Grant Faulkner

  • Books
    • The Art of Brevity
    • All the Comfort Sin Can Provide
    • Fissures
    • Pep Talks for Writers
    • Nothing Short Of: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story
    • The Names of All Things
  • Stories
  • Essays
  • News/Interviews
  • Appearances
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Contact

Death in Venice: Death in Expat Novels

April 8, 2007 by Grant Faulkner Leave a Comment

I recently read Death in Venice because I’m interested in the reasons why it seems like all protagonists in travel/expat novels die.

The consul is murdered in Under the Volcano. Port dies of an illness in The Sheltering Sky. Kurtz dies in The Heart of Darkness, and you might even say that Marlow has died a kind of death as well. Although a character like Dick Diver isn’t physically killed in Tender is the Night, he undergoes an equivalent psychological death.

I wonder if death is so pervasive in this genre of literature because travel causes an abandonment of routine, a loss of equilibrium or control, and an ironically threatening self-knowledge (but isn’t self-knowledge supposed to provide salvation?). We travel to lose ourselves certainly, but I suppose we travel to die a certain kind of death as well–to kill off the self we live with but don’t necessarily like or respect.

Or is it that when dislocated from home, one becomes vulnerable to fears—”the other,” which can take so many forms, preys on one in any place that isn’t home? In fact, an “other” always functions as an antagonist in travel literature, whether it’s the protagonist’s true self, the threat of foreigners, real or imagined, or an invasive disease.

Aschenbach dies in Death in Venice–hardly a surprise, given the title–after letting his disciplined nature succumb to his hidden sensual and passionate side when he falls for the beauty of a young Polish boy, Tadzio.

He doesn’t lose himself in just any place, however, but in Venice, which is a significant setting because of its history of moral corruption and decadence, its carnivals full of revelers wearing masks. Also, it stretches toward the East from the more controlled, orderly, and safe Western Europe. So, unlike, say, Strasbourg or Vienna or Prague, it’s a fitting place for Aschenbach to abandon his restraint, to become more himself in effect.

Aschenbach’s loss of reason, his disregard for the clench of disciplined will he’s lived his life with, reaches a climax when he finds out that an Asiatic cholera epidemic is spreading in Venice. His love for Tadzio has such a pull that he doesn’t do the reasonable thing and leave Venice when the first signs of the epidemic occur.

Is the first genuine taste of passion worth the gamble of death–or does he tempt death simply because his mind has forfeited the hold of logic and will power? Both perhaps. It’s interesting that only the powers of discipline, of reason, could have saved Aschenbach, and yet when he dies, it’s not a sad death. He’s died with himself, after all, in mental and physical peace.

For more, enotes provides a collection of critical essays.

Filed Under: Blog, novel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Social Media

Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn

Subscribe to my newsletter!

Bio

Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month, co-founder of 100 Word Story, writer, tap dancer, alchemist, contortionist, numbskull, preacher. Read More…

The Art of Brevity

Cover of Art of Brevity

Buy from Bookshop.org

All the Comfort Sin Can Provide

Book Cover - All the Comfort Sin Can Provide

Buy from Bookshop.org!

Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo

Bookshop.org
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound

Fissures

Grant Faulkner Fissures

Bookshop.org
Amazon

Nothing Short of 100

Grant Faulkner Fissures

Buy now!

The Names of All Things

Grant Faulkner Fissures

Buy now!

Recent Posts

  • Author’s Note: The Art of Brevity
  • A Creative Manifesto
  • The Ides of March: The Most Dangerous Time for New Year’s Resolutions
  • Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo
  • On Failing Better, Failing Bigger, Failing Magnificently

Tags

Community cover design Creative Process Experimental Fiction Favorite Authors Flash Fiction Inspiration Literary Critique Literary Magazines NaNoWriMo Philosophy Photography Poetry Reading Revision Self-publishing Short Story Writing Detail Writing Tips Writing Voice

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in