Der Tod in Venedig

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Dies ist eine sonderbare moralische Selbstzüchtigung durch ein Buch.“ Mit dieser autobiografischen Bemerkung kommentiert Thomas Mann im Lebensabriß (1930) seine Venedig-Novelle.

Hans Wysling, Yvonne Schmidlin: Thomas Mann. Ein Leben in Bildern. Artemis, Zürich 1994, S. 198–203. Thomas Mann selbst hat den Tod in Venedig in seinem Lebensabriss die „Tragödie einer Entwürdigung“ genannt und dabei den Begriff Tragödie durchaus wörtlich gemeint, denn seine Novelle weist gleich mehrere klassizistische Merkmale auf: and, I couldn't shake the feeling that the novella was pretty much autobiographical in many senses. (I found out later that it was so in many respects, and the love-object is based on a real person. Most uncomfortable of all, is that the 'real' Tadzio, was the 10-year old Wladyslaw Moes). Die Schriftworte über dem Eingang der Aussegnungshalle, „Sie gehen ein in die Wohnung Gottes“ oder „Das ewige Licht leuchte ihnen“. (S. 11 Z. 3) But a plague is also stalking Venice. He considers leaving the city because of the 'miasma' but decides to stay because of the boy – a bad decision.

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Ceea ce-l intrigă pe protagonist este mai întîi un miros ciudat de dezinfectant, de acid fenic. Are o vagă bănuială cînd ascultă liturghia în basilica San Marco: „în mireasma dulceagă şi grea a catedralei simţi deodată strecurîndu-se un alt miros, mirosul oraşului bîntuit de molimă”. Ceva nu-i în ordine. Dorește să afle adevărul, consultă ziarele italiene, dar nu găsește nimic despre holeră. A intervenit cenzura. Îl întreabă pe patronul hotelului, dar primește răspunsuri vagi, ocolitoare: „Aşa a poruncit poliţia. Astea sînt prescripţiile, domnule”. E limpede că „blestemata sete de bani” îi oprește pe comercianți să recunoască franc realitatea: ar da faliment. Cînd vorbesc despre epidemie, îi diminuează proporțiile: nu-i ceva grav, e doar o măsură preventivă. Sună cunoscut, nu-i așa? Other translations include those by David Luke (1988), Clayton Koelb (1994), Stanley Applebaum (1995), Joachim Neugroschel (1998), Martin C. Doege (2010), and Damion Searls (2023). Ursula Geitner: Männer, Frauen und Dionysos um 1900: Aschenbachs Dilemma. In: Kritische Ausgabe. 1, 2005, 4 ff. ISSN 1617-1357. Nothing gladdens a writer more than a thought that can be come pure feeling and a feeling that can become pure thought."

Der Gondoliere rudert von Aschenbach nicht zur Vaporetto-Station, sondern gegen dessen Willen über die Lagune zum Lido. Nachdem zuvor die Gondel mit einem Sarg verglichen worden ist, entsteht beim Leser eine Charon-Assoziation. Die letzte Überfahrt ist ebenfalls ohne Umkehr und der Fährmann bestimmt das Ziel. But does this throbbing one-sided passion render a purpose to the debilitating parchment of his life or relegate it further to insurmountable lows? Hold the hand of Mann to find out. And yes, he has a lot to say in this compact work. At its heart, this is a cautionary tale regarding the danger of extremes, and the need to maintain a sense of balance in the conduct of one's life. Mann shows us someone who has lived a carefully controlled, passion free life in the pursuit of moral, intellectual art. When we first encounter von Aschenbach, he is an emotional corpse existing in the extreme state of pure reason and utter sensual denial. Mann shows us this not as an ideal, but as one end of the spectrum to be avoided. Thomas Sprecher (Hrsg.): Liebe und Tod – in Venedig und anderswo. Die Davoser Literaturtage 2004. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-465-03438-4.Ein Bildnis des Knaben enthält: H. Wysling, Y. Schmidlin (Hrsg.): Thomas Mann. Ein Leben in Bildern.

Luego en los siguientes capítulos nos muestra el interés del señor por el niño, al cual acecha constantemente con miradas y con una obsesión insana que en su mente él jura es algo romántico y que a la vez es correspondido y recíproco por parten de Tadzio, mientras hace alusión a la filosofía y mitos griegos.

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Aschenbach's name may be an allusion to Wolfram von Eschenbach, the author of the Middle High German medieval romance Parzival, whose reimagining and continuation of the Grail Quest romance of Chrétien de Troyes contained themes similar to those found in Mann's novella, such as the author's fascination with and idealization of the purity of youthful innocence and beauty, as well as the eponymous protagonist's quest to restore healing and youthfulness to Anfortas, the wounded, old Fisher King. Given Mann's obsession with the works of Richard Wagner, who famously adapted and transformed von Eschenbach's epic into his opera Parsifal, it is possible that Mann was crediting Wagner's opera by referencing the author of the work that had inspired the composer. Der gespenstisch wirkende Zahlmeister während der Schiffsreise nach Venedig erinnert an den Totenschiffer Charon, der in der Vorstellung der griechischen Antike die Verstorbenen in den Hades übersetzte und dafür als Fährmannslohn einen Obolus erhielt.