Kevin Hu

Death in Venice Questions

• Despite his talent at writing and the fact that it is his profession, Aschenbach

views his writing with distaste and frustration. It isn’t that he dislikes literature

itself though, he is simply tired of “tr[ying] to break or untie the knot.” (7). Being

an artist, he strives for perfection but that struggle is what tires him and alienates

him from writing. However, “in his youth, indeed, the nature and inmost essence

of the literary gift had been, to him, this very scrupulosity.” (7), which suggests

that it is just the relentlessness and prolonged nature of this process that

eventually wears out the artist.

• One of Aschenbach’s heroes is Frederick the Great, the subject of one of his

works. Aschenbach points out one of Frederick’s favorite mottos: “Hold fast.” (9).

This defining aspect of one of Aschenbach’s heroes is something that Aschenbach

himself cannot claim since he is perpetually plagued by poor physical condition.

Similarly, Aschenbach’s father is arguably one of his heroes. His father and his

family however, are “men who lived their strict, decent, sparing lives in the

service of king and state.” (8). Whereas Aschenbach is an artist and deals with

creativity, his father is an official who lives by certain rules. The fact that

Aschenbach’s heroes encompass characteristics that Aschenbach himself doesn’t

have seems to imply that Aschenbach is a doomed artist. He purses writing as a

career and has even been very successful at it, but it doesn’t seem to be right for

him.

• Mann uses the city of Venice as a

representation for the artistic

 beauty and perfection that Aschenbach so zealously pursues. However, Mann

subverts this so-called perfection by showing that in fact, Venice is full of

damaging imperfections. Despite the beautiful buildings, Venice is still a city

built on water, a fickle foundation that glaringly reveals Venice’s imperfection.

Aschenbach is clued in on this for himself, when he sees how the “skey and sea

remained leaden, with spurts of fine, mistlike rain.” (18). Moreover, the “garish,

badly built houses” (18-19) and the pestilent “lukewarm air of the sirocco” also

convey how Venice is a false paradise. This is not entirely relevant, but experts

also say Venice is slowly sinking as water erodes away at the buildings’

foundations. By including these imperfections in his description of Venice, Mann

implies how the artistic perfection Aschenbach seeks is unattainable.

• Aschenbach initially views the strangers he meets on his boat to Venice with

some disdain. He describes them as very rowdy, shouting “derisory remarks” over

the railing (17). However, he views the old man who associates with the younger

men with absolute disgust: “Aschenbach was moved to shudder as he watched the

creature and his association with the rest of the group.” (17). This disgust is

interesting considering Aschenbach exhibits the same behavior. With the

unlicensed gondolier, Aschenbach is very belligerent. He adopts very haughty and

condescending tones when he says “That is my own affair. I may want to give my

luggage in deposit. You will turn around.” (22). He goes to the extreme of

ordering the gondolier around at the slightest discomfort. Finally, Aschenbach is

bemused by the raucous performer. Mann uses very colorful words to describe the

performer: “striking, swaggering, imprudent, swaggering.” (58). Aschenbach also

 uses this performer to glean information about the spreading disease that

eventually kills him.

• Aschenbach first views Tadzio as a perfect physical specimen, a “masterpiece

from nature’s own hand.” (31). Tadzio also is a symbol of the artistic beauty that

Aschenbach seeks in his work; this is why Aschenbach is so attracted to Tadzio.

They boy then acquires a “final human touch” too (31), which only increases

Aschenbach’s love of the boy. Aschenbach’s admiration of the boy evolves to

idolatry when he describes the boy as a “godlike work of art.” (43). Throughout

the novella, Aschenbach only worships the boy more and more, indicating his

ardent wish for artistic perfection.

• Aschenbach’s love of the boy is tempered slightly when he notices that the boy is

imperfect. His “teeth were imperfect, rather jagged and bluish, without a healthy

glaze, and of that…” (34). Considering how Mann uses Tadzio as another

representation of how Aschenbach is so infatuated with the idea of artistic

perfection, Tadzio’s sickness indicates how this perfection is impossible. The fact

that Aschenbach consequently still pursues Tadzio emphasizes Aschenbach’s

blind pursuit of an impossible artistic goal.

• As the novella progresses, the sentences become more convoluted. In the

beginning, Mann uses straightforward sentences such as “He had been young and

crude with the times and by them badly counseled.” (12). On the other hand, by

the end of the novella, twisted sentences such as “That night he had a fearful

dream – if dream…” (65). The latter sentence employs much more complicated

syntax and the structure is not as direct. Mann inserts this change in structure and
syntax to mirror how Aschenbach’s thoughts become more convoluted as the

novella progresses. By the end of the novella, Aschenbach’s fantasies about the

little boy become intertwined with his grasp on reality, as epitomized by his

dream the night before he dies: “His senses reeled in the steam of panting bodies,

the acrid stench from the goats…” (66).