Death in Venice

A major preoccupation of the novella is the conflict between rationality and sensuality. Before his trip to Venice, Aschenbach’s lifestyle is founded on excessive discipline and rationality, and he fears that he has repressed his passions to the detriment of his art. In Venice, he gives himself over to intoxicating passion and sensuality—though these passions remain largely confined to his imagination. Variations of this theme are a common preoccupation across Mann’s work and were a subject of significant interest to Mann’s early 20th-century educated readership. Within Death in Venice, this theme is grounded with references to Plato’s theories on the human soul, Neitzche’s concepts of art, and Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis.

Aschenbach imagines himself as Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. In the Phaedrus, Socrates describes the human soul as akin to a chariot pulled by two horses, one representing rationality and the other passion. He proposed that careful management of the “passion” horse was necessary for the charioteer to drive the vehicle, and that balance was key. Aschenbach has long since avoided indulging his passions, and in Chapter 1 he fears that these passions are seeking “vengeance” for their neglect by sabotaging his art. Aschenbach’s hostility to his passions arises at least in part from the stigma surrounding relationships between men in Europe during this time period. As his erotic passions are reawakened in the presence of Tadzio, he remembers the feelings of his youth—feelings that carried so much risk in the repressive climate of late-19th-century Germany that he effectively hid them even from himself. Aschenbach understands his desire for Tadzio as reflecting the “pederasty” relationships of Ancient Greece, where an established older man would take on a mentorship role over a prepubescent boy. Such relationships usually, though not always, included a sexual component, and were lauded in their day as a marrying of wisdom (i.e., rationality) and beauty (i.e., sensuality). Aschenbach, however, fails to construct a true pederastic relationship with Tadzio—in contrast with the ancient Greek ideal, he derives pleasure from the boy’s beauty without offering him anything in return, even declining to warn the boy’s family about the cholera outbreak. In a clear demonstration of the predatory nature of his interest, he twice takes comfort in the belief that Tadzio will likely die before old age robs him of his beauty.

Mann was deeply interested in the work of Freud, and he incorporated elements of Freud’s theories on the unconscious mind into his exploration of this theme. Freud proposes that repressing the passions only lends them strength, leading to unhealthy and obsessive neuroses. This phenomenon can be seen in the character of Aschenbach, who spent a lifetime suppressing his emotions as a “closed fist” only to be overcome by them to the point of irrational hedonism and intoxication in his final weeks. Interpreted through this lens, Aschenbach’s death is a cautionary tale of the dangers posed by an unbalanced psyche.

At the opening of the novella, Aschenbach is producing art through a rational and measured approach that suffers from a lack of emotion. Once in Venice and inspired by Tadzio, Aschenbach produces an essay in which he sets his repressed passions free, capturing the beauty of Tadzio and the pleasure and pain of erotic yearning. However, unaccustomed to indulging his passions in moderation, Aschenbach’s inner life falls into excessive bacchanalian hedonism. He ceases to produce art, instead indulging his senses unproductively—as exemplified in the Dionysian orgy of his dream in Chapter 4. Ultimately, he is unable to tear himself away from the object of his desire even when he knows that remaining in Venice may well kill him.