new beginning and a new way of living. He may not know this at first and in his mind he may resemble a recreational tourist who travels just for helping boost his determination to help his work. However, his trip to Venice ultimately highlights his longing to become youthful again as shown in the quote from page 5 and when Mann says, “Was it an intelligent consequence of this “rebirth””(20). His longing to relive his youth is why he stays in Venice even when a deadly disease spreads viciously throughout the city.

Along with his longing to relive his youth and to be reborn comes an obsessive quality that develops within Aschenbach. After he arrives in Venice and is exploring the grounds around the hotel, Aschenbach sees a young, slender man named Tadzio. He is immediately drawn to this man because of his “beauty”. Mann first exposes us to this when he writes, “he saw none other than the beautiful boy coming from the left, walking past him in the sand” (55). Aschenbach marvels at the boy and thinks he is truly the most magnificent creature he has ever seen. By marveling at the young man, the reader can get the sense that Aschenbach is displaying these feelings because this is the type of person that he wants to be or maybe even wishes he was in his past when he was younger. Tadzio becomes a model for Aschenbach and he goes about day by day tracking and following the journeys of Tadzio’s family throughout Venice.

The day by day following of Tadzio only emphasizes more the kind of strange bond that Aschenbach has developed. Mann says, “But at that very moment he felt the casual greeting fade and vanish before the truth of his heart, he felt the rapture of his blood, the joy and agony of his soul, and acknowledged to himself that it was Tazdio who had made it hard for him to leave” (73). Aschenbach has never even had one word with Tazdio and yet he is making it seem like he has had a  long relationship with him. This makes Aschenbach seem like he is exhibited child like qualities in which before even meeting a person he becomes infatuated with him. This is yet another example which serves as an explanation as to how Aschenbach’s trip to Venice may have been used as a chance to relive his youth and live without boundaries.

Although his trip brings out feelings of youth and defiance that he has never quite felt many times throughout his life, Aschenbach’s journey in Venice ends in an unfortunate way. This novel like many novels that we have read up into this point in the class, also has had a sad and even  incomplete feeling to it. While I was reading the story, I established a longing for Aschenbach and Tazdio to meet because I felt that this would complete Aschenbach’s journey to Venice. By meeting with Tazdio, Aschenbach will complete his journey of finding his self and reclaiming his youth by finally completing his obsession. This never happens as Mann says, “Minutes passed before people rushed to the aid of the man, who had slumped sideways in his chair” (142). Aschenbach imagined that he went to meet Tazdio in the ocean however this imagination is really Aschenbach’s death. Although his journey is complete in his mind, Aschenbach never meets Tazdio and can never profess his love and infatuation with him giving this story another unhappy ending to add onto the previous ill-fated endings  we have encountered in this class so far.
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Surely It Would Clear Over Venice

Submitted by Violette on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 23:16
Aschenbach's Journey For Clarity
In Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, the travel narrative revolves around the thematic use of clarity to describe Aschenbach’s motivation for his journey and the subsequent uncertainty that goes along with it. This central focus on lucidity has much to do with Mann’s concentration on aesthetics, as noted by Gary Johnson in “Death in Venice and the aesthetic correlative” because the two encompass his stress on appearance and sensation. The novella is filled with delicate visual descriptions of both the characters and the weather, which draws attention to the idea of vividness in the work. It’s important to note this focus because it has much to do with the style in which Mann wrote it and in what he is trying to stress throughout the journey about old age and subsequent death.

When we first encounter Aschenbach, he is just beginning his travels to Venice and even within the first few pages, we start to feel overtones of mystery and the unknown. These overtones are engendered by heavy descriptions of tombstones and spiritual morbidity, both of which contribute ironically to a lack of clarity. Mann seesaws between this sense of vagueness and what is contrastingly abundantly clear. Aschenbach’s intentions for traveling remain a mystery in that he is described as being “quite content with the view of the earth’s surface that anyone can gain without stirring far from home,” (7) yet he feels a persistent “urge to flee.” (8). This urge to flee is discussed in an abstract sense, which is very different from the descriptive explanations of the more visual components of the novel. It is also a concept that has been reflected within a great many travel works, that there is a pull, whether internally or externally, for the individual to abandon his home and journey outwards.   

This journey for Aschenbach is to come closer to both experiencing and acceptance of death. Because death is such a deeply complex idea (or reality, if you will), it is quite fitting that Mann uses the diving in and out of specificity to discuss it. The clearer aspects of the novel that evoke visual stimulation lie in the intensive character sketching and descriptions.  Mann’s portrait of Tadzio, the fourteen-year-old boy with whom Aschenbach becomes infatuated, erupts with colors and visual specifications that make him leap from the page. The novel is filled with these moments of intense description of both the characters and the scenery, which add to grounding the reader in understanding Aschenbach’s travels, while providing an aspect of authenticity or realness to the landscape.

When thinking in terms of landscape, the weather is one of the finest examples of how Mann deals with complex components of both life in the real and visual world and death in the abstract sense. He does so using descriptive intricacies along with heavy symbolism to tie the aspect of Aschenbach’s inner search for death and his external exploration of the foreign outside world that he deprived himself of for a great deal of his life.

There are several instances when Aschenbach reflects on the weather and the uneasiness and lack of clarity he feels because of it. He associates Venice with having caused him this type of discomfort, yet in his impulsive desire for travel that is the precise destination, which he has sought. This heavy focus on what is clouded both in a visual sense of the sky and internally for his understanding of death, speaks of his desire and hope that “surely it would clear over Venice,” (31). 






Mann, Thomas Death in Venice 
Death in Venice and the aesthetic correlative
Death in Venice: Overview
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Can a City Be Deceitful?

Submitted by Smag18 on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 22:47
How Mann seems to assign human emotions to the geographic city of Venice
Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice adds a new facet to the geographic analysis of travel that we focused on in our midterms.  This novella accomplishes this geographic facet by alluding that the geographic city of Venice has the capacity to express human emotions.  When disease strikes the city, Mann describes the cover-up in a way that suggests that Venice as a city was a deceitful participant in the cover-up: “in mid-May of this year, on one and the same day, the dread vibrios had been discovered in blackened corpses in Venice.  The cases were kept secret.  The Venetian authorities issued a statement to the effect that health conditions had never been better… the chief medical officer of Venice, a man of outstanding merit had resigned from his post and been quietly replaced by a more pliable individual” (120-122).
 
Through his constant use of the word Venice, Mann drills the point home that the city is responsible for this cover-up.  Even though Mann clarifies that it is only the top officials making sure the truth does get out, he seems to blame the geographic city of Venice as well.
 
Mann does not assign this human emotion of deceit to the city of Venice out of nowhere.  In his buildup to the reveal of the city’s cover-up, he develops the city as having its own entity.  For example, near the end of the book, the main character Aschenbach is constantly remarking about how the city is producing a medicinal effluvia.  Again, Mann clarifies how it is the police that are causing this noxious smell, yet to Aschenbach it seems that the city of Venice itself is oozing the smell as its way of attempting to curtail the spread of the illness that it is covering up.
 
Once again, all the cover-ups are ultimately explained as being masterminded and carried out by humans.  Nonetheless, Mann makes special efforts to blame the city of Venice as well.  He points to the fact that literally every native Venetian is willing to be part of the cover-up: the hotel workers, the performers and the barber all lie to Aschenbach when he inquires about the illness.  Mann explains how “fear of the overall damage that would be done – concern over the recently opened art exhibition in the Public Garden and the tremendous losses with which the hotels, the shops, the entire, multifaceted tourist trade would be threatened in the case of panic and loss of confidence - proved stronger in the city than the love of truth and respect for international covenants” (122).  In this passage Mann hints that every Venetian seemed to innately understand why they should lie (to save the city), and this almost rehearsed cover-up seems to suggest that the city of Venice itself is deceitful and malicious: as man says “fear of the overall damage that would be done... proved stronger in the city than the love of truth” (122).

Interestingly, as the city of Venice deceitfully lies and covers-up it encourages further crime within it's city borders, yet again refuses to stop the lies.  Mann's description of this decline of Venice as self-imposed further suggests how the city is not only deceitful but also suffers consequences and has to deal with responsibility just like a human does.
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a Venetian Tale of Art and Lust

Submitted by labellavita on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 21:41
a man's search for beauty becomes an obsession
Rich with allusions and exquisitely detailed images, Death in Venice chronicle's the maddening effects of an individual's thirst for aesthetic perfection, wanting to turn the world into a work of art. Aschenbach is an ascetic who perceives beauty in a very classical,stoic manner. The constant allusions to Greek and Roman mythology highlight both the sensuality and the conservativeness of Neoclassicism. Aschenbachen's journey to Venice frees him from the Freudian repression that dampens his sexuality. In Freud's concept of repression, the individual who was repressed was sure to face some sort of break down or malfunction, especially since Aschenbachen has such an intense desire for art: the appreciation of art cannot be free of all passions. Venice is certainly a very deliberate place for Aschenbachen to go through his transformation, as being an epicenter of art and physical beauty. Tadzio's appearance is appealing both because of his resemblances to classical Greek sculptures and of the very unique foreign features. Acshenbachen is enthralled by the euphonic sound of Tadzio's foreign name, and a ceratain degree of his fascination is due to the boy's alien and mysterious origins. Aschenbachen experiences different sorts of reactions to art: a purely removed intellectual perception to a very intense emotional and sensual interpretation. I found that the constant allusions to Greek mythology were only somewhat effective: in my opinion, it was a bit over-wrought and obscured certain aspects of the novel.Yet, there is no doubt that Mann's novel is linguistically exquisite, some of the symbols, such as the red-haired people symbolizing a descent into the underworld and Aschenbachen's decline into utter hedonistic madness, were pure genius. This symbol shows that Aschenbachen is not only physically travelling, but is taking a psychological and emotional voyage as well. The nature of art is transient and ephemeral, and cannot be constructed into rigid criteria. Mann shows how an obsession with beauty and aesthetic perfection can lead to an individual's madness and death. The cholera epidemic that takes place in Venice during the novel seems to symbolize the disastrous effects of living in an imaginary world of beauty: the Italians and travellers stricken with wanderlust do not aknowledge the gravity of the situation. The motifs appearing throughout the novel of ominous clouds and phony boatsmen create a backdrop of impending doom in a beautiful place. 

Beauty and Obsession in Venice

Submitted by Sophia on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 20:12
The role of mythology and disease in Aschenbach's obsession
Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice is the story of a famous writer Aschenbach who, when visiting Venice, becomes obsessed with the beautiful fourteen-year-old Tadzio. The novella has a striking amount of elements. Most significantly I believe are Aschenbach change from the cerebral to the physical in regards of Tadzio, the use of mythology, and the presence. While Death in Venice is undoubtedly a travel story, there is an element of constraint found in the piece. Aschenbach is seemingly trapped in Venice due to his desire for Tadzio. Later on, because of the cholera outbreak, the city itself has the potential to become a prison. Aschenbach, with his knowledge of the disease outbreak, essentially traps Tadzio there by not informing his mother of the potential illness. Therefore, while this is a travel story, the elements of constraint are very to novel to it.

Aschenbach’s desire for Tadzio, while always questionable appears to have begun in the cerebral. After all, Aschenbach was a writer, who wrote of “...elegant self-possession concealing inner dissolution and biological decay from the eyes of the world” (17). Essentially, Aschenbach is a man who is completely turned inwards and in many ways undoubtedly repressed. Upon his meeting with Tadzio for the first time, he compares the boy to intellectual and mythological figures. There is something disconnected about his desire, but without the physical element it at least appears almost pure. After Aschenbach has his Dionysian dream, his desire takes only a more notable physical and depraved element, though he never touches the boy. However, his obsession becomes nearly criminal, and Tadzio’s guardians are alerted. Thus, the movement from a more cerebral, mythological desire to a physical one is a notable theme of the story.

Another striking element of the novella is the use of mythological and historical figures, especially as they relate to Aschenbach’s desire for Tadzio. The most notable aspect, already mentioned, is his dream, which alerts him to his true feelings for Tadzio. The dream, which is filled with taboos and phallic imagery, is an allusion to the myth of Dionysus. Dionysus was the son of Zeus, and is often described as androgynous looking; he was also the god of wine and festivities. The dream is the first time that Aschenbach is able to understand his true feelings for Tadzio, and appears to be frightened by it. Tadzio is also compared to Narcissus, Phaedrus, Hyacinth, and Aphrodite. The allusions to mythological perhaps help Aschenbach justify his desires, because he feels that he is following a tradition. It also elevates Tadzio to a god-like position, to the point where Aschenbach fails to put his feelings into words. He writes: “He was more beautiful than words can convey” (95). Aschenbach essentially turns Tadzio into a minor divinity, and by doing so loses his will to leave Venice, his will to write, and his identity.

Finally there is the ever-present threat of disease and death. Aschenbach seems plagued by figures that resemble corpses and skulls. Tadzio himself is not described as healthy. Aschenbach notes, “He is frail, he is sickly…He’ll probably not live long” (62). As the story progresses, Aschenbach listens to rumors that there is a sickness heading towards Venice. He debates whether to tell Tadzio’s mother about it, when it is confirmed to be true, but decides against it, for fear that Tadzio will leave. Ultimately, he chooses to stay. Perhaps because of this threat of illness and mortality, along with his obsession, there is a feeling that Aschenbach is trapped in Venice, which makes his death all the more tragic. The fragility of Tadzio, on the other hand, increases his vulnerability, which likely increases his attractiveness to Aschenbach. However, Tadzio’s frailness almost probably stirs in Aschenbach a desire to immortalize him, which he does in his writing. Thus the threat of illness and death lead to both the immortalization of Tadzio as well as the feelings of constraint in Aschenbach’s movements.
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