Is Death in Venice a tragedy Explain how love, sickness, and Venice inform central concerns of Mann's Death in Venice - Essay Example

The fate of the protagonist is tragic as he meets with death due to cholera. The central character vision red haired stranger at North Cemetery represents devil which is sign of tragedy. The Gondolier in the story is the transportation of the souls to the underworld which is a tragic representation. Aschenbach has conflict with his psychology and his repressed in the novel. Disease is a metaphor in the story and it is the sign of the arrival of a tragedy. Aschenbach is a victim of loneliness, despair and sorrow.

Malady, pain and illness of the characters make the story a tragic one. The loneliness of the writer is also a tragic representation. “Aschenbach had once mentioned it in a place where it might easily has been overlooked , that all truly great work exist despite of things, distress and pain, despite poverty, abandonment weakness of the body, vice , passion and a thousand obstacles”. The character Aschenbach has always been solitary. He lived a life which had prominence of mind rather than life of the body.

He had the power of mind to imagine life by living with a life of mind. He always gets out of the burden of mind and lives a life which floats. This nothingness of his life suggests death which is tragic. The journey of his life makes him look inside himself and realize that he is getting old and he must acknowledge the idea of death. The story depicts that even though Aschenbach is older in age, his passion is of a young man and hence obsessed to a young man called Tadzio. The instinct and the morality of the story are irreconcilable.

The homosexual instinct of the central character is evident throughout the story. The sexual erotic impulses of the character are in prominence in the story. The instinct of lust of Aschenbach is superior to his morality. The central character is not leading a moral life as he is passionate about young boys . Is the loneliness and sorrow in his life which tempt him to be desirous of young boys or is just a psychological problem. The homoerotic desire of the writer is not a moralistic behavior according to the society.

The incestuous desire of the writer also indicates an immoralist sense of him. The character of the novel has been living a life of order but the new disorder in his life destroys him. He was leading a solitary life and as he evokes passion for Tadzio his life tends to fall in to a life of disorder. He tries to hide is age under make up, false teeth and wig. He is chaos and is relentlessly fallowing Tadzio in search of love. His obsession to Tadzio can be considered as a search for life itself.

The language of the story is highly charged with evoking sense of combined fertility and decay. The story has a rich and strong language with many images to evoke connections. The story also reveal a feeling of solitude, romance, passion, death and struggle. In the story, the Aschenbach is undergoing a life of solitude where he is looking deep into his life to understand mind and comply with it. The life of Aschenbach is inevitably a story of tragedy and pain. His chaotic life and his sudden death due to disease can all be the pathos in the story.

The self reflection of Aschenbach portrays lack of freedom and he is following a path of one’