On the other hand, Death in Venice is heavy in symbolism. The color red runs through the center of this novel, signifying love, passion, anger, and the Devil. The color red is first shown when von Aschenbach encounters the red-haired stranger in the cemetery with red-lashed eyes. This man inspires von Aschenbach to travel to Venice and connects to other strange men whom von Aschenbach meets throughout the journey. These men include the old man on the boat to Venice who dresses up young with red rouge, the gondolier with reddish eyebrows, and the clown with reddish eyebrows. All four wear a sort of headgear and possess naked Adam’s apples, disappear suddenly, and curl their lips back to bare gums.
It seems that the similarities of these peculiar men are not coincidental, but rather destiny, as they foreshadow the events that lead to von Aschenbach’s death. The first man leads von Aschenbach on a vacation to Venice. After encountering him, von Aschenbach sees a vision of a rainforest and decides to go to Venice. The rainforest can be paralleled to the Ganges Delta, a tropical rainforest where cholera originated. This is significant because the vision can be an omen of von Aschenbach’s death from the tropical disease.
The second man foreshadows what von Aschenbach will become after falling in love. He dresses up, dyes his hair, and uses rouge to make himself look younger for Tadzio. The third man foreshadows von Aschenbach’s death upon entering Venice. As he boards the gondola, von Aschenbach feels like he is entering a ‘peculiarly black’ coffin, recalling death, a ‘dismal burial,’ and a ‘final silent voyage.’
Von Aschenbach is unable to control where the gondolier takes him, just as his passion towards Tadzio is uncontrollable and death comes without warning. The fourth man foreshadows von Aschenbach’s death due to cholera, as he smells of carbolic acid, the disinfectant used to prevent cholera. He also has the closest physical contact with von Aschenbach, signifying that death is approaching. The color red is prominent when von Aschenbach first consumes large, fully ripened” strawberries while seeing Yashu kissing Tadzio, symbolizing his anger and jealousy. Later, von Aschenbach drinks a “ruby red” pomegranate juice when he meets the clown. Lastly, he consumes overripe strawberries bought from the infected streets of Venice, where he contracts cholera and dies.
This has sufficiently shown that the color red foreshadows his death in Venice and is the cause of it. Additionally, Mann’s choice of Venice as the setting is significant because it allows for a comparison between Venice and von Aschenbach. Venice, like von Aschenbach, is hiding a disease that is corrupting the city from within and trapping tourists. Similarly, von Aschenbach convinces himself that his passion for the young boy is not wrong.
Allusions from Greek mythology are important in showing von Aschenbach’s affection towards Tadzio. The fact that Greek mythology is present in von Aschenbach’s thoughts demonstrates his intellectuality and effort to explain and justify his attraction to a young boy. Von Aschenbach compares himself to Socrates and Tadzio to Phaedrus. In Plato’s theory, they have a conversation about love and conclude that pure love can only exist between males, specifically a man and a boy.
This allusion contributes to von Aschenbach’s decision that his obsession is normal or rather noble, thus enabling him to continue to degrade into the pool of passion and obsession. It is also ironic that von Aschenbach compares Tadzio’s smile to the smile of Narcissus because Greek myth states that Narcissus refuses all love offers. This shows that von Aschenbach knows that Tadzio might not return his love offer. Yet, at different parts of the story, it seems that Tadzio is constantly beckoning and looking von Aschenbach into his eyes.
Mann’s writing is based on Nietzsche’s philosophy of Apollo and Dionysus. Men can be on either side, and von Aschenbach fully represents the shift from Apollonian to Dionysian. Apollo is the god of reason and intellect, whereas Dionysus is the god of passion and unreason. Thus, von Aschenbach’s transition from a stiff, scheduled, ordered man into a man of uncontrollable emotions and obsession is portrayed. This also supports Mann’s theory that he wishes to express from this story: the ability of passion to degrade a person’s intellectuality.
Death in Venice effectively portrays the process of a man losing his self-consciousness and common sense to degrade into a state of passion and obsession through the author’s use of effective literary devices and allusions to Greek mythology. The readers can easily understand the author’s theory that he wants to express, and the storyline is very fixed and expected since the title has already concluded the ending. There is no possible way how this story can end due to the frequent foreshadowings and symbolisms, making it a very interesting book to read.
