Chatting With Thomas Mann About "Death in Venice"
... story, he starts to get these stirrings within him that something is not quite right. The reason that this is a tragedy is because he begins at his pinnacle, has everything going for him, and suddenly comes crashing down. Just like Hamlet, all is in Aschenbach’s favor, and he falls as low as he can and eventually dies. I would also want to discuss with Thomas Mann the Apollonian to Dionysian transformation that occurs within Aschenbach. This topic of tragedy would be interesting to talk about with the author, because there are a couple of counterarguments to this idea. One counterargument is that the changes that cause Aschenbach’s downfall are within himself. In other tragedies, the factors that lead to the protagonists change are outside their control. Using the example of Hamlet, the murder of his father and the sudden wedding of his mother are both outside his control. The Apollonian to Dionysian change could also be countered in that Aschenbach did not begin as an Apollonian figure. Though he worked diligently, he did not follow Apollo’s two dicta; these were “know thyself” and “everything in moderation.” Aschenbach did not truly know himself, for he s...