Salazar 1 Sonia Salazar Mrs. Delgado ENGL 2331-20ZA 19 July 2017 Death in Venice Essay In the story Death in Venice, the author takes you through the journey of an older man who goes to Venice. During his vacation, he becomes infatuated with a boy named Tadzio and Mann uses him as one of the biggest symbols for the story. This story uses a lot of symbolism to get the point across of what exactly is going on in the Aschenbach’s life and in his mind. Symbols and the use of Venice for the main setting of the story will be analyzed to see how repressed desire will manifest into harmful ways and how this story couldn’t have been set anywhere else. In the beginning of the story, Mann makes sure to briefly describe where Aschenbach currently lives which is Munich. He shows the reader a bit of insight on the type of lifestyle Aschenbach lives along with the way he has his home. This helps the reader see that he is very well organized and continuously seeks for order and organization in everything he does and even gets upset when certain things aren’t behaving the way they are supposed to. A good example of this would be a quote by Reynolds which says, “Mann’s use of natural, geographical symbols also underlines the central conflicts of the novella. Aschenbach identifies the discipline of his art with Munich, a city of northern Europe, and with the snowy mountains.” (Reynolds, Masterplots, Fourth Edition). This setting is the first clue into showing us how his discipline makes him repress his desire which then leads to it being manifested in harmful ways. This can then be supported by Koelb which says, “Mann carefully builds up a picture of a man for whom

Salazar 2 the greatest catastrophe would be to let go of the iron grip he maintains on himself. That stern discipline is not only the condition that makes possible his work but also the essence and subject matter of that work as well.” (Koelb, "Death in Venice."Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism).