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Ms. Diana Saprikina

ENG 2135

November 28, 2011

Apollo and Dionysus in Death in Venice

Thomas Mann surrounds Aschenbach, the main character, with Greek gods in his famous

novella, Death in Venice. Aschenbach sketches his own platonic argument as a meditation on

the dual nature of the artist following the dualism in The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche as the

complementary opposition of the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects. In The Birth of Tragedy,

Nietzsche blends several concepts such as ancient tragedy, Greeks mythology, and pessimism.

He creates two opposite inclination of the Greek art: the Apollonian and the Dionysian. He

mentions: “… art owes its continuous evolution to the Apollonian-Dionysian duality, even as the

propagation of the species depends on the duality of sexes, their constant conflicts and periodic

acts of reconciliation” (The Birth of Tragedy, p.1). Apollo and Dionysus are the sons of Zeus, the

king of gods, and they have the contrasting characters. Apollo is the god of sun who represents

reason, rationality, and the West; while Dionysus, the god of wine, represents unreason,

irrationality, blissfulness, and the East. Mann uses Nietzsche's ideas of Apollonian and

Dionysian principles in Death in Venice.

The two cities, Munich and Venice, are used not only to highlight the conflict within

Aschenbach's mind and body, but also to entail the conflict between intellectuality and emotions

between Apollonian and Dionysian principles. Aschenbach keeps his Apollonian principles even

when he worships the beauty of Tadzio, the godlike boy. However, he falls into an extreme love
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to Tadzio, and he gets lost in Dionysian principles by remaining to the end in the infected and

plague-stricken city of Venice. Eventually he dies from the disease: “Minutes passed before

anyone rushed to the aid of the man who had collapsed to one side in the chair. They carried him

to his room. And later that same day a respectfully shaken world received the news of his death”

(p.1869).

Gustav Aschenbach has lived in Apollonian lifestyle by exploring his intellectuality

through his masterpieces such as books and anthology. However, he seems to experience the

middle age crisis and boredom. His writings tend to be repetitive from his previous works. He

decides to take a drop to escape the pressure of work and to refresh his mind. He walks to The

English Garden and strolls around the Northern Cemetery where he sees a red-haired tourist. The

red-haired tourist represents devil and the death, and this is the point when Aschenbach is

introduced to the life of Dionysian principles. The tourist is described as, “… red-lashed eyes

between which stood two stark vertical furrows that went rather oddly with his short, turned-up

nose” (p. 1820). This passage symbolizes Dionysus' characteristics: red-lashed eyes symbolize

death, and evil, while turned-up nose is an attribute of Dionysus characteristic symbolizing

desire and passion. After he sees the red-haired tourist, he apparently abandons his logic to

irrationally decide to travel, and Venice is the city he wants to visit.

The trip to Venice amazes Aschenbach. He loves the beaches, warm weather, and the

buildings that look like a city built on a swamp (the beauty of renessance is mostly represented in

venice, that’s why we have that city as the moral of the story). He is excited when the boat

approaches Venice: “He felt and urgent need to get out, to look at the sky, to see if it might not

be brightening over Venice…He softy repeated to himself some of those verses in which the
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awe, joy, and sadness” (p. 1829-1830). Thomas Mann uses the beaches, sea, the beauty of the

city, and warm weather to embody Dionysus principles, which are the sex, the death, and the

East. Mann also uses those symbols to show how Aschenbach starts immersing himself into

Dionysian principles as he gets away from the solid land of the Apollonian principles.

However, when he gets off the boat and feels the air of Venice, he still holds on

Apollonian principles until he excessively idolizes a godlike young boy named Tadzio. Tadzio

embodies Helios, the Greek god of the sun whom later Mann equates with Apollo. Aschenbach's

attraction to Tadzio appears to all attributes that Dionysus represents. When Aschenbach first

sees Tadzio, he thinks of classical Greek statues and studies the boy's handsome features: “The

sight of this lovely adolescent figure, seductive and chaste, lovely as a tender young god,

emerging from the depths of the sky and the sea with dripping locks and escaping the clutches of

the elements--it all gave rise to mythic images” (p. 1840). Aschenbach's attraction to Tadzio

appears to be an attraction to all that Dionysus represents rather than Apollo's enlightenment.

Through the most graceful Tadzio, Aschenbach is inspired to write by assimilating the boy's

form as the model of his writing (Achenbach is totally inspired from the beauty of the boy, and

on the other hand, that’s why he gave us a total smell od the scenes and a totally beautiful

description of the plaeces in the book.), and he regains the joy of the words he chooses (not to

mention his growing intoxication with Tadzio's presence). Aschenbach loses his sense of self and

becomes one of many Dionysus worshippers.

Aschenbach's admiration grows bigger and gets more intense when he begins to “hunt”

the boy. This is also the point when he becomes totally possessed by Dionysian principles. He

falls in love with Tadzio as a person. His love becomes more into sexual desire rather than to the
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platonic features the boy possesses. Mann creates the same-sex-love between Aschenbach and

Tadzio to show his use of typical ancient Greek love mythology, especially when older men fall

in love with boys. In addition, Mann tries to show that the balance between emotion, intellect,

and psychology is only achievable at younger age, and Aschenbach loses the balance because he

gets older. To look younger and appealing to the young boy, he dyes his hair and puts make ups

on his face to cover his aging appearance. By following the Dionysian principles of youth and

emotion, Aschenbach tries to revive the feeling of being young that, in fact, he has never

experienced before.

Aschenbach should be alive if he does not fall extremely into Dionysian principles and

leaves Venice to escape from the spread of cholera. However, he sinks himself into a passive,

fatalistic acceptance of his feelings and remains to the end in the infected city of Venice, the city

where Dionysus dominates Apollo in Aschenbach's life. After this point, Aschenbach still has

hopes of being left with Tadzio alone as the epidemic disease spreads throughout the city. His

hopes scatter as his death comes before he fulfils his hopes. Mann uses the relationships to point

out the danger of letting emotions take over reason, and to underline the connection between

desire and death.

Thus, Thomas Mann follows the dualism in The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche as the

complementary opposition of the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects. Death in Venice plays out

the dualism and parallelism of Greek mythological gods, Apollo and Dionysus, to criticize the

human character. Through Aschenbach, the main character, Mann quips that even the most

successful person in his career experiences the middle age crisis and falls extremely into

Dionysian lifestyle that leads to his own death. People are willing to sacrifice the common good,
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rationality, reason, and the interests of community (Apollonian principles) for the benefit of their

own interests and their desires (Dionysian principles).