Death in Venice

Chapter 3-the end

Aschenbach travels to Venice; he goes on a boat with a group of young men, one of whom disturbs him because he is ‘old’.

Themes in the novella
Obsequious-
Meaning-
1.
Characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference; fawning: an obsequious bow.

2.
Servility compliant or deferential: obsequious servants.

3.
Obedient; dutiful.

The grubby seaman taking him to Venice is described as obsequious, Aschenbach seems to see this as an insult, he seems like a snob, he thinks that he is above them.

Greek mythology-
Apollo God of reason
He is represented in the novel by Aschenbach’s character when he judges himself to be reasonable. When, in chapter 3, Aschenbach is trying to leave Venice because he feels unwell, and uneasy, he behaves like Apollo, Mann narrates Aschenbach’s thoughts, there are similarities between Tomas (ULB) and Aschenbach, in the way that they have an interior set of rules which, although they have imposed it upon themselves, they feel duty bound to follow.

Dionysus God of passion and unreason
Represented for example when Aschenbach thinks that he should be leaving Venice and there is this general feeling that he shouldn’t’, he later realises (233) that it the desire to be near Tadzio which stops him.

Silenus
Represented by irrational characters such as the gondolier, it is as if Aschenbach thinks that these characters are threatening him to follow the way of Dionysus. The red haired man in the grave yard (beginning chapters) is the character which prompts what Aschenbach feels is the irrational need to travel to Venice.

The weather-
Represented first at the beginning of the novella, the greying skies and thunderstorms, his arrival in Venice is wet and grey, foretelling of his stay?


Colour-
Tadzio and his red neckerchief. The colours of Venice in comparison to the bleak blandness of Munich. Representative of unreason again, Aschenbach is thoroughly confused by his own actions and thoughts; he doesn’t understand himself or his attachment to Tadzio.

Beauty-
Mainly with Tadzio, the Greek God element, his perfectly formed face and figure. Also, though, in Aschenbach’s arrival into Venice, he is disappointed not to arrive in a splendid glorious Venice, instead he arrives to a greying place, a premonition perhaps?

Similarities with ULB
Tomas and Aschenbach are similar characters I think, they both frustrate the reader. They both seem like men ruled by their own rules, inside of their heads.

Tereza and the Silenus/Dionysus characters are similar I think, she is similar to the parts of the book where Aschenbach reacts with his heart, not his head.

Tadzio and Tereza, both childlike, both, in a sense, sort of angelical. Both revered by Tomas/Aschenbach, in reference to the Moses basket passages and he long descriptive Godly descriptions of Tomas.

The long periods of reflective philosophy, the moral qualms of the focal characters.

The twistedness, the warped theories, the pervertedness of the plot.

The unfinished end, the indifference of the readers.