Thomas Mann’s novella, Death in Venice, has often been linked to Plato’s philosophy, especially Plato’s Ladder of Love theory. Comparing this novella with Plato’s Symposium reveals how it subtly hints to Plato’s ideas about beauty, particularly his “ladder model of love.” In fact, ever important element of Plato’s dialogue can be found in the novella. Von Aschenbach, the protagonist of the novel, becomes inspired by the beauty of Tadzio, a Polish body, eventually becoming obsessed with him. In fact, Aschenbach becomes so obsessed with Tadzio that does not leave Venice even after discovering news of the threat of a plague because he fears losing the boy and ultimately, an infection leads to his death. It is apparent that Aschenbach’s love for Tadzio contains elements of Plato’s “ladder model of love.” Aschenbach starts by falling in love with a beautiful body, that of Tadzio. Aschenbach uses Tadzio’s beauty to meditate on an abstract idea of beauty.
As the protagonist of the Mann’s novella, Aschenbach meets Plato’s requirements of an ideal philosopher. In Plato’s eyes, an ideal philosopher would deal with beauty and feelings of love in a sensible manner. This way, even though Mann’s tries to portray Aschenbach’s attitude as a mistake, through Plato’s eyes, it cannot be seen as a mistake because he does precisely what is recommended by Socrates in his speech. Aschenbach views physical beauty and love merely as an inferior image of intellectual beauty and love that are more everlasting and valuable. He wishes to make those abstract forms of beauty and love obsequious to the ones that are more valuable. In simple words, the novels that Von Aschenbach has written are a manifestation of the fact that Aschenbach is already on one of the higher ‘rungs’ of Plato’s “ladder model of love.”
Once Aschenbach makes the ascent Plato’s “ladder model of love,” Tadzio’s beauty tends to become less relative and subjective as well. To Aschenbach, the beauty of the boy seems perfect, but it is arguable that other people would judge Tadzio’s beauty subjectively. While the boy is beautiful to Tadzio, he may not be considered beautiful by others. However, by comparing the boy’s beauty with the beauty of famous artistic works, Aschenbach tends to make his beauty more objective since over the years, people have already regarded famous works of art as beautiful. In simple words, Aschenbach does not view the body as an individual; instead, he views his beauty as an example of a more vast beauty.
Aschenbach not only falls in love with Tadzio's physical beauty, he even transfers it to the intellectual sphere, after he sits on the beach for several days and watches the boy play at the waterside. As Aschenbach considers the beauty of the boy’s body in detail, he comes to the conclusion that beautiful forms, such as Tadzio, have to be seen as the creations of a beautiful mind. Once this idea pervades his mind, he views the boy as an expression of exact thoughts. As a result, this causes him to think of beautiful forms around him as mirrors of mental beauty and sculptures (Mann, 1999, p.237). He thinks of them as sculptures in the sense that beautiful forms tend to make beautiful forms visible. Similarly, it is possible to understand the comparison with the mirror in the sense that physical beauty, like that of Tadzio, reflects the mental beauty of the beholder, like Aschenbach.
Once readers become familiar with Von Aschenbach’s thoughts, his philosophical attitude becomes apparent and they understand that Aschenbach manages to make the ascent to the last rung in Plato’s “ladder model of love.” He begins to regard the beautiful form of Tadzio as Beauty itself (Mann, 1999, p.237), or at least the platonic form of beauty. By this point, Aschenbach’s reflect of Tadzio’s beauty contains various important Platonic ideas. The only way to approach the idea that perfect beauty, like that of Tadzio, is a divine ‘Idea’ is with the mind. This is an eternal and perfect idea of beauty while humans on earth are the ‘inferior’ beautiful images of this beauty, they are just temporarily beautiful. Even though Aschenbach ascends to the last rung in Plato’s “ladder model of love” he still does not leave the beauty of the boy behind. In fact, it was because he saw Tadzio’s beauty that he got an insight of Beauty itself.
Another thing that must be noted is that Von Aschenbach is fully aware that he has made the final ascent. He understands that physical beauty, for him in the form of Tadzio, is the only way to make the spiritual comprehensible and visible. Aschenbach himself realizes that his own personal development is connected to the aesthetics of Plato and that is why he refers to Plato’s Phaedrus (Mann, 1999, p.238-239). Aschenbach’s reference to Plato is greatly significant. It becomes apparent that he believes in the truth that Plato wrote in his dialogues. It becomes apparent that he has accepted Plato’s notion that beauty is a means of achieving a superior order of Being and he uses this philosophy to justify his attraction to Tadzio and his beauty (White, 1990, p.61). However, Aschenbach not only repeats Plato’s ideas, he also alters them. Unlike Socrates, Aschenbach explicitly emphasizes that beauty is the sole means to the spirit (Mann, 1912, p. 239).
Finally, Mann’s novella also contains the final important element of Plato’s aesthetics, the creative impulse of lovers. For a long time, Aschenbach had struggled to produce novels and he always felt that “something” was missing. However, after he sees Tadzio, the boy’s beauty suddenly inspires him to write. Whenever he is in the presence of the boy, Aschenbach seems to draw inspiration from him and this enables him to reflect the boy’s beauty in his lines and portray it to the public. What is surprising is that unlike Plato’s ideal philosopher, once Aschenbach reaches the top of Plato’s “ladder model of love” he actually ends up producing an artistic work. Although Aschenbach’s obsession with Tadzio and his beauty ultimately led him to his death, but it also leads him to add more value to literature, making it seem more important than philosophy.
Aschenbach understands that his obsession with Tadzio and his beauty is irrational and he cannot keep in under control, but he also realizes that it is an essential element that he needs in order to write his novels. So, if Eros, a creative impulse and yearning that stems from desire and love, is needed as a source of inspiration to produce great works, then the narrator’s comment that for those who behold artistic works, it would be better not to be aware such a source of inspiration, makes sense. However, what he really means is that since artists tend to look at normal human beings, who are their source of inspiration, with an aesthetic eye and so they only see the beauty of these humans and not their bad characteristics. Since Aschenbach sees Tadzio as nothing more than an aesthetic object, he is never able to fall in love with the entire world and have a good life.
Even though in a complicated manner, Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice is indeed related to Plato’s aesthetics, especially his “ladder model of love.” However, even though Aschenbach manages to ascend “ladder model of love” to the very top, his obsession with Tadzio as an aesthetic object prevents him from achieving the fruits of reaching the top. By depicting Aschenbach’s obsession to such an extent that it leads to his death, Mann also seems to be questioning Plato’s ideas, even though at the same time, those ideas are also confirmed in the novel as well. In Plato’s Symposium, the ascent to the top of the ladder is depicted as a fruitful path. In Aschenbach’s case, ascending inevitably destroys him.
The cholera motif that leads to Aschenbach’s death has its origin in historical context and can be set against it. No doubt, Mann seems to be serving his own poetic ends with this motif, but it can be seen that this motif has solid grounding in autobiographical and historical fact. As a result, the boundaries between fact and fiction are blurred. In May 1911, Mann himself partly witnessed the events of the eruption of the Venetian cholera epidemic during a holiday trip in Venice, and partly heard and read about it. Thomas Mann’s note for this novella reveal that he intensely struggled to describe the relationship between this cholera motif and Aschenbach, or even Venice itself. Perhaps this is why Mann ends up juxtaposing Aschenbach’s passion as cholera that kills him in the end.
For a long time, Aschenbach had held the firm resolve to deny himself pleasure, but this resolve is shattered by Tadzio's sensual hold on him. Aschenbach's desire, his need to be near Tadzio is not even damped by the cholera outbreak. In fact, the cholera outbreak makes him increasingly more daring in his pursuit of the boy, his thoughts tend to degrade. Analyzing Mann's use of literary irony makes it easier to understand Aschenbach's passion as cholera. Just like cholera degrades the human health, being slave to his passions degraded Aschenbach, and like Cholera strips man of his life, his passion stripped him of his dignity. Passion must be desirable and natural, but Mann has used cholera to which Aschenbach succumbs as a metaphor of passion as disease.
However, for Aschenbach, dying in Venice was very appropriate because his entire life he had been progressing toward this humiliating pathology and passion. He does not even bother to warn the people of Venice of the cholera outbreak that is already knows of because he does not care if they all, including him, die of cholera. All he cares about is reveling in and making the most of the warming sunshine of the boy’s beauty before they all die. He believes this keeps him alive, at least, until he catches cholera and dies. In Mann’s Death in Venice, Aschenbach’s love for the boy function on various levels. On the surface, it may seem like the homosexual love of an older man for a young boy. However, on a deeper level, it shows that by loving the boy, Aschenbach is actually loving himself. Apart from idealizing Tadzio, he sees himself in the body. Ironically, in the process of mirroring Tadzio, Aschenbach meets death. Just like himself, death was stalking the boy too, and regardless of his beauty, death could not be stopped.
Works Cited
Mann, T. (1999). Death in venice and other tales. City of Westminster, London: Penguin Classics.
White, R. (1990). Love, beauty, and death in venice.Philosophy and Literature , 14(1), 53-64. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/philosophy_and_literature/v014/14.1.white.html
