CIVILIZATION SEQUENCE 204
DEATH IN VENICE
THOMAS MANN
March 6, 2017
Aida Arasoghli
I.
INTRODUCTION
Background: Thomas Mann (born1875-d.1955), German novelist and Nobel Prize
laureate (1929). Mann travelled to Venice in May 1911; his trip is the source of inspiration in
Death in Venice, published 1912.
Major themes: Art and beauty, the artist’s fatal obsession with beauty.
Thomas Mann: It is a story about the “artist’s dignity.”
II.
MUNICH: REPRESSION, ENSLAVED EMOTIONS,MASTERY OF INSTINCTS
Gustav von Ascenbach is the main character in the novella, distinguished artist and writer in his
early fifties, knighted for his artistic and literary achievement, conforms to a life of selfdiscipline, repression and restraint. Cerebral, labors at the edge of exhaustion, solitary “Solitude
gives birth to the original in us, to beauty…It gives birth to the opposite; to the perverse, the
illicit, the absurd.” (Mann, p.24) He decides to go on a journey, to the romantic city of Venice
where Aschenbach’s illicit adventure begins.
III.
VENICE AND ITS DISCONTENTS
THE VICTORIOUS ID, THE VANQUISHED EGO AND SUPER-EGO
Admiration: Aschenbach arrives to Venice, settles in Hotel de Bains where he notices the godlike and perfect beauty of a fourteen year old Polish boy. He finds out his name, Tadzio. He
admires his charm, compares him to the Greek sculpture, the spinario. At this stage the
admiration is purely aesthetic, similar to the ravishment of the artist over a masterpiece, Tadzio
is a masterpiece from “nature’s own hand.”(Mann. P.31). Infatuation: Aschenbach starts
seeing the boy constantly, contemplating the beautiful apparition of Tadzio. Obsession: Seeing
Tadzio is left no more to chance, he abandons his dignity following the boy in every move. The
compulsive obsession marks the beginning of the downfall of Aschenbach, the collapse of the
reality principle and his super-ego. Passion: The lover is drunk with passion, tramples on his
reason and dignity. Aschenbach’s repressed desires and emotions return with more force in
Venice.
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The opposing traits in AchenbachTABLE 1. MUNICH
EGO, SUPER-EGO
ENSLAVED EMOTIONS
VENICE
ID
INTOXICATED EMOTIONS
REPRESSION, RESTRAINT, SELFFREUD: RETURN OF REPRESSED
COMMAND
IMPULSES
PREOCCUPATION WITH EXCELLENCE
RECKLESSNESS
ENNOBLED ARTIST
ENAMORED LOVER
MODEL: FREDRICK OF PRUSSIA
MODEL: DIVINE BEAUTY OF TADZIO
PAYING HOMAGE TO THE INTELLECT,
BOWING DOWN AND PAYING HOMAGE
REASON
TO BEAUTY
SELF-CONQUEST, RENOUNCES
SELF-ABANDONMENT, SLIDES INTO THE
SYMPATHY WITH THE ABYSS
ABYSS
IV. THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE BETWEEN EROS AND DEATH
Achenbach falls under the spell of the destructive forces of the “death instinct”. He notices a
medicinal smell in the streets of Venice and finds out that the city is infected with cholera.
Though aware of the danger of the spread of cholera, he gives in to his Id, decides to stay close
to his charmer, taking the risk of contracting cholera- break down of the reality principle.
V. THE DANDIFIED YOUNG-OLD MAN, SELF-DECEPTION
Artificial Youth: Achenbach starts paying frequent visits to the hotel barber, brightens his
dress, wearing jewelry and perfume. He comes to resemble the dandified old man he saw on
the ship on his way to Venice.
TABLE 2: Comparison between Achenbach and Venice
ASCHENBACH
VENICE
PASSION COMPARED TO CRIME
CRIMINALITY OF THE AUTHORITIES
REFRAINS FROM WARNING THE POLISH
THE AUTHORITIES REFRAIN FROM WARNING
FAMILY
THE TOURISTS
FEAR OF LOSING TADZIO
FEAR OF BEING OUT OF POCKET
PASSION-HIDDEN SECRET
CHOLERA-DIVULGED SECRET
CONCEALING HIS OLD AGE WITH
CONCEALING THE INFECTION OF THE CITY
COSMETICS,PERFUME
WITH SWEET SMELLING DISINFECTANTS
SICKNESS, DEATH OF ASCHENBACH
DECAY, SPREAD OF CHOLERA
VI. DEATH OF THE MASTER
“For in almost every artist nature is inborn a wanton and treacherous proneness to side with
the beauty that breaks hearts…” (Mann, p.26)
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Quotes from Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice
1. “His whole career had been one conscious and overweening ascent to
honour…” (p. 12)
2. “Too busy with tasks imposed upon him by his own ego and the European
soul, too laden with care and duty to create…” (p. 6)
3. “Achenbach was not pleasure-loving, always, wherever and whenever it
was the order of the day to be merry, to refrain from labor and make glad
the heart, he would soon be conscious of the imperative summons-and
especially was this so in his youth…” (p.40)
4. “Achenbach has always lived like this”—here the speaker closed the finger
of his left hand to fist”—never like this”—and he let his open hand hang
relaxed from the back of his chair.” (p.9)
5. “Has not been written that he sun beguiles our attention from things of the
intellect to fix it on things of the sense? The sun, they say, dazzles; so
bewitching reason and memory that the soul for very pleasure forgets its
actual state.” (pp.43-44)
6. “A solitary, unused to speaking of what he sees and feels, has mental
experiences which are at once more intense and less articulate than those
of the gregarious man…Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty
unfamiliar and perilous-to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite; to
the perverse, the illicit, and the absurd.” (p.24)
7. “Recalled the noblest moment of Greek sculpture-pale with sweet
reserve…the brow and nose descending in one line, the winning mouth, the
expression of pure and godlike serenity. He has never seen in art or in
nature such perfection of form and personal charm.” (p.25)
8. “He is delicate, he is sickly, he will most likely not live to grow old.” He did
not try to account for the pleasure the idea gave him.” (p.34)
9. “His beauty is lovelier than words could say.” (p.50)
10. “There can be no relation more strange, more critical, than that between
two beings who know each other only with their eyes, who meet daily, yes,
even hourly…” (p.48)
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11. “Mind and heart were drunk with passion, his footsteps guided by the
daemonic power whose pastime is to trample on human reason and
dignity.” (p.54)
12. “A speaking, winning, captivating smile, with slowly parting lips. With such
a smile it might that Narcissus bent over the mirroring pool, a smile
profound, infatuated, lingering, as he put out his arms to the reflection of
his own beauty…” (p.50)
13. “How dare you smile like that! No one is allowed to smile like that.” (p.51)
14. “He told himself that what he saw was beauty’s very essence, form as
divine thought, the single and pure perfection which resides in the mind, of
which an image and likeness, rare and holy, was raised up for adoration.”
(p.43)
15. “For beauty, my Phaedrus, beauty alone is lovely and visible at once…”
(p.44)
16. “The city’s evil secret mingled with the one in the depths of his heart.”
(p.53)
17. “And he gave a melancholy smile. What would they have said?”
18.“For in almost every artist nature is inborn a wanton and treacherous
proneness to side with the beauty that breaks hearts…” (p.26)
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