It is a sickness that impairs the body's normal vital functions. If the normal function of the body is to live, then a disease inhibits the body of living fully or at all. We usually define a disease as a viral infection or something caused by a bacteria. Diseases can most often be described in medical terms and be repaired through medical means. There are some diseases that are fatal, and refuse to be cured. Such terminal diseases compound on themselves over time and only get worse until the inevitable occurs: death. As Germaine Greer describes in her book, Love is a disease:.
In love, as in pain, in shock, in trouble.
Thus love is a state, presumably a temporary state, an aberration from .
The norm. The outward symptoms of this state are sleeplessness,.
distraction, loss of appetite, alternations of euphoria and depression, as .
well as starry eyes (as in a fever), and agitation (Women and Romance, .
123). .
Thomas Mann's short fictional novella, Death in Venice, is laced with this disease motif disguised as love. Aschenbach, the protagonist, for his whole life was an intellectual and a writer. He falls in love with a young Polish boy, Tadzio, who embodies all that Aschenbach never was. Tadzio is a beautifully athletic boy with curling blonde hair, while Aschenbach is a decrepit wrinkled old man lacking all his hair. He is the object of Aschenbach's affection and obsession. Aschenbach's love for this child is a terminal disease. It is terminal because it eventually leads him to his own demise. The disease motif plagues Aschenbach all during his stay in Venice and drives him to do all kinds of ridiculous things and eventually to his death.
Aschenbach's relationship with Tadzio, if it can even be considered a relationship, began as a simple admiration for such an extraordinary specimen of human beauty. Aschenbach saw Tadzio as a small recreation of the Greek mythological gods.
Death in Venice The novel Death in Venice is a direct parallel to the life of Thomas Mann, its author. ... After searching for a ship, he quickly makes for Venice. ... The color of the gondola is an obvious symbol for the impending death foretold in the title. ... He decides to leave Venice. ... The strawberries are indeed contaminated with cholera and will lead to Aschenbach's death. ...
Death in Venice One of the main techniques Thomas Mann uses to portray, as Cicero would call it, eloquence in his art is to connect his literature to ancient beliefs and characters in Greek mythology. ... To be honest, I didn't know too much about ancient mythology when I chose to write the review of Death in Venice on this subject, but the recurring references to Apollo and Dionysus and others struck me as an important mark for this novella. ... Death in Venice has many references to antiquity. ... On the steps of this mortuary, he notices a strange-looking man with red hair, dressed ...
A comparison of Death in Venice by Thomas Mann and Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino Solitary individuals often exploit different views on our world, sometimes accompanied by a "disharmonious" way of living, as we can see in these two books. The concept of a distant view on life, is applied in both works, be it Gustav von Aschenbach's artistic dilemma in Death in Venice or Cosimo's escape from rules and regulations by leaving the natural life on the ground, to live beneath the sky yet above the earth, in Baron in the Trees. ... Death in Venice, written by Thomas Mann in 1912, is...
On the Discourse of Desire The progression in the discourse of desire in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice depicts the shift between the intertwining discourses evident in the novella, beginning with the Apollian discourse to the fateful pathological desire that will evidently end Aschenbach's life. Aschenbach sets out on his ill-fated journey to Venice, the city of intrigue and mystery, because he desired change, a breakage from his structured and prototypical will. ... The plague, believed to have originated from India, had reached Venice. Aschenbach toys with the idea of telli...
The Merchant of Venice? ... This is whyThe Merchant of Venice? ... In Venice, your word was your bond. ... Although it is not the final scene, it is the finale of theThe Merchant of Venice? ... This wish for his daughter's death revokes much of the sympathy created by the former plea for the recognition of his humanity. ...
In The Merchant Of Venice, the following happens - this is a brief outline. ... Bassanio receives a letter off Antonio asking Bassanio to go to Venice to see him before Shylock kills him. ... There is now a case against Shylock and so instead of death. ... Before Portia and Bassanio, he receives a letter from Venice sent by Antonio asking for Bassanio to go to the court so that Antonio can "see you at my death," but says that "if your love can't persuade you to come, let not my letter." ... I believe this has shown Portia's complex character by explaining the roles of Portia in T...
The Merchant of Venice In the world of Shakespeare's play, the Merchant of Venice, contracts in their many forms are very important. ... "I had rather be married to a deaths" Head with a bone in his mouth than to either of these." ... When the time comes for Bassanio and Gratiano to return to Venice to help their friend Antonio both couples say their goodbyes, with both men wearing their rings. While in Venice Bassanio and Gratiano must repay the doctor and the doctors clerk, as they are in debt to them for saving their friend Antonio's life they give them the choice of anything...
He wrote a series of poems titled "Poems after Laura's death." ... After the black death infected Milan, he sought refuge in Venice. In Venice he was given a house, and in return he donated all his books to the public. ... Petrarch's final move was from his donated home in Venice to Padua, Italy after a dispute with other scholars in Venice. He lived there until his death in July 18, 1374. ...
Fate by Acts Shylock's character is set as an outsider from others in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice by the mere fact that he is a Jewish person among many of the Christian faith. ... At this display, Portia begins to use the laws of Venice to help Antonio. ... He even faces death "if it be proved against an alien, that by direct or indirect attempts he seek the life of any citizen" (349-351). This shows that justice has been turned against him and he now faces possible death himself. However, Antonio intervenes on his behalf with the request that Shylock be spared b...
