Death in Venice Lecture Note
Death in Venice Lecture Note
Death in Venice Lecture Note
I. LIFE (1875-1955)
1. The making of an artist
“When I ask myself the hereditary origin of my characteristics I am fain to recall Goethe’s famous
little verse and say that I too have from my father “des Lebens ernstes Führen [a serious
lifestyle],” but from my mother the “Frohnatur [cheerful nature]” – the sensuous, artistic side, and,
in the widest sense, the “Lust zu fabulieren [pleasure to invent stories].” (Thomas Mann, A Sketch
of My Life, 1930)
2. Public persona in exile – fame and the politically engaged intellectual
3. Interpretations
3.1. Freud, the Pleasure Principle and Happiness Unfulfilled
→ The novella as an account of the protagonist’s development.
As the narrative unfolds, we witness Aschenbach’s self-destruction, the
dissolution of his self-discipline and dignity which goes hand in hand with the
spread of cholera in the city (the city as a mirror of Aschenbach’s inner-self).
His development can be explained in psychoanalytical terms with Freud. From
the way Aschenbach is introduced at the beginning of the novella – a
distinguished, hard working and self-disciplined writer in Munich, Germany –,
we can conclude that he is governed by a strong super-ego and ego and is in
control over his id. Once he allows a “break” from his strenuous lifestyle and as
the narrative goes on in Venice, Italy, the super-ego and ego break down until the
id gains control. Living according to the pleasure-principle is not viable,
happiness cannot be attained.
Last image of Tadzio, taking the pose of Greek sculpture:
“a remote and isolated figure, with floating locks, out there in sea and wind, against the misty
inane. Once more he paused to look: with a sudden recollection, or by an impulse, he turned from
the waist up, in an exquisite movement, one hand resting on his hip, and looked over his shoulder
at the shore. (…) It seemed to him [Aschenbach] the pale and lovely Summoner out there smiled
at him and beckoned; as though, with the hand he lifted from his hip, he pointed outward as he
hovered on before into an immensity of richest expectations.” (p. 73)
Aschenbach tries to reach out to him, the object of his formerly repressed
homosexual desires, but fails. Death in Venice.
3.2. Nietzsche, Goethe and Neoclassicism
→ The novella as a discussion of art.
Death in Venice does not only speak of Greek sculpture, the novella’s very
structure is reminiscent of Greek tragedy. Moreover, it incorporates many
quotations from classical texts, namely from Plato’s Phaedrus and Symposium
and from Plutarch’s Erotikos (other less important quotations are from Xenophon,
Homer and Virgil).
As Aschenbach’s infatuation with Tadzio increases, he tries to hold on to his
idealized image of Tadzio by interpreting his feelings in accordance with Plato:
“Beauty alone [among Ideas] is lovely and visible at once. For, mark you [Socrates addressing
Phaedrus], it is the sole aspect of the spiritual which we can perceive through our senses” (p. 45).
Aschenbach temporarily experiences the fruits of Platonic love. When looking at
Tadzio he feels inspired to write (p. 45-46). However, what starts as Platonic love
turns into worldly love, sexual desire that seeks fulfilment. Eventually
Aschenbach is lead not to spiritual wisdom but, as his dream reveals (p. 65-67),
“to intoxication and desire”, “to the bottomless pit” (p. 71) – a danger Plato is
aware of in his dialogues.
With Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872) in mind, Death in Venice can be
read as the story of an artist who is driven by Apollonian elements (form, reason,
self-control) but lacks the Dionysian ones (destruction/chaos, emotion and
intoxication). His attempts to combine the two fail. His initial preoccupation with
Apollonian elements is reversed in his dream in which he adheres to “the stranger
god”, Dionysus. Unable to combine Dionysian and Apollonian elements, his
writing has become fruitless. This is the end for him as an artist. Death in Venice.
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FURTHER READING
Clayton Koelb (ed.). Death in Venice: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Contexts,
Criticism/Thomas Mann. W.W. Norton & Company, 1994.
Herman Kurzke. Thomas Mann. Life as a Work of Art. Princeton University Press, 2002.
Thomas Mann. A Sketch of My Life. Secker & Warburg, 1961.
Ritchie Robertson (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Mann, Cambridge
University Press, 2002.