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Allusions

The novella is constructed on a framework of references to Greek mythology and Aschenbach's Venice seems populated by the gods. By dedicating himself to Apollo, the god of reason and the intellect, Aschenbach has denied the power of Dionysus, the god of unreason and of passion – a voluntary act of what Freud would call "suppression". Dionysus seems to have followed Aschenbach to Venice with the intent of destroying him: the red-haired man who keeps crossing von Aschenbach's path, in the guise of different characters, could be none other than Silenus, Dionysus's mythological chief disciple. Silenus' role is disputed, however, since he bears no physical resemblance to the secondary characters in the book. In the Benjamin Britten opera these characters (The traveller, the gondolier, the leading player and the voice of Dionysus) are played by the same baritone singer, who also plays the hotel manager, the barber and the old man on the Vaporetto. The trope of placing classical deities in contemporary settings was popular at the time when Mann was writing Death in Venice: in England, at almost the same time, E. M. Forster was at work on an entire short-story collection based on this premise. The idea of the opposition of the Apollonian and Dionysian seems to have been introduced by Nietzsche and was also a popular motif of the time.

Aschenbach's name seems to be inspired by the homosexual German poet August von Platen-Hallermünde. The character's last name may be derived from von Platen's birthplace, Ansbach. However, it still has another clear significance: Aschenbach literally means "ash brook". The character of Aschenbach was based partly on the composer Gustav Mahler^[3] (the soundtrack of the film based on the novella thus made use of Mahler's compositions, particularly the "Adagietto" movement from the Symphony No. 5). Mahler had made a strong personal impression on Mann when they met in Munich and Mann was shocked by the news of Mahler's death on Brijuni. Mann also based Aschenbach's first name and facial appearance on Mahler but did not talk about it in public.^[3]