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Death in Venice Summary of the Book Analysis
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This document is a summary of the book Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, as covered in the Modern Fiction Course at Rhodes University.
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Page |1MANN | DEATH IN VENICE (1912/ 2001)
(POSSIBLE) EXAM QUESTIONS:
POSSIBILITY 1:
Mann claimed that Death in Venice is the story of an ar st’s loss of dignity, and Mann “frequently
insisted that the essen al theme was this, the capacity of “passion” as such – any infatua on or
obsessive love – to destroy dignity.” (Luke, 1996: xxxiv)
Discuss this statement with regard to Death in Venice. Does Aschenbach really lose his dignity?
POSSIBILITY 2:
In his notes, Thomas Mann said of his protagonist Gustav von Aschenbach:
He can never a ain dignity [...]. Dignity is rescued only by death [...] – as a way out and
refuge of all elevated love. The fame of the author is a farce; the trust of the masses is
sheer idiocy ... the irony that the [school]boys are reading him, the irony of his o cial
standing, of his being granted nobility... At the very end: state of decadence, enerva on,
demoraliza on. (in Heilbut 1995: 248f.)
Discuss this statement with regard to the novella Death in Venice.
*So I assume the ques on might have something to do with “dignity” – if not – then I give up.
BACKGROUND:
THOMAS MANN: (1875 – 1955)
➢ Bisexual/ homosexual
- It was an open secret within the family
- An era where homosexuality was punishable
➢ The audience he wrote for (is gone)
- Easy to ‘read over’ the allusions in his work
- Lost in transla on
➢ Had a good bourgeois life
- Never once had to su er
, Page |2
INFLUENCES & STYLE:
➢ POSSIBLY about Goethe
- The aging Goethe and how he lost his dignity by falling in love
▪ Similar to the aging Aschenbach
▪ Losing his dignity through his love for Tadzio
➢ Richard Wagner
- Recurring mo fs in his music
▪ Like the recurring leitmo f in Mann’s work
➢ Tone
- Atmosphere of death and chaos
SUMMARY OF EVENTS:
➢ The protagonist
- Gustav Aschenbach (53-years old)
▪ Writer
▪ Troubled by a lack of crea vity
▪ Walks in the cemetery (north of Munich) > travels south (Venice)
- Encounters Tadzio (14-years old)
▪ Polish boy
▪ Beau ful
▪ Infatuated
- Abandons all discipline and reason
▪ Submits more and more to his passion
▪ DESPITE an outbreak of cholera > stays in Venice
▪ Dies of cholera
▪ The world reacts to his death with shock and mourning!
- Love (≠ Physical) > Intoxica on
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