Death In Venice Analysis

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The novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann describes the journey of an older German writer, Gustav Aschenbach, who comes to Venice on vacation and falls deliriously in love with a young boy. This love, and the obsession it culminates in lead to the demise of the writer. Mann’s story seems to be about an ill-fated love but in truth it tells a tale of a man who goes from total control of his life and his being to an irrational creature who is controlled by wild emotions that he will eventually succumb to. Such a story line perfectly illustrates the differences between the two Greek gods of art and how people can fall under the influence of each. Both Apollo and Dyonisis are gods of creativity and art in the Greek world yet they have such different …show more content…

He is described as very disciplined, starting his day with a shower of cold water so that he can do his best work in the early hours of the day (Mann 5-6). These qualities of control and restrain are both Apollonian. They represent the side of art that is thought out and put together piece by piece. They are the aspects of artistic thought that one sees in a perfectionist: the need to only put out one’s best works. According to Nietzsche in his work Apollo versus Dionysus, Apollo has the power of prophecy (Nietzsche 1). This ability to tell the future will lead a man to always think about his next move, thus acting in precise and meticulous ways, such as is described of …show more content…

Dionysian values include this acceptance of indulging in the beauty of art whereas Apollonians believe in the appreciation of art with a more controlled disposition. One can see that Aschenbach’s turn from an Apollonian to a Dionysian feeling of this value is not an instant transition but it does happen fairly rapidly. He first notices the boy in the hotel while waiting for dinner. When he first sees Tadzio “with astonishment Aschenbach noticed that the boy was perfectly beautiful” (Mann 19). Even the way Mann writes this description of the boy at first sight has a very Apollonian quality. One gets the sense that Aschenbach is admiring a great piece of

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