It keeps him alive, he believes.Īt the same time that he idealizes Tadzio, Aschenbach also see himself in the boy. Similarly, he does not care whether they all die of cholera if he does not warn them of the outbreak in Venice-he cares only to bask in the warming sunshine of Tadzio’s beauty. He notes that other people, such as Tadzio’s family, are uneasy about the way he stares at Tadzio, but he does not care. Watching Tadzio thrills him and makes him feel alive like he never has been before to actually speak his love to Tadzio might shatter the “illusion” he has created of a relationship between them, so he remains a lover from a distance. He even goes so far as to almost touch Tadzio one day, but he is overcome with panic at the last minute. He stalks the boy and openly stares at him, and he imagines that the boy’s shy glances return his interest. Soon, however, Aschenbach abandons his old morality and self-respect and allows himself to fall completely and ridiculously in love with Tadzio. At first, he merely admires the boy’s classical beauty he even tries to use the boy as a muse to rejuvenate his writing. But on a deeper level, it is a love of himself that Aschenbach experiences.Īs Aschenbach grows increasingly infatuated with Tadzio, he becomes increasingly divorced from his formerly staid and proper life. On the surface, it is the love of an aging man for a young boy. Why does Aschenbach so thoroughly abandon himself to this kind of love? Why is he afraid to actually confess his love to Tadzio?Īschenbach’s love for Tadzio functions on several levels in Death in Venice. Aschenbach’s love for Tadzio is an unfulfilled homosexual love.
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