The prophetic 'Death in Venice'

By Peter Y. Paik

The First World War is widely recognized as the first great civilizational crisis of the industrial age. Breaking out in a Europe that had enjoyed an unusually prolonged period of peace, the conflict was fought with terrifying new weapons and led to the deaths of over 15 million young men.

The four peaceful decades before the bloody conflict came to appear in retrospect as a period of naive optimism about the potential of human beings to make moral progress and the capacity of technology to improve human life.

For the constant enjoyment of peace, affluence, and progress had awakened perverse and destructive desires. The brutal industrial warfare that would take the lives of millions would reveal an immense appetite for chaos and destruction that had taken hold during a period of political stability and steady material improvement. The most famous literary work that brought to light the psychic and spiritual forces which drove Europe into catastrophe is the novella "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann (1875-1955).

Published in 1913, "Death in Venice" centers on a protagonist similar to Mann himself. Gustav Aschenbach is a renowned novelist acclaimed for exploring the conflicts between traditional duties and modern freedoms. His heroes are appropriate for a time of peace and stability. Rather than being men of action, they are instead "overburdened" figures who "labor on the verge of exhaustion" and rise to greatness by perseverance.

But Aschenbach, a widower, comes to tire of the disciplined way of life celebrated by his works, and decides to travel to Venice, the most exotic locale he can reach within a day of travel. Shortly after his arrival, he is enthralled by the striking good looks of a teenage Polish boy, who is staying with his family at the same hotel as Aschenbach.

The boy, whose name is Tadzio, captivates him with his appearance. Every day Aschenbach, who is a widower and father of an adult daughter, goes out in search of the youth. The famous author watches the youth as he takes his meals with his sisters and plays on the beach with his friends. The boy notices the older man's attentions, and becomes curious about him in turn.

But no real conversation takes place between them. Aschenbach for the boy Tadzio is an odd old man, not the great author admired across the continent. Tadzio for Aschenbach is not so much a human being as the symbol of perfection, the embodiment of a beauty so transcendent as to cause him to forget about his physical safety and well-being. Indeed, when there are reports of a cholera epidemic spreading through the city, Aschenbach ignores them so as to remain in the proximity of the beauty that has possessed him.

As the deadly virus drives away the tourists, Aschenbach has a vision of destruction. He dreams of an unruly mob worshipping the wine god Dionysus. These celebrants are transported into an orgiastic trance where they tear apart the bodies of animals with their bare hands. Aschenbach is overcome with the desire to join this deadly dance: his soul is eager to taste the "frenzy and fornication of doom."

This vision of chaos and destruction foreshadows the illness that takes Aschenbach's life. While the other tourists all flee Venice, the writer remains behind to take one final look at Tadzio before he dies of cholera. Transcendent beauty, far from inspiring him to create, produces in Aschenbach the yearning to surrender to the destructive forces he has come to associate with physical perfection.

Mann's novella expresses in indelible form the grave spiritual predicament imposed by modernity, whereby men and women lose both the desire and the ability to raise their desires and appetites into a higher form, such as drawing upon forbidden and destructive desires to create art.

The loss of spirit brought on by this plight is relayed by the lack of interest shown by Aschenbach in Tadzio as a person. For all his fixation on how Tadzio looks, Aschenbach feels little inclination to get to know him as a person, nor does he wonder about kind of character the charismatic teenager might become as an adult. Indeed, the possibility that Tadzio suffers from poor health and is likely not to reach old age fills him with a sense of reassurance.

Aschenbach, in other words, prefers that Tadzio remain an illusion than become for him a full person. The novella shows not only the uncoupling of beauty from creation in Aschenbach's abandonment of his vocation, but also anticipates the debasement of sexuality in the West which so easily severs sexual intimacy from warmth, affection, and respect.

The crisis laid bare by "Death in Venice" relates to the loss of human beings, sheltered by technology and affluence, to commit themselves to or to create anything that is lasting or meaningful. The tragic irony of the novella resides in how the tireless defender of civilized values can become tired of the burdens imposed by such a civilization.

But in crying out for a release and rejuvenation, the burdened soul stands at risk of setting in motion the catastrophic wars and revolutions that have taken the lives of millions and shattered the idea of civilization itself.

Peter Y. Paik teaches literature at Yonsei University. His email is pypaik@gmail.com.