Death in Venice study guide

Tadzio

Tadzio is the beautiful Polish boy whose presence makes Aschenbach resist leaving and whose smile prompts an admission of love. His later looks toward Aschenbach and movement onto a sandbar keep him central to the final encounter.

Key parts: 4, 5, 6

Jaschu

Jaschu is a Polish boy whose closeness to Tadzio includes walking beside him and kissing him. His later rough treatment of Tadzio, followed by unsuccessful attempts to appease him, introduces conflict into that closeness.

Key parts: 4, 6

The governess

The governess supervises the Polish children and directs their conduct when their mother arrives. Her later accompaniment of the children toward the hotel shows the continuing supervision surrounding their movements.

Key parts: 3

The gondolier

The gondolier refuses Aschenbach's requested route and takes him to the Lido before disappearing because he lacks a license. His attempts to land Aschenbach near merchants further suggest the traveler's limited control over his movements.

Key parts: 3, 4

Phaedrus

Phaedrus is the beautiful youth receiving instruction from Socrates in a scene Aschenbach imagines. Aschenbach later addresses him in a half-sleeping speech, making him a focus for thoughts about beauty, art, dignity, and ruin.

Key parts: 5, 6

The stranger

The stranger is a red-haired man whose foreign appearance and challenging stare precede Aschenbach's sudden desire to travel.

Key parts: 1

Beauty and desire

Aschenbach's return exposes an attachment that makes departure more than a practical decision. When Tadzio's smile prompts an admission of love, beauty works as a force that changes both Aschenbach's understanding of himself and his ability to maintain restraint.

Where it shows: parts 4, 5

Self-deception

His later pursuit of Tadzio despite confirmed cholera shows how desire can turn an apparent inconvenience into permission and make danger insufficient grounds for departure.

Where it shows: parts 4, 6

Art and desire

Aschenbach's production of a short work while watching Tadzio links artistic activity with personal fascination.

Where it shows: parts 5, 6

Secrecy and complicity

Aschenbach's silence about confirmed cholera joins his decision to remain in Venice. His continuing pursuit of Tadzio suggests that secrecy is not merely an absence of speech, but a way of protecting the circumstances that allow his desire to continue.

Where it shows: parts 6

The black gondola

The black gondola carries Aschenbach along a route he does not choose. It works as an image of surrendered control, making arrival depend on another person's direction rather than his own.

Part 3

Sun and sea

Sun and sea frame the routine in which Aschenbach's fascination grows. They work as a setting for both artistic activity and emotional surrender, linking the pleasure of staying with his admission of love.

Part 5

The narrator, Part 1. The narrator identifies a need for change as Aschenbach's exhaustion prompts travel. The line shows escape beginning as an answer to a strained routine.

The narrator, Part 2. The narrator connects art with intensified living during the account of Aschenbach's career. The line suggests that artistic achievement magnifies life's demands rather than removing them.

The narrator, Part 4. The narrator voices Aschenbach's divided intentions around his attempted departure. The contradiction shows that recognizing a reason to leave does not overcome his attachment.

The narrator, Part 5. The narrator describes Aschenbach's unwillingness to regain sobriety as fascination becomes acknowledged love. The line suggests that surrender is something he values, not merely something he suffers.

The narrator, Part 6. The narrator joins silence with staying after cholera is confirmed. The line shows how Aschenbach's continued presence depends on withholding a response to danger.