Introduction
”Death in Venice” is a beautiful story, which shows the morality itself dealt with on different levels. In his story, Thomas Mann gave Aschenbach, the main hero, some of his own personal features such as ambitions, feeling of being strange to the normal life, and of course great devotion to art. Aschenbach is a famous author, already in his early fifties, fully dedicated to art. In my opinion, Gustav von Aschenbach is shown to us by a narrator as a tragic hero.
Main body
He lived not for his own sake, but for sake of art and passion bursting deep inside him. Being a self-restraint writer, who is trying to leave a stable life and though he is very ambitious, Gustav is not letting his ambitions and passions make an effect on his life and his art. But, all the passion and ambitions were only growing under such tough control, and once Aschenbach opened his mind, they exploded, took over his life, leading him to death. Death was not his fault, he died, because he falls in love with a young boy – Tadzio. First, he was just interested in this boy, but later it becomes an obsession. Because of Tadzio, he changed himself, he yielded to his own feelings and ambitions, letting them fulfill him. And all these changes from his past rational life to a world full of passion were made only for one boy, he never even spoke to.
He met Tadzio in his hotel in Venice, soon hot and humid weather made Gustav seek, so he decides to move to a better location. But, the next morning he remains in Venice, without even a thought to leave. During the next weeks, Aschenbach is secretly following and watching the boy, wherever Tadzio goes.
Soon Aschenbach gets a note from Venice Health Department warning him about unknown contagion. At first, he doesn’t pay attention to this note, but later he decides to discover the threat of decease from the note, but not for himself. All he wants is to warn Tadzio’s mother about it. But then realizes that this news will make the boy’s mother take him away from Venice. So Aschenbach remains silent. As we see, now, his passion leads to risk not only the main hero but his beloved one.
One night Aschenbach has a dream, which reveals to him the sexual nature of his relations to Tadzio. After the dream, Aschenbach starts looking and following the boy more often and closer, so even the boy’s guardians notice that. They warned the boy about it, so Tadzio is now aware of Aschenbach’s interest in him. Nevertheless, Aschenbach still didn’t even talk to the boy or touch him, all he had is Tadzio’s smile.
A few days later, when Aschenbach comes back to the hotel, he discovers that Tadzio with his family is going to leave Venice right after lunch. This news broke Aschenbach’s heart. He feels weak and sick. He goes to the beach, where he usually spends time on his deck chair. He sees Tadzio walking with the older boy. Then between two boys began a quarrel and Tadzio is leaving his companion and going straight to Aschenbach’s side of the beach. Aschenbach is looking at the sea, then at Tadzio. Next moment Aschenbach was dead.
As a tragic hero, Aschenbach died because of his love, feelings, and passion. He exhausted himself by obsessively following his love and giving full freedom to his inner passions and desires. During all his life Aschenbach was trying to achieve ideal beauty in his arts and become somebody, play a certain important role in this society. He succeeded only because he had the power to keep all his senses under control, he was dominating them with his strong will and waiting for them to be opened at the moment of his fame. But love not only broke all his plans but defeated his power of will. It threw him in a sea of feelings, strong passion, and selfishness.
Conclusion
The whole tragedy of the novella is that Gustav von Aschenbach is alienated from himself. But he was not just merely isolated from others, in fact, he was forced to be isolated from the whole society because of his passion.
Gustav Aschenbach is certainly a hero—a tragic hero. Because of his tragic change of himself, another part of him, the hidden one, filled with passion and feelings leads him to death. He is a hero because he was willing himself to change in the name of his love, even though love narrator described homosexual relations. I think, he is a hero, because he answered one single question: is it better to love somebody obsessively, with all the ocean of feelings you are hiding inside and die, or never feel love and passion at all?