Death in Venice

Days pass, and Aschenbach no longer considers leaving Venice as he settles into a comfortable routine of idleness. He has never enjoyed relaxing but now finds himself bewitched and content with his leisure. Recalling how he struggled to write and work back in Germany, he is pleased to be at his ease here. He often sees Tadzio around the hotel, particularly in the mornings, when he watches Tadzio playing on the beach with his companions under the supervision of his female relatives. Aschenbach derives significant pleasure from the sight of his beauty whether Tadzio is staring out to sea or playing or lying in the sand. Under the warmth of the sun, Aschenbach’s reason succumbs to the pleasurable drunkenness of a sensual reawakening of his youthful feelings of sexual attraction to other boys—feelings he has long since repressed.

Aschenbach fantasizes himself and Tadzio as characters in one of Plato’s famous Discourses, taking on the roles of Socrates and Phaedrus respectively. He imagines lecturing the boy on the importance of beauty to the soul of the artist, and the importance of the lover in admiring and venerating such beauty. Aschenbach works while watching Tadzio on the beach. Using the boy’s beauty as inspiration and his body as a model for the form of his writing, Aschenbach produces a short but deeply felt essay on a topic of current artistic interest.