Death in Venice

To have an understanding of the use of disease as a metaphor in Thomas Mann’s novella Death In Venice, it is useful to understand the concept of disease itself. According to Webster’s Dictionary, 1913 edition, disease is defined as the “lack of ease; uneasiness; trouble; vexation; disquiet.” These words do embody the struggles of the great author, and main character of the novella, Gustav Aschenbach, but it is the description of disease as “an alteration in the state of the body or of some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing the performance of the vital functions, and causing or threatening pain and weakness; malady; affection; illness; sickness; disorder; -- applied figuratively to the mind, to the moral character and habits, to institutions, the state, etc” that is the foundation of the metaphor used by Mann. The disease spreading through Venice, is presumed to be cholera, and to what Aschenbach surrenders to in Venice. However, upon careful examination of the words written so eloquently, one can find that the death of Aschenbach was more that of an artist afflicted with passion and lust for beauty than of any physical ailment.

Mann carefully combines philosophy and psychology in Death in Venice, and these two general areas of intellect are in conflict throughout the novella. Specifically, it is the philosophy of art, one’s quest for beauty, and the psychological theory of repression derived from Freud that present themselves as key concerns in the metaphor of disease. Aschenbach, in his question for beauty, and in his repressed upbringing as an outcast of sorts from his great forefathers lead to the internal conflict he personifies.

“His forebears had been officers, judges, bureaucrats, men who had led their disciplined, respectable, and frugal lives in the services of king and state. Deeper intellectuality had embodied itself among them on one occasion, in the person of a preacher; more swiftly flowing and sensual blood had entered the family in the previous generation through the writer’s mother, daughter of a Bohemian orchestra conductor. It was from her that he derived the signs of foreign ancestry in his appearance. The marriage of a sober official conscientiousness with darker, more ardent impulses produced an artist, this particular artist.”

These words allow