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thesis entitled

DEADLY SECRETS:
DISEASE MOTIFS IN THOMAS MANN'S
TOD IN VENEDIG

 

presented by
Sigrid G.J. Hahn

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Master of Artsdegree in German

 

 

    

Major professor

Nov. 9, 1990
Date

 

0-7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

—_ v, 7 i A 7 7-, —

DEADLY SECRETS:
DISEASE MOTIFS IN THOMAS MANN'S W

By
Sigrid G.J. Hahn

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State Universi
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

De artment of Linguistics and
Germanic, lavic, Asian and African Languages

1990

644(1) "' Qig‘j’j

ABSTRACT
DEADLY SECRETS:
DISEASE MOTIFS IN THOMAS MANN'S TOD IN VENEDIG
By
Sigrid G. J. Hahn

In Thomas Mann's 1911 novella, Tod in Venedig, two disease motifs
become steadily more prevalent throughout the work: epidemic cholera and
what was then viewed as a degenerative illness, homosexuality. The
similarities of these two themes are used to underscore the idea that secrecy,
in certain situations where it is expected, may in fact be the most harmful
response.

This paper approaches the thesis from several vantage points: It first
examines the historical evolution of twentieth-century views of both
homosexuality and cholera, with particular focus upon their social and
political ramifications during the years just prior to Mann's writing Egg
Venedig. Second, it documents Mann's personal knowledge of both, and his
interest in them. Third, reflections in the text of the social and historical
background, as well as Mann's views are examined.

Using authentic documents, recent studies, Mann's letters and his
recently published personal diaries, Tod in Venedig is examined not only as a
literary work, but also as a personal document. The struggle with
homosexual inclinations faced by Aschenbach, the protagonist of m
Venedig, was faced by Mann in his own lifetime. Both Aschenbach and

Venice suffer the disastrous results of suppressing some important
knowledge; Aschenbach suppresses the knowledge of his homosexual
inclinations and the city suppresses knowledge of a cholera outbreak. The
tragic end suffered by Aschenbach after the continued suppression of his
homosexual inclinations is reinforced by Venice "dying" around him.
Cholera thus becomes a vehicle, through which Mann examines the
consequences of suppression in Tod in Venedig. The implications of this
theme can be easily extended to apply to Mann's own life, as he dealt to a

certain extent with his homosexual inclinations in Tod in Venedig.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The help and support I received from faculty, friends and family in
completing this thesis was invaluable to me. Particularly I would like to
thank my Committee Chair, Professor Patricia R. Paulsell, and the other
members of my Committee, Professors Thomas A. Lovik, Patrick M.
McConeghy, and Karin A. Wurst for their constructive criticism and true
interest in my success. For their unfailing patience with me and for helping
me keep my sense of humor, I would especially like to thank Jennifer
Petlick and Jonathan Bolton. In addition, to my office mates, roommates and
family, I would like to extend thanks for the encouragrnent and tolerance

they Showed during the last several months.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Deadly Secrets: Disease Motifs in Thomas Mann's Tod in Venedig
Appendix

List of References

43
45

Thomas Mann's Novelle mg in Venedig, written in 1911, when the
author was 36 years old, achieved immediate acclaim in his native Germany.
Translated into many languages, it soon received the same enthusiastic
reception internationally. It is considered to belong to the canon of great
literature today. In W Thomas Mann alludes, both directly and
indirectly, to the works of other writers and philosophers, historical events,
ancient beliefs and customs as well as modern social concerns. Using
personal experiences and his own philosophies as a basis for much of the
work, he wove a complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered novella. It is
undoubtedly this complexity which has made W the subject of
intense scholarly fascination and detailed scrutiny since its appearance. Every
new study, examining TM through different eyes and with a
different focus, can shed light upon the work, its author, and the dynamic era
in which the novella was conceived and written.

This paper will focus upon the theme of disease in mg in Veneg'g,
looking at Mann's representation of two current topics: cholera and
homosexuality. The social and historical perception of those two topics,
Thomas Mann's own experience with them, and his known reactions will be
discussed. In light of these observations, Mann's representation of both
cholera and homosexuality in W3 will be analyzed. The analysis
will focus upon a continuing motif which connects these two themes: the

potentially disastrous results of suppression of knowledge, brought about by
socially expected and enforced secrecy. Cholera becomes a vehicle, which
Mann uses to examine the consequences of suppression. He invites us to
consider that, contrary to Christian teachings, suppression of knowledge
(truth) at the level of society (the city) can lead to dire consequences, as surely
as suppression at the level of the individual.

The story is of a renowned, aging German writer trying to finish his
masterpiece, who is drawn southward to Venice from where he never
returns. During his stay he experiences feelings and sensations of an erotic
and chaotic nature, which he has until that time never allowed himself to
feel. His literary success thus far has been won at the expense of these
feelings, which the author has firmly suppressed and sublimated. But, once
he relinquishes control over them, allowing himself to admire the beauty of a '
young boy, he is unable or unwilling to return to his former controlled,
passionless life. Afraid of people's reactions to his feelings, he hides them.
Growing increasingly obsessed with them, while struggling to keep them
secret, his inner turmoil finally begins to Show. He begins to appear
undignified and silly, the very appearance that he had feared and had led him
to secrecy in the first place. He is caught in a humiliating downward spiral,
fear for his reputation bringing about more and more foolish actions in
ever-weakening attempts to maintain his secrecy. His ultimate physical
demise comes as no surprise and seems to the reader to be the only plausible

end.

Along the same lines is the theme of suppression by city authorities in
Venice of evidence of a cholera outbreak. They, too, are unwilling to risk the
harm that public knowledge of this outbreak might do the city. When it is
finally discovered by observant outsiders, who then flee for fear of their lives,
the delay caused by the continued suppression of this knowledge has allowed
the disease to gain a greater foothold in the city. The initial outbreak,
potentially containable by practical measures and prevention education,
because of citizen's ignorance, has spread throughout the whole city and
become a catastrophe of epidemic proportions. Exactly what the authorities
initially feared, does in fact happen. Panic Spreads. The city is abruptly
deserted by the tourists and abandoned by trade. The city's symbolic death
reflects and underscores Aschenbach's death, as he and Venice die of what
they see as necessarily hidden realities. .

Discussions and writings about both cholera and homosexuality have
occupied scholars throughout the centuries. Both Hippocrates and Galen
wrote in classic Greece of cholera, and records survive of cholera-like
epidemics in ancient eastern lands. Descriptions of cholera-like plagues are
found in a collection of Indian legends dating from the early sixteenth
century. With the increasing colonization by Western powers of Asiatic
lands, cholera became a disease that affected more and more Europeans,
particularly soldiers. Through colonization and wars, cholera slowly began to
move westward, and a major pandemic struck Europe around 1817.

By 1829, a second cholera pandemic had reached European Russia, and

4

advanced through the Baltic Provinces and Poland. Spread by troops of the
Russian armies, the disease ravaged the populations of Hungary and Austria.
It took its toll in Prussia, moving then to England via nautical trade routes,
then to France, from where it spread to Ireland. The great cholera epidemic of
1832 in the US. and Canada is thought to have begun when infected ships
brought the germ from Irish ports. Once cholera had a foothold in the
western world, it did not soon let go. Thus, the disease primarily of poor,
"uncivilized", unhygenic countries became for approximately one hundred
years of utmost concern to Europeans and inhabitants of the New World.

Throughout the 19th century, epidemic cholera swept through
European lands almost every eight years. The disease struck with such
ferocity that its death toll was always high. During that century it was
impossible not to be aware of or fear cholera. A third pandemic raged in the
early 1850s, carried initially once again by the transport of troops, this time
during the Crimean War. A fourth pandemic struck in the early 18605,
another in the early 18808 and another at the start of the 19005. This time,
however, the fatalities in western countries were not nearly as high as the
millions who had perished previously, because much had been learned about
the disease. Over the next few decades, most of Western Europe had only
sporadic outbreaks. However, European Russia still had a great problem with
cholera, with over 230,000 cases reported in 1910. Russian gypsies were
blamed that year for importing cholera to the southern half of Italy, resulting
in 1,400 victims within a few weeks. In 1911, the disease manifested itself

throughout Italy, killing 6,100 (Pollitzer 43, 59). Despite these outbreaks, by
the turn of the century, the incidence of cholera in Western European
countries had lessened to such an extent that it was no longer perceived to be
a major threat to humanity. By 1883, the great physician Robert Koch had
discovered the cause of cholera, the "comma" bacillus, Vibrio cholerae, , and a
vaccine and more effective treatments had been developed shortly thereafter
to combat the disease. Nonetheless, the sensational image of cholera was not
completely dispelled; fear, revulsion and secrecy still surrounded it.
Although cholera had begun to be less feared in Western countries, in more
tropical lands, cholera fatalities were still high (Pollitzer 11-50). Though
causing considerably less havoc than on previous occasions, cholera at times
during [the first decade of the twentieth century] assuined quite serious
proportions in central and south eastern Europe" (Pollitzer).1 Thus, despite
these advances cholera was Still a real concern in 1911, when Thomas Mann
wrote We

Homosexuality, likewise, had a long and controversial history by the
time Mann wrote TE in Vengig. Accepted in ancient Greece as another
normal aspect of sexuality, homosexuality seems to have been no cause for
objection, especially among the priveliged classes (Effe 155). Since classical
times, homosexuality has become less accepted. The church officially
frowned upon it, but a more important source of proscription came from the
increasing control exerted by the state during the Enlightenment, as explained
by Isabel Hull in "Sexualitat und biirgerliche Gesellschaft." The state, she

argues, began to control sexuality insofar as it affected the state's functions,
specifically its monetary health:
Die Kirche richtete ihr Augenmark vordringlich auf den inneren
Menschen und seinen/ ihren Seelen zustand, wfihrend sich der Staat

gsriméir rnit der fiufieren Ordnun beschafti und vor allem an den
kalischen Resultaten "unsittli en" Verh tens AnstoB nahm. (51)

The state began imposing explicit laws upon its citizens regulating
sexual behavior. A Bavarian official explained in 1794 that the concern with
sexual activity should not be in suppressing it, rather in regulating it for the
good of the state (Hull 55). As Michel Foucault writes about this era in _T_‘h_g
fi' tggy Qf gxuality:

Thin went from ritual lamenting over the unfruitful debauche of
the ri , bachelors, and libertines to a discourse in which the sexu
conduct of the population was taken both as an object of analysis and as
a tar t of intervention; there was a progsession from the crudely
pog ationist ar ments of the mercan ' t e to the much more
su tle and calcu ated attempts at regulation t tended to favor or

discourage -according to the objectives and exigencies of the moment
- an increasing birthrate. (26)

As Hull writes, sexuality became a public issue. It was discussed openly
by priests, doctors and pedagogues throughout Europe. In Germany, these
men, particularly pedagogues, flooded the land with books and articles,
founded schools and educated teachers. Their publications were eagerly read
by the educated public. Called Philanthropes by their contemporaries, these
men were also later called "sex educators", because they were convinced that
sexuality had a central influence upon the development of human character
and personality. Thus, they argued, sexuality deserved the thorough

attention of educators (57).

Study and control of sexuality remained a topic of intense interest in
the 19th century, and many scientific and legal publications as well as popular
writings were devoted to this topic. Notable among them was W
mags, by the physician Richard von Krafft-Ebing, first published in 1886.
By that time, the fascination with "sexual deviancy" and normalcy was so
strong, that edition after edition of this collection of hundreds of case studies
of "unusual sexual behavior or interests" appeared in the original and in
translation (Greenberg 414 and Robinson iv). Despite the fact that his book
was written for physicians with the most "exciting parts" in Latin, the public,
as Victor Robinson wrote in the introduction to the twelfth edition (1939),
"swooped down on [Krafft-Ebings's] book and [since] has held it to their
collective bosom" (Robinson iv, vii).

Both the disease, cholera, and the disposition, homosexuality, came
under close scrutiny during the 19th century as desperate attempts were made
by frightened bourgeois politicians, educators, scientists and ministers to
understand their causes and eradicate them. As with many "social ills" of the
day, both cholera and homosexuality aroused strong reactions in the general
populace, many of whom feared that they would contract the conditions
themselves. From that fear arose wild stories of how "afflicted" persons
behaved, how they themselves had contracted their illness, and how the
disease was passed on. Cholera and homosexuality were both, quite simply,
not understood.

The cause of cholera was a topic of dispute for most of the 19th century.

As discussed in David Reese's A Plain and Practical Treagse’ of the Epidemic
Ma of 1833, the idea of the disease being caused by a "contagion"2 was

scoffed at by many renowned physicians of the 19th century. The cause, they
said, was far more complex. They questioned how anyone could believe, as
common people did, that a disease could be caused by this so—called contagion,
which was not even discernible to the human senses. This mysterious

disease must obviously be caused by a combination of conditions. Out of this
belief grew the idea of "stages" of cholera.

The common understanding, which these physicians extolled and
spread among the lay people, was that the first stage, which was actually just a
phase of susceptibility, was caused by breathing bad air or miasmata. This bad
atmosphere collected over concentrations of population and was due to
decomposing organic matter, heat, barometric conditions, meteorological
conditions, and occasionally even the tide. This stage might be detectable
through the "premonitory conditions" (tiredness, slight fever, indigestion)
which might develop, or there might be no symptoms at all. Thus, according
to Reese, anyone could be walking about in a susceptible condition, and not
know it (17-18).

The second phase, or "true cholera" would, however, only set in if
someone who already had the "precondition" aggravated it with imprudent
behavior. These "exciting causes" which would bring on the cholera included
eating certain vegetables and fruits, lobster, crab, alchohol, cheese, and taking
certain opiums and medicines. Essentially then, Reese was saying that the

cholera victim had only himself and his own actions to blame for his illness,
a view that was, of course, often typical of Christian thought.

This understanding of cholera, is so-called "stages", the "exciting
causes" of the disease, and even the personal responsibility the cholera
victims had to assume for their illness are remarkably similiar to the way in
which homosexuality was regarded in the 19th century. Indeed, it was only in
the 19th century that the medical community first began to concern iself with
the "disease" of homosexuality. The theory that homosexuality was due to a
gradual degeneration of family lines through the generations began to gain
acceptance. B.A. Morel, a great proponent of the degeneracy theory around
1857-60, postulated that "many medical, psychiatric and social problems were
due to the deterioration of the human body from an initially perfect state,
under the impact of an unhealthy environmen " (Greenberg 41 1-12). The
pathologies were brought about by poverty, alchohol and poor diet, a complex
of factors reminiscent of what was supposed to bring on cholera. This
weakened condition was inherited, genetically producing more degenerate
offspring with each generation. These theories were popularized not only
through the novels of Emil Zola and others, but also through pamphles
explaining it and through dozens of journal articles by physicians in Europe
and America (Greenberg 412-13). Rooted in Darwinian thought and
potentially eugenio3 in is application, Krafft-Ebing's W
was especially important, as it was the first major work to label
homosexuality a degenerative and thus pathologic condition.

10

Degeneracy of a family was considered a possible "precondition" for
homosexuality. Degeneracy could manifest iself as insanity, criminality or
sexual aberration. And as Krafft-Ebing wrote, most cases of degeneracy were
inherited and this degeneracy merely manifested iself as homosexuality
(Greenberg 414). This existing, inherited "precondition" for homosexuality
did not necessarily develop into the full blown "disease" It was by personal
actions that homosexuality developed. Krafft-Ebing attributed the cause of
development of homosexual "aberation" "very frequently" to masturbation
in youth, thus changing "normally developing sexual instinct", which is
"aesthetic, ideal, pure and free impulse which draws the opposite sexes
together", to one which is a "coarse, animal desire for sexual satisfaction"
(286-7). By the end of the century, the "predisposition" toward
homosexuality was also believed to manifest iself through seduction by an
older man (Gilman 266). The renowned physician and defender of
homosexual righs, Havelock Ellis, underscored this position when he noted
at the turn of the century that homosexuality could be acquired (Greenberg
41 1).

Scandals and persecutions of homosexuals at the end of the century
provide evidence for the mounting fear of homosexuality, as the belief that it
was communicable or teachable was widely accepted (Greenberg 400).
Elaborate social, medical and pedagogical taboos evolved to prevent children
from masturbating and to combat the development and spread of
homosexuality. Foucault catalogues a list of precautions which were taken to

11

assure that schoolboys did not have improper influences from or contact with
others, including preventing studens from congregating when they relieved
themselves and constructing illuminated sleeping chambers with partitions
between the beds (28).

Even if "predisposed" to degenerative illnesses, it was believed that
with sufficient will power one could prevent is manifestation as a disease. If
one could not muster the will power to resist "becoming" a homosexual, one
was considered to be somehow lacking or ill. Here, the idea of the so-called
"diseases of the will" played an important role. Krafft-Ebing diagnosed the
degenerative ailment "Abulia", i.e. loss of will power in many of his patiens,
especially homosexual men4. AS John H. Smith described it in his recent

study:

A set of oppositions between impulse and inhibition, normalcy and
perversity, activity and passivity develops around the will such that the
extremes define "'illness' and yet make a middle position impossible.
Especially the clinical creation of paralyzing choices between "sexualities",
namely between heterosexuality based on repression and a homosexuality
defined as involuntary, implans into the male will is self destruction. (103)

Through the writings of William Griesinger in the mid 18805 the
concept of Abulia quickly became widespread. His textbook, which had five
editions, is said to be the basis for much of Freud's work on the Ego (Smith
104). As the notion of "diseases of the will" became popular, the final blame
for the development of the "disease" of homosexuality, as with cholera, fell
onto the "weak-willed" patient, and the association of these "diseases" with

people who were somehow morally inferior became clear. A5 Richard I.

12

Evans writes in his study of the political and social effects of the cholera
epidemics in Prussia, "the association of cholera with individual immorality
[in the 18303] was thus expressed in the very theories which medical men
developed to account for it"(248), again, a practice akin to Christian
explanations for disease. Receptivity to cholera was said to increase through
emotional excesses, lack of self-restraint, and excessive indulgence in

alchohol:

The discourse to which this ineradicable belief in the connection

between alchohol and cholera ultimately belonged was the familiar

one that ascribed illness and disease above all to moral weakness and

lack of self-control, and linked them both to ve as evidence that

the unequal distribution of wealth and heal was damentally the

{Esponszr 4i81)ity of the individual rather than of society as a whole.
vans

Because homosexuality and cholera were considered to derive from
immorality and degeneracy, the victims were held responsible for their
"conditions". They were looked upon with repugnance, disgust and
condemnation. The step from this condemnation and stereotyping to
prejudices was an easy one. Many cholera victims, who were already looked
down upon with disgust, were also blamed for their pathetic social condition.
Many of the first case studies of homosexuality had been conducted on those
who were incarcerated in prisons or madhouses, and were already considered
insane or criminal, and hence all the easier to condemn (Foucault 38-9). 5

The physical appearance of cholera victims and the supposed
appearance of homosexuals was terrifying, as well. The image of the
physically repulsive homosexual had a long history. The anonymously

13

written MW of 1700, and Samuel
Auguste Andre David Tissot's dissertation on the same topic, which was
translated into German in 1785, discussed "masturbatory disease" as a prime
cause of many diseases, including insanity and, of course, homosexuality
(Gilman, Mil?! 207). Homosexuality was believed at the time to be a
further development of "masturbatory disease", which had many visible
outward symptoms. One of these was always the inablity to speak in a
masculine manner. The ultimate result of "masturbatory disease", with all of
is suspected terrifying consequences: blindness, pockmarked skin, madness
and a wasting away and ultimately death from uselessly Spent energy, is
similiar to what must have been the most terrifying aspect of cholera, the
physical ravages to the victim's body. With cholera, however, the physical
appearance changed much more quickly. It was not unusual for someone
who had been feeling perfectly healthy in the morning to be dead of the
cholera by nightfall. Victims changed appearance so horribly within a few
hours, that they were almost unrecognizable. The final indignations of
Shrivelling and color change to an almost blackish-blue (resulting from a
drastic loss of the victim's body fluids through uncontrollable vomiting and
diarrhea) were signs of the final stages of the disease and the imminent death.
AS with most illnesses (as evidenced by attitudes toward AIDS today)
the cholera was often seen as a punishment visited upon is victims and the
affected city. The populace responded accordingly. During the Hamburg
epidemic of 1892, preachers took advantage of the suddenly-filled churches to

14

preach of duty, obedience and faithfulness (Evans 358-9). The same moral
connection was made with homosexuality. Krafft-Ebing wrote that "the
episodes of moral decay always coincide with the progression of effeminacy,
lewdness and luxurience of the nations” (6). Both scourges - the immorality
and is resulting diseases - were blamed upon modern society: "These
phenomena can only be ascribed to the higher and more stringent demands
which circumstances make upon the nervous system . . . Large cities are
hotbeds in which neuroses and low morality are bred" (Krafft-Ebing 7).
Despite the moral (self-imposed) aspect of developing cholera and
homosexuality, their somatic (non-moral) causes were believed to be
treatable. Thus, it was left to physicians to treat both homosexuality and
cholera.

Although relegating cholera to a medical realm seems logical today, the
medicalization of homosexuality, which began in the nineteenth century,
does not immediately make sense. The fundamental opposition to
"abnormal" sex was not new. New, however, was the scientific terminology
with which it was described was, as was the transfer of social responsibility for
homosexuality from the legal realm into the medical one. The medical
community's new self-appointed responsibilities included the identification
and labelling of these supposedly pathological conditions, and the discovery
of their physiological or somatic causes. The growing view of homosexuality
as a medical condition had widespread implications. Homosexuals were

treated and viewed as "diseased" but potentially "curable" individuals.

15

Treatment and preventive measures were then performed by physicians or
under their supervision. Doctors, who had always been called upon from
time to time to "illuminate" court cases, began offering unsolicited opinions,
exerting influence in the legal arena without being asked.

After 1879, especially in America, physicians played a particularly
important role within their newly claimed realm of power, in campaigning
for legislation illegalizing certain forms of sexual behavior (Greenberg
398-401). Why physicians wanted to exert more influence in controlling
"deviant" sexuality is still a matter of contention, but it is clear that the
profession in general had only to gain by greater influence and additional
patiens. And the medical advances made during the nineteenth century by
men such as Pasteur and Koch (who discovered the cholera bacillus) had
given the physician a prestige and trustworthiness not before enjoyed by the
profession. One medical conclusion, that homosexuals were born with the
("degenerative") tendancy toward homosexuality, and had not willingly
chosen their "deviant" orientation, was an attractive position for early
homosexual righs activiss fighting against the crirninalization of
homosexuality. This position was also propounded by many influential
members of homosexual righs groups. These theories were well-known,
especially among homosexuals: "Educated invers [homosexuals] devoured
this literature [articles about the medical causes of homosexuality] and some
were strongly influenced by it", including Oscar Wilde and Radclyffe Hall
(Greenberg 417). Virchow's Cell Theory and the discovery that many illnesses

16

were caused by unseen organisms led ever more to the search for invisible,
hidden causes of disease. Thus the "focus of the new medicine, especially of
the new sexuality [of the late 19th and early 20th centuries] was on the hidden
within, the unseen motivators of disease and pathological change" (Gilman,
%_x_u_a_l_ity 233-35), and as greater acceptance of this psychoanalytic thought was
gained, it increasingly permeated the medical discourse of homosexuality.
Freud's influential psychological discourse about homosexuality
developed largely from late nineteenth century neurologic and psychiatric
thought,but represented "a radical departure from the somatic emphasis of
nineteenth century theories of degeneration or evolution", and focused on
purely psychological explanations of homosexuality (Greenberg 398). The
degeneracy theory, which had also been used in anti-sernitic campaigns was,
of course, distasteful to Freud (who was Jewish), and soon began to be
abandoned by other physicians, as well (Greenberg 422-23). Krafft-Ebing, who
had earned a reputation for his writings on the "disease" homosexuality,
changed his convictions at the turn of the century, despite the fact that the
"disease" concept was still the prevailing belief. In 1901, he published his new
view in the WWW. There he stated that,
regarding "inversion" (one contemporary term for homosexuality), it had
become "impossible to maintain . . . the idea of a disease". He regarded it,
instead, merely as a "congenital anamoly" (Robinson vii-viii). Finally, in
1905, Freud stated that homosexuality is not an illness (Greenberg 426). Thus,
by 1911, when Tod in Venedig was written, the "disease" status of

17

homosexuality had been forcefully contested.

This is not to say that homosexuality had disappeared from the public
consciousness. Far from it. Homosexual righs movemens had been
growing for half a century. The public could not have avoided learning about
the current status of homosexuality, not only because of the increasing
strength of these movemens, but also because of the political and social
backlash instigated by them. Around 1896, homosexual journals began
appearing, and in 1897, a committee formed by a group of some of the most
prominent homosexual righs activiss in Germany, called the
" Wissenschaftlich-humanitdres Kamitee" (Scientific Humanitarian
Commitee) began circulating a petition for amendment of paragraph 175 of
the German penal code, which outlawed all homosexual acs. Among the
more prominent signers of this petition were Krafft-Ebing, Gerhard
Hauptrnan, Rainer Maria Rilke, Karl Jaspers, Herman Hesse, Stefan Zweig,
Lou-Andreas Salome’, Carl Maria Weber, and notably, Heinrich and Thomas
Mann (Steakley 30,65) .6 A brochure about homosexuality published by the
Scientific Humanitarian Committee, entitled W
W (What Should mo Pgoole know amut mo Third Sex) first
appeared in Germany in 1901. It was revised several times and by 1914, fifty
thousand c0pies had been distributed.

Political scandals, too, brought attention to the subject of ‘
homosexuality. The 1895 arrest of the English poet Oscar Wilde on charges of

homosexuality attracted much attention in Germany, and the prestigious

18

journal Dig N gug Zoit published articles defending him (Laurisen and
Thorstad 58). In 1906 a group of close advisors to the Kaiser were accused of
homosexuality in a newspaper story in what came to be known as the
Moltke-Eulenberg affair. The actual charge was that Prince Philip zu
Eulenberg had "put together a clique around the Kaiser that was up to
political intrigues," which was tied together by mysticism and sexual
inclinations that were "repugnant to prevailing norms". This attack was
actually leveled more at the Kaiser himself, than at Eulenberg, intending to
discredit the monarch merely by associating him with homosexuality
(Laurisen and Thorstad 19,21).

Around the same time, Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Prussia was
brought to court on charges of homosexuality. German newspapers were full
of the story, and suddenly "an anti-homosexual witchhunt of unparalleled
proportions" began (Steakley 37). Many high ranking government officials
and military officers were accused of homosexuality. The accusation that
Bernhard von Biilow, the chancellor of Germany, was homosexual started a
series of trials that dragged on until halfway through 1909 (Steakley 38).

Thomas Mann was aware of homosexuals' struggles, as is evidenced by
a letter he wrote to his brother Heinrich in April, 1912: "I just remembered
an incident: Someone was actually released [from the military] as unfit
because he announced to the Chief Reserve Commission that he was
homosexual. Couldn't you weave that in [to your work]?" (Mann, Lottors 59).

He was, however, cautious about too-obvious, or too-close associations with

19

homosexual groups, as his correspondences with Franz Strunz, leader of the
homosexual emancipation group of Vienna, "Urania", show. In early 1912,

he requested that his presentation to the group consist only of a reading of his
work, but a week later he backed out entirely, citing pecuniary reasons for his
cancellation (Mann, Briofwghgl 149). Less than a year later, he worried in a
letter to his friend, Jakob Wassermann, whether reading to this group
"vielleicht eine Schande ist", and asked him to please let him know how the
group was viewed in Vienna (Mann, Mom] 174).

Publicity about homosexuality at the beginning of the twentieth
century was widespread and the hysteria which homosexuality caused was
taken seriously enough to be used as a political weapon. Public reaction to a
private, usually secret, personal affair could, in short, be used to weaken, even
perhaps to topple govemmens or, at the very least, to ruin individual
careers.

Cholera, one of the most feared diseases of the nineteenth century, had
played quite a remarkable role in the German politics, as well. Evans' M
in_I-Imbo_rg (obviously reminiscent of the translated title of Mann's work,
[loath in Vonigg), poins out some of the factors, most notably, the cholera,
which precipitated a move toward "Prussianism" in Hamburg in the 18905
(566). Evans claims that a secretive, dishonest and inefficient city
government contributed to the horrible outbreak of cholera in Hamburg in
1892, the only city in all of Western Europe to have a major epidemic that
year (296). Hamburg's city government did not react any differently to that

20

epidemic than it had to the epidemics of 1832 and 1848, although remarkable
scientific gains had been made in knowledge of the disease since those years.
Virtually nothing was done in 1892 to combat or prevent the spread of the
disease (Evans 251). In a chapter most appropriately entitled "From
concealment to catastrophe", Evans relates the official statistics for that
epidemic, which show that more than 20,000 people, or over 13.4 % of
Hamburg's population died, an estimate which is very likely low (293-95).
The tragedy of this epidemic lay mostly in that fact that it could, in all
likelihood, have been prevented. Had the presence of the disease in the city
been acknowledged, instead of denied and hidden, and proper steps taken to
publicize the presence of the deadly bacteria, preventative steps could have
been taken to combat it. The outbreak could have been contained before it
reached epidemic proportions.

This epidemic, humiliating and embarrassing as it was, was not soon
_ forgotten: "Hamburg's government was tried at the bar of local, national and
even international public opinion in 1892, and found wanting" (Evans 565).
Thus, this cholera epidemic "highlighted and symbolized the helplessness of
the political notables in the face of the challenge posed by the social and
environmental consequences of rapid industrial and urban growth, and
demonstrated, with a graphic and shocking immediacy, the inadequacy of
classical liberal political and administrative practice. . (Evans 565-6). Evans
maintains that, as a result, the old system of "amateur government" and

laissez-faire policies disappeared, and Prussiaan and state intervention

21

triumphed (viii).

International reaction to the outbreak was swift and condemning.
Evans liss no fewer then seven newspapers in Germany and England
blaming the "inaction", "apathy", "secretiveness", etc. of authorities in
dealing with the cholera for the outbreak of the epidemic. As is apparent
from the dates of these reports, which range from the 25th to the 28th of
August, while the epidemic peaked on the 26th. Hamburg was subjected to
negative international publicity was focused immediately (Evans 305—6).

Thomas Mann, born in 1875, was seventeen years old at the time and
lived in Liibeck, less than 40 miles from Hamburg. As son of a senator, he
would have been aware of the political and social turmoil in the neighboring
city, and of it's manifold causes and consequences.

Mann could also not have overlooked the presence and effects of '
cholera in Italy many years later. He had a long history of visis to Italy, first
travelling there as a twenty-year old in 1895, and returning numerous times.
By his 1911 trip, which inspired Mg, he had developed a very
special affection for Italy, and for Venice in particular (Jonasl). He spent time
there during the summers of 1909 and 191 1 (Jonas 2-3), when there were
considerable outbreaks of cholera.

An interested, intelligent man, Mann could hardly have avoided
thinking about disease and death in this political and social backdrop,
although his personal life must have brought about the same sort of
reflections on death, as well. His sister, Carla, committed suicide in July of

22

1910 and his wife, Katia was quite ill and in a sanitorium during the writing
of TQ in Veneg'g (Mann, m 57). Mann has quite plainly said that Mia
Venedig is based upon real happenings, and that, in writing it, all he did was
fill in the details. In a lecture in 1940, he discussed the inspirations for the

novella:

In Wahrheit ist jede Arbeit zwar fragmentarische aber in sich
eschlossene Verwirklichung unseres Wesens. . . . Wie irn
ju endlichen Tonio Krog" er ist auch im Tod in Venedi kein Zu
e den: der Verdéchtrge Gondolier, der Knabe Ta '0 und re
seinen, die durch Gep'a‘ckverwechslung rniBgliickte Abreise, die
Cholera, der ehrliche Clerk im Reisebiiro, der bdsartige Bankelséinger -
alles war durch die Wirklichkeit gegeben, war nur einzusetzen. . . .
(Schenk 381)

Mann wrote of Mg, that it must give the impression of
being serious, and that it dealt with the most serious subject he had written
about since Mam (Mann, WI 155). He considered it a
tragedy, and wrote to an admirer about it: "Es geht nicht gut aus, die Wiirde
des 'Helden und Dichters' wird griindlich zerriittet. Es ist eine richtige
Tragddie. . . " (Mann, W 153). Although he felt strongly that this
was a good work, he feared the reaction of the general public He explained
this view in a letter to a friend during the writing of Tfl in Vonooig, telling
him of his progress on the work. He said that it would never occur to him to
present this "mit grtiflter Delikatesse mit dem tiefsten moralischen Ernst
behandelte Geschichte auf einem dffentlichen Podium" (Mann, Brigfwoggl
147). His concern about this work seems to be occasioned by the fact that it

was so highly personal. It is now well known that Thomas Mann had

23

homosexual attractions and that Mg was inspired by such an
attraction to an adolescent boy. He himself said that the writing of this
novella was a cathartic process. By that, he certainly didn't mean a purge of
his own homosexual feelings, for they continued and became more
prominent as he grew older. W had not, however, actually been
planned as a novella involving homo-erotic attractions, The novella was
originally to have been about the aging Goethe's love for a young girl. The
importance of this original conception for the novella, and is implications
for the work become apparent when investigated further.

Bemd Effe, in "Sokrates in Venedig: Thomas Mann und die
platonische Liebe", writes: "Die Wendung des Themas [of Too in Vonfligl
ins Péiderastisch-Homo—Erotisches, ist biographisch motiviert, durch ein
ensprechendes Erlebnis des Autors" (162). This experience took place
during his vacation in Venice with his wife Katia in 1911, and,'as Mann
himself reported, most of the details of the novella are based upon this trip,
including the portrayal of the Polish boy and the impression he made upon
Thomas Mann. Katia Mann confirmed his foible for the boy, and the fact that
he did spend much time watching him. Although she denied that he
followed him all around the city, she said that he fascinated him and he
thought often of him: "er gefiel ihm iiber die MaBen" (Effe 162). For his
work on the novella, Mann acquired several works dealing with homosexual
love for boys, including writings by Plutarch, Plato, and Xenophon, which
Goethe used as a reference for some of his works (Effe 162).

24

In several of Goethe's texts, Xenophon is mentioned. Sander Gilman
notes a parellelism to Xenophon's text about the senses Memorabilia,
(mentioning homosexual love) with Goethe's poem about Cupid, printed in
his "Italian Journey". The poem is to the "young and beautiful boy Cupid".
Gilman suggess that it is the same boy immortalized in Goethe's "Roman
Elegies". As Gilman describes these "Roman Elegies", Goethe, "blind and
maddened by his beautiful young visitor . . ., can no longer trust his senses",
and asks if this young visitor is not Goethe's homosexual lover (Gilman,
mm 27-29). This sounds very much like the dilemma of Aschenbach ,
and, as we see, rather like that of Thomas Mann.

Another of Mann's readings during this time took him to Plato's Eros
theory. Simply, Plato argued that heterosexual love is the lowest form of
love, because. is aim is to combat deficit mortality of humanity by producing '
offspring and that only human beings have the ability to rise above that to '
"spiritual-intellectual" love. For Plato, that love was definitely homosexual
love (Effe 155). As will be shown, Mann encouraged his readers to make
these connections through the Greek imagery surrounding Tadzio and
through Aschenbach's daydreams of Socrates and Phaedrus.

The autobiographical aspect of W has been ignored in
most traditional interpretations by taboo—conscious critics: "Ein besonders
krasses Beispiel stellt die Arbeit von H.W. Nicklas dar Wm

WM Diss, Marburg, 1966), der das Absehen von der
Biographie des Autors ausdriicklich zum Prinzip der Interpretation erklirt"

25

(Effe 154). But in today's more progressive social climate, homosexuality is
more openly discussed and Thomas Mann's homosexual inclinations are not
considered so shocking. With the recent publication of Mann's diaries, it is
known that deep emotional experiences ("Eschiitterungen") were much
stronger for him with his homosexual experiences than with his heterosexual
ones. It is likely that these emotions were made manifest in his writing.
And, knowing that, the Venice experience with the Polish boy easily fis in
(Effe 163).

The fact that this erotic experience took place in Venice is significant, as
well. Venice was seen as the city of fabulous contradictions - of art and artiss,
of beauty and splendor, but also as a decayed and fallen city. It was seen as the
city which could encourage, like no other place, joy, pleasure, change of pace
and beauty (Schenk 401). Venice was a literary setting often chosen as a
backdrop for fin-de-siecle decadence and decline. Christiane Schenk discusses
some of the many authors who set novels in Venice: Maurice Barre’s (who
wrote the first M in Voniog, W in 1903), Marcel Proust,
Heinrich Mann, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gerhard
Hauptrnan, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Hesse, Oscar Wilde and Henry
James. As in W the idea of decadence hiding behind a falsely
placid exterior could be used as a literary motif. Jonas summarized Venice's
paradoxical appeal: "behind a facade of greatest beauty and magnificence are
hidden disease, immorality and crime" (Jonas 40). '

As has been shown, both homosexuality and cholera were current

26

themes and cause for general concern when Mann was writing M
yooooig. Both were regarded by much of the medical world and the general
public as serious illnesses, as pathological conditions, resulting from lack of
self-control and. will-power. Both were regarded with fear and disgust; their
victims disgraced, ostracized and filled with shame. Public perception thus
conditioned how the cholera victim and the homosexual reacted to the
realization that he or She was afflicted.

For the homosexual, secrecy was the only socially appropriate
response, so homosexuality remained hidden, denied and sublimated. The
resuls of this enforced secrecy could be disastrous. It was not unusual for a
man arrested for homosexuality to commit suicide, rather than face
prosecution (Laurisen and Thorstad 23). However, secrecy was deemed an
inappropriate response to the knowledge of a cholera outbreak. Openness,
which would lead to prevention and treatment were considered the ethically
correct reaction. Where openness was rejected, controllable outbreaks of the
disease turned into deadly, raging epidemics through a policy of silence. The
responses to homosexuality, on a personal level, and to cholera, on a
governmental (societal) level were, in many cases, similar. Both were silent
and secret, rather than open and educating. The results of such responses
were Similarly devastating, secrecy leading ultimately to the death of the
person or the city from the hidden knowledge. In other words, the
destructive cycle of suppression and degeneration begins with an impossible
paradox, as illustrated through both the motifs of cholera and homosexuality

27

in Tg in Vonodig. Knowing the likely reaction of the public if news of a
cholera outbreak got out, authorities felt compelled to secrecy. It was that
secrecy, however, which allowed the disease to spread unchecked, until
finally, it grew into an uncontrollable epidemic. The resulting chaotic
scenario, of hundreds, even thousands of sick and dying cholera victims was
exactly what the public had feared in the first place, while the abrupt end to
the city's lucrative trade and tourism is what the city government had
feared. The cholera motif reflecs upon the theme of homosexuality in Bad
Mgoedig with this point. Aschenbach feels compelled to maintain secrecy
about his homosexual attraction to the young boy, Tadzio, because of the
possible public reaction. This, combined with his fear that if he confrons
Tadzio, his idealization of him would be destroyed, causes him to further
suppress his feelings. This suppression ultimately makes him ill. By his
death, he has come to resemble the lecherous old pervert who had so
repulsed him earlier. The importance of secrecy and sublimation in the
novella is underscored by the continual reference to the suppression of
cholera throughout the work, as well as is connections to the motif of
Aschenbach's suppressed homosexual inclinations.

In Too in Vengfig, these two motifs, cholera and homosexuality, are
woven into the story through direct references and through allusions to their
social and historical perceptions. The significance of these references, as
related to the theme of suppression and is possible consequences, can easily

be discovered with a closer inspection of the text. Particularly important in

28

this analysis is Mann's portrayal of the following: 1) Venice as setting for the
novella; 2) the continued presence of a "miasma" in Venice; 3) the unwise
risks which Aschenbach takes even after he knows that cholera is present in
the city; 4) his yearning for death; 5) foreshadowings of death, which his
unwise behavior represens; 6) Aschenbach's image of Tadzio as a Greek god,
and the homoerotic connotations of this conception of him; 7) Aschenbach's
concern for his reputation; 8) the resulting secrecy and sublimation of his
attraction for the boy; 9) is paralyzing effect upon his will; 10) the city
government's secrecy about the cholera outbreaks and is consequences; 1 1)
the potentially ennobling effecs of openness for both Aschenbach and for the
city. Keeping in mind the social and historical background discussed thus far,
Mann's representation of the aforementioned aspecs of cholera and
homosexuality in Mg, and the relationship of each to his theme

of secrecy become apparent.

The importance of Venice as a setting for the plot was significant, in
view of is reputation at the time. Aschenbach's inspiration to travel to
Venice makes this clear: "Wenn man iiber Nacht das Unvergleichliche, das
m'a'rchenhaft Abweichendes zu erreichen wiinschte, wohin ging man? Aber
das war klar" (Mann, 1551 469). Even as he makes his half-hearted attempt to
leave, he cannot help pondering the deceptive appearance of the city, since
danger and decay are hidden behind is charming facade. "Das war Venedig,
die schmeichlerische und verdfichtige Schéne, . . . halb Marchen, halb
Fremdenfalle" (Mann, 1951. 515). Venice brings out the long hidden Side of

29

Aschenbach. He is unable to impose a controlled and structured life upon
himself in Venice, as he has everywhere else. He allows himself to Slip for
the first time into a life of leisure and pleasure. "Nur dieser Ort verzauberte
ihn, enspannte sein Wollen, machte ihn gliicklich" (Mann, 1991 506).

Venice's atmosphere also plays an important role in evoking the
image of a steadily sickening city. The miasma, commented on often by
Aschenbach, describes the foul air, the bad-smelling water of the lagoons, the
canals, the sea and the overwhelming heat and humidity which capture these
smells and keep them oppressively close to the ground. As the plot
progresses, the putrid smell of the heavy air and foul water and the sweet
medicinal smell of disinfectant is mentioned increasingly. The presence of

the rniasma grows with that of the two ”diseases":

Nachmittags fuhr Aschenbach bei Windstille und schwerem
Sonnenbrand nach Venedig: denn ihn trieb die Manie, den polnischen
Geschwistem zu folgen, . . . [er] witterte pldtzlich in der Luft ein
eigentiimliches Arom, von dem ihm jetzt schien, als habe es schon seit
Tagen, ohne ihm ins BewuBtwein zu dringen, seinen Sinn beriihrt -
einen siiBlich-offiziellen Geruch, der an Elend und Wunden und
verdéichtige Reinlichkeit erinnerte. (Mann, loo 511)

When these signs of Venice's ills are noticable, Aschenbach feels is
fearful and repulsed. But when a fresh breeze blows from the sea and
dissipates the heavy air, he ignores the danger it represens, and he relaxes
happily.

Aschenbach takes unwise risks as his interest in Tadzio grows,

sometimes following the boy through Venice's hot, dirty alleyways to the

30

point of exhaustion. Twice while watching Tadzio, Aschenbach buys
overripe strawberries (a posible "exciting cause" of cholera, according to
Reese) from vendors, the risk of infection from the unwashed fruit seeming
more ominous in the oppressive miasmatic conditions: "Und dann
friihstiickte er groBe, vollreife Erdbeeren, die er von einem Handler erstand.
Es war sehr warm geworden, obgleich die Sonne die Dunsschicht des ’
Himmels nicht zu durchdringen vermochte. Tragheit fesselte den Geist"
(Mann, M 489). By the end of the novella, already suffering from
cholera-like ailmens, the risk he's taking as he again buys overripe
strawberries from a vendor becomes apparent :

Sein Kopf brannte, sein Korper war mit klebrigem SchweiB bedeckt,
sein Gemck zitterte, ein nicht mehr ertréi licher Durst figs ihn, er
sah sich nach ir endwelcher, nach augen licklicher La g um. Vor
einem kleinen emiiseladen kaufte er eini e Friichte, Erdbeeren,
iiberreife und weiche Ware, und a8 im Ge en davon. (Mann, M 533)

The apparent death-wish which this behavior seems to reflect, is
confirmed in Aschenbach's daydreams. "Er liebte das Meer aus tiefen
Griinden: . . . aus einem verbotenen, seiner Aufgabe gerade
entgegengesetzten und ebendarum verfiihrerischen Hange zum
Ungegliederten, Maslosen, Ewigen, zum N ichs" (Mann, ICE! 487). He seems
in many ways to be ready for death, even to want it, and foreshadowings of
his death continue through the novella. His journey is first inspired by the
sight of an odd character on the steps of a mortuary chapel during a stroll
through a graveyard. Immediately upon his arrival in Venice, he has an
eerie experience with a sinister gondolier in a coffin-like gondola. He

31

ponders how much this gondola ride reminds him of the final trip in the
underworld. Yet he resigns himself to accept whatever lies ahead on this
journey, which continues to foreshadow death, thus symbolically accepting
his own death. Just as his death is foreshadowed throughout the novella, so,
too, is his future condition foreshadowed in a repulsive old man on the
steamer to Venice, whom Aschenbach begins more and more to resemble as

he nears his end:

Einer, in hell elbem, iibermodisch eschnittenem Sommeranzug, roter
Krawatte un kiihn aufgebogenem anama, . . . war alt, man konnte
nicht zweifeln. Runzeln um aben ihm Au en und Mund. Das matte
Karmesin der Wangen war 'nke, das raune Haar unter dem
farbig umsundenen Strohhut Periicke, sein Hals verfallen und sehnig,
sein aufgesetztes Schnurrbartchen und die Fliege am Kinn gefarbt.
(Mann, od 471) Widerlich war es zu sehen, in welchen Zustand den
aufgestutzen Greisen seine falsche Gemeinschaft mit der Jugend
gfbracht hatte. [. . .] er war klaglich betrunken. [. . .] er lallte, zwinkerte,
'cherte, hob seinen berin en runzeligen Zeigefin r zu alberner
N eckerei und leckte auf a scheulich zweideutr e mit der
Zungenspitzt die Mundwinkel. (Mann, IQ 4 )

Although Aschenbach's behavior is not described as overtly repulsive,
as is the old man's, the image is nonetheless conjured up for the reader.
Aschenbach increasingly resembles the old man, emphasizing his
transforming appearance, as he desperately attemps to hide his secret and his
degenerating condition beneath a facade of youth and health:

Aschenbach . . . sah irn Glase seine Brauen sich enschiedener und
ebenméfliger wolben, den Schnitt seiner Augen sich verléingern, ihren Glanz
durch eine leichte Untermalung des Lides sich heben, sah weiter unten, so
die Haut brfiunlich-ledern gewesen, weich auf tragen, ein zartes Karrnin
erwachen, seine Lippen, blutarm soeben noch, ' beerfarben schwellen, die
Furchen der Wangen, des Mundes, die Runzeln der Augen unter Creme und
Jugendhauch verschwinden, . . . . Der Beriickte ging, traumgliicklich,
verwirrt und furchsam. Seine Krawatte war rot, sein breischattender

3 2

Strohhut mit einem mehrfarbigen Bande umwunden. (Mann, T_od 531-2)

Even Tadzio's smile, a small acknowledgement of Aschenbach's
attraction to him, foreshadows death: "der, [Aschenbach] welcher dies
Licheln empfangen, enteilte damit wie mit einem verhingnisvollen
Geschenk" (Mann, Iod 510). Aschenbach's response to this "deadly gift"
almost physically overwhelms him, as he whispers to himself what he finally
realizes - that he is in love with the boy. But even here, Mann is careful to
point out that this love is not without honor and dignity: 'fiberwaltigt und
mehrfach von Schauem, iiberlaufen, fliisterte er die stehende Formel der
Sehnsucht, - unmdglich hier, absurd, verworfen, licherlich und heilig doch,
ehrwiirdig auch hier noch: 'ich liebe dich!"' (Mann, lat 510). 7

Earlier references in the text to Plato's writing play an important role,
as Plato's, Goethe's and Xenophon's discussions of homo-erotic love are
alluded to. The reader is reminded that this sort of attraction was not always

considered shameful or degenerate:

Zahlreiche Kri helden der Vorzeit hatten willig sein Joch getragen,
denn gar keine rniedri g galt die der Gott verhéin , und Taten,
die als Merkmale der Fergheit w'a'ren gescholten wor en, wenn sie um
anderer Zwecke willen eschehen wiren: FuBfalle, Schwiire,
instandige Bitten und S avisches Wesen, solche geriechten dem
Liebenden nicht zur Schande sondern er erntete vielmehr noch Lob
dafiir. (Mann, Tool 516)

Thus the Greek god imagery which surrounds Tadzio from the first in
the novella takes on a new significance. Aschenbach is sensitive to Tadzio's
"godlike" beauty and purity. Mann's description of the boy is saturated with
imagery of beautiful, white marble statues of Greek gods. , through which he

33

connotes both virginal purity (in contrast with Aschenbach's browned, aged,
steadily sickening body) and at the same time, the sexual images of Greek

pederastic relationships:

Like the pure, white classical statues that Winckelman and Goethe
draw upon for their image of the pure sexual object, the skin of the
child represens the purity (and therefore the attractiveness) of the
child as sexual object. (Gilman, m 273)

The implications of this imagery is underscored by Aschenbach's view of

Tadzio as a god, or as a classical Greek sculpture:

Sein Antlitz, bleich und anmuti verschlossen, von honi arbenem
Haar umringelt, mit der gerade a fallenden Nase dem lie lichen
Munde, dem Ausdruck von holdem und géttlichem Ernst, erinnerte
an griechische Bildwerke aus edelster Zeit. (Mann, Tod 480).
[Aschenbach] erstaunte . . . auf's neue, ja erschrak fiber die wahrhaft
gottfihnliche schonheit des Menschenkrndes. (Mann, M 485) [Zu]
sehen, wie die lebendi e Gestalt, vorma'nnlich hold und herb, mit
triefenden Locken un schdn wie ein zarter Gott, herkommend aus
den Tiefen von Himmel und Meer, dem Elemente enstieg und
entrann: dieser Anblick gab mythische Vorstellungen ein, er war wie
Dichterkunde von anfanglichen Zeiten, vom Ursprung der Form und
von der Geburt der Gdtter. (Mann, IQ 490)

As his obsession with the boy's beauty grows, so, too, does
Aschenbach's concern for his own appearance. He tries outwardly to appear
more pleasing to the boy, but is still desperately worried that he might appear
foolish to the rest of the world. His concern for his reputation is not new. It
only takes on a new dimension as he struggles to maintain his image of
respectable citizen, despite his erotic feelings, which are increasingly difficult

to suppress.

34

Literally a slave to his art', Aschenbach is preoccupied with his
reputation. He struggles on the work which should be his masterpiece, driven
onward by a mechanical need to produce, to live up to the reputation he has
built for himself through self-discipline and hard, nerve-taxing work. He
knows he is successful; he has earned a place in the canons of literature, yet
finds his success a mixed blessing. It is the means to a comfortable existence,

but is also a burden, creating a public image which he must live up to:

Der Vierzi er hatte, ermattet von den Strapazen und Wechselfa’llen
der eigentlic en Arbeit, allta'glich eine Post zu bew'alti en, die
Wertzeichen aus aller Herren L'ander trug. (Mann,T 462) [Er war] zu
bescha'ftigt mit den Auf aben, welche sein Ich und die —Europ'aische
Seele ihmgt stellten, so be astet von der Verpflichtun zur Produktion,
der Zerstreuung zu abgeneigt, urn zum Liebhaber en bunten
AuBenwelt zu taugen. (Mann, M 458-9)

As Aschenbach pushes himself to the point of exhaustion upon his
new work, he is determined that his admiring readers should not know of
his growing weariness. And his growing attraction to Tadzio forces him to.
reflect even more the importance he places upon his reputation.

Er verweilte dort drinnen lingere Zeit vor dem Spiegel und
betrachtete sein graues Haar, sein miides und scharfes Gesicht. In
diesem Augenblick dachte er an seinen Ruhm und daran, daB viele ihn
auf den Straflen kannten und ehrerbietig betrachteten, um seines sicher
treffenden und mit Anmut gekrdnten Wortes willen - rief alle duBeren

Erfolge seines Talentes auf, die ihm irgend einfallen wollten, und
gedachte sogar seine Nobilierung. (Mann, Too 490-91)

He worries what his Prussian forefathers would have thought of his
love for the boy. "[Er] gedachte . . . der haltungsvollen Strenge, der
anstéindigen Mannlichkeit ihres Wesens und lichelte schwermiitig. Was

35

wiirden sie sagen? (Mann, Tod 515-16) Ever more concerned for his
reputation, he suppresses his erotic feelings for Tadzio, just as he had always
suppressed his sensuality. "Ungeniigsamkeit freilich hatte schon dem
Jiingling als Wesen und innerste Natur des Talentes gegolten, und um

' ihretwillen hatte er das Gefiihl geziigelt und erkfiltet" (Mann, 19d 460).
When Aschenbach's plan to leave the city fails and he realizes he is glad, he
feels he must mask his joy at returning to the hotel. Embarrassed as he
imagines the other guess' reactions to his return, he feels he must hide his
true emotions: . "[Die Gondels] einziger Passagier unter der Maske
argerlicher Resignation [verbarg] die Angstlich-iibermiitige Erregung eines
entlaufenen Knaben verbarg" (Mann, Iod 496). As he settles into a
comfortable, leisurely life of secretly watching and following the boy,
Aschenbach hides his attraction to him and agonizes over how he appears to
others. The secret attraction begins to preoccupy his time. Even in his
daydreams, Aschenbach worries about public reactions, if his growing
obsession with Tadzio were to be discovered. Aschenbach is inspired by his
feelings to write with a passion he hasn't felt in many years:
erreaaeliaiéiii'f‘affié'i fitfiiéifiil‘iéi'flfia $333533?" W"

Gefiihlss annung binnen kurzem die Bewunderung vreler erregen sollte.
(Mann. .24; 505)

Mann then tempers the joy with an aside, saying that it is certainly
good that the world will see only Aschenbach's finished work, and not know

the the circumstances which inspired the writing of it, as the consequences

36

could be devastating:

Es ist sicher gut, daB die Welt nur das schdne Werk, nicht auch seine
Urspriinge, nicht seine Enstehungsbedingungen kennt, denn die
Kenntnis der Quellen, aus denen em Kiinstler Eingebung flotB, wiirde
sie oftrnals verwirren, abschrecken und so die Wirkungen des
vortrefflichen aufheben. (Mann, M 505)

He begins disguising his true appearance, that of a greying, serious,
leathery old man behind a mask of make-up, bright clothes and dyed hair.
His secret obsession for the boy begins showing is darker side, that it has the
power to make him look undignified and foolish, exactly what he had feared
in the first place. Hiding behind his increasingly false beautified exterior, the
secret he now attemps to hide is that of his deteriorating health, while his
attentions toward the boy become increasingly Open. The reader is reminded
of the lecherous young-old man, who had repulsed Aschenbach, as he now
does us. '

. Aschenbach's strict suppression of the sensual aspecs of his character
has exhausted him, paralyzing his ability to make a decision. He suffers the
symptoms of Abulia, the disease so often attributed to homosexual men
struggling with their secret. He increasingly feels disgust toward himself and
the disciplined, if successful life he has lived thus far. He is a man with tired
eyes, and a thin and furrowed face who longs to retrieve the fiery excitrnent
which he once felt while writing. But Aschenbach's attempt to regain the
sensuality he has suppressed since his youth proves overwhelming, as he
begins acknowledging long-buried sensations. He had succeeded in
tempering his youthful sensibilities for the sake of his talent only through an

37

iron resolve, and had instead directed his energies toward production of
passionate and masterful intellectual works. But his will has grown tired, his
middle-aged body and mind are fatigued, and the work, which has been
everything to him, is no longer produced from and with joy, but out of a

sense of duty:

Richte sich nun also die geknechtete Empfindun indem sie ihn
verlieB, indem sie seine Kunst ffirder zu tra n Si weigerte und alle
Lust, alles Entziicken an der Form und am usdruck rrut sich
hinwegnahm? [Aber] er selbst, wihrend die Nation [seine
Meisterschaft] ehrte, er ward ihrer nicht froh, und es schien ihm, als
ermangle sein Werk jener Merkmale feuri Spielender Laune, die, ein
Erzetégl'nis der Freude, mehr als irgendein mnerer Gehalt, ein

ewi ti oecrl'ezggqrzug, die Freude der genieBenden Welt bildeten.

ann, __

Thus, uninspired and unable to continue writing, he cannot muster
the will to continue. He feels himself repulsed by his need for fastidiousness,
which he no longer can satisfy. The great Prussian writer, who had forsaken
the idleness and carelessness of youth ('Mfifliggang" and "sorglose
Fahrlassigkeit der Jugend" [Mann, Tod 462]) for a strict, structured life of
self-control, can no longer find the will to work. Having always honored in
his works those who overcame their weakness of will to acheive, he is afraid
now to acknowledge his own inability to do just that. His dilemma becomes
worse. Even though he feels threatened, he cannot enforce his will with the
eerie gondolier when he first arrives in Venice. He becomes angry with
himself when he can't decide whether to leave Venice or stay. And later, he

can't bring himself to tell Tadzio's family about the cholera in the city. He

38

feels powerless over his emotions. Finally, having joyfully accepted his
attraction to Tadzio, he actually feels physically repulsed at the thought of
regaining his self-control: "...und der Gedanke an Heimkehr, an
Besonnenheit, Niichternheit, Miihsal und Meisterschaft widerte ihn in
solchem MaBe, daB sein Gesicht zum Ausdruck physischer Ubelkeit
verzerrte". (Mann, Tod 527)

Aschenbach suppresses not only his homosexual feelings, he is guilty
also of keeping silent about his knowledge of the cholera outbreak. As the
cholera's presence in Venice grows, Aschenbach notices more and more the
smells of the city and decreasing numbers of Germans in his hotel, as the
newpapers of the German-Speaking countries report rumors, replete with
statistics, and official denials, of an outbreak of cholera in Venice. But
suddenly the hotel stops supplying these newspapers. Aschenbach hears talk
of the "Ubel" (evil, pestilence, disease) in the city, but the subject is quickly
changed when he asks for more information. An effort to inform the
populace is made by the town elders through posters advising them to be
cautious. But this, too, is deceptive as the pastes only suggest avoidance of
canal water and certain sea foods, due to a gastric ailment which might cause
problems in this sort of weather. The illness is not named, and not the
slightest indication is given by the government that it might be the deadly
epidemic disease, cholera.

Trying to confirm his suspicions that the cholera has manifested iself
in Venice, Aschenbach finds almost a delight in posing leading questions and

39

forcing those who possess knowledge of the plague to lie about it. Again and
again Aschenbach receives the same defensive reply, that the police, merely
as a precaution in this weather, have ordered certain sanitation measures to

be taken:

Ein Ubel? Aber was ffir ein Ubel? Ist der Scirocco ein Ubel? Sie belieben
zu scherzen! Ein Ubel! Warum nicht gar! Eine vorbeugende MaBregel,
verstehen Sie doch! Eine polizeiliche Anordnung Gegen die

Wirkungen der driickenden Wirkungen der Witterung. . . . (Mann, 10d
521)

Finding nothing in the local newspapers and with no access anymore
to international ones, he finally comes to his own conclusion: "Man 5011
schweigen!" He begins to derive a certain thrill from his realization that
there is another secret besides his own being covered up - - and he knows
about it.

Aschenbach broods over whether or not to tell Tadzio and his family
about the secret. Like the city government, he resolves to stay silent, but
unlike their motivation, greed for money, his silence is selfishly motivated by
his obsession with the boy. He cannot bear the thought of being alone in
Venice without Tadzio.

Finally he learns the truth about the disease from an Englishman - an
ousider. He learns that the city has been hiding a number of cholera deaths
from the touriss and that city officials have lied to the ouside world about
the disease. This has resulted in inner turmoil in the government. The city's
first medical officer, who had been too scrupulous to tolerate the harmful

40

silence had resigned, to be replaced by a more compliant one. This deception
had only had the effect of demoralizing the rest of Venice's population.

Crime, drunkenness and even murder had since increased. The silence of

the city officials, despite all of it's negative backlashes, is motivated by the fear
of harming the city's reputation. Should the rest of the world learn of the
epidemic, Venice would be blockaded, and precious tourist and trade income

would be lost:

Aber die Furcht vor allgemeiner Schidigung, die Riicksicht auf die
kiirzlich ert'iffnete Geméi deausstellung in den tiffentlichen Garten, auf
die gewaltigen Ausfdlle, von denen im Falle die Panik und des
Verrufes die Hotels, die Geschdfte, das ganze vielfiiltige
Fremdengewerbe bedroht waren, zeigten sich machtiger in der Stadt als
Wahrheitsliebe und Achtung vor internationalen Abmachungen; sie
vermochte die Behorde, ihre Politik des Beschweigens und des
Ableugnens hartnfickig aufrechtzuerhalten. (Mann, Io_d_ 526)

The city government does not have to hide the knowledge of a cholera
outbreak this way.‘ Open, honest reaction to the outbreak would be more
likely to lead to a "cure" than the dishonest policies it pursues. Aschenbach
also ignores his chances to "set things right" with openness and honesty. .
After his first and only frenzied rush of literary production inspired by what
he sees as the perfect beauty and form of the boy, he wans to approach him
and talk with him. This step, openly talking with the boy, would have made
his interest a public matter. It is the fear of the repercussions from public
recognition of his feelings that deters him. At the thought of taking this step
and breaking the delicious hold his secret has over him, he feels physically ill.

First and foremost on his mind, when he gives up the idea, is ascertaining

41

whether he has been noticed by anyone, including the boy, and just as
importantly, in preserving his precious secret. Herein lies the answer to the
question on the reader's mind, which Bernd Effe expresses so eloquently:
"Doch warum die Wende vom Affirmativ—Hymnischen ins
Negativ-Problematische [in the depiction of Aschenbach's attraction to
Tadzio]? (Effe 164). The necessary sublimation of "unacceptable" sensations
makes them seem dirty and they become destructive. They make Aschenbach
become the way others see him - as diseased. Not making his secret a public,
open issue, making it a lighter, less intense issue for himself, he buries it still
more, making it more secret, more hidden and more shameful. His blissful,
beautiful secret becomes illicit, demeaning and literally sickening: "Dieser
Schritt, den zu tun er versdumte, er hatte sehr mdglicherweise zum Guten,
Leichten und Frohen, zu heiliger Erniichterung gefiihrt" (Mann, M505).

His fear of being ridiculed makes him all the more ridiculous: "Er war
verwirrt, er fiirchtete, daB irgend jemand . . . seinen Lauf, seine Niederlage
beobachtet haben mdchte, fiirchtete sehr die Licherlichkeit" (Mann, Iod 506).
Now, Aschenbach's decline truly begins:

Zucht und Ziigellosigkeit, Disziplin und Leidenschaft, Apollonisches
und Dionysisches: das eine hat Aschenbach's Leben bestimmt, das
andere fiberflutet ihn jetzt und reiBt ihn in den Abgrund. Der
einmalige Hdhepunkt platonisch-erotischer Sublimrerung mit seiner

rekéiren Indienstnahme der Sinnlichkeit durch den Geist ist nicht

estzuhalten; das Sinnliche gewinnt Dominanz. (Effe 160)

Once Aschenbach learns the truth about the cholera, excited yet full of

horror at the secret he possesses, he considers what to do with his new-found

42

knowledge. Again, he has a chance to act nobly, this time by divulging his
knowledge of the cholera to Tadzio and his family and urging their timely
flight from the city. But this knowledge, lethal when it is kept secret, is kept
to himself. His resolve to remain silent and his denial of danger contribute
to his demise. But before his death, his own silence about the presence of the
disease in the city and the suppression of his love for Tadzio, much like the
government's deceptions in suppressing the reality about the cholera,
become too much for his guilty conscience. He has a terrifying, wildly erotic
dream filled with images of disease and danger, from which he awakes
completely shaken. He knows he is acting unwisely. But the secres he has
suppressed have taken control of the last shreds ofhis will-power and his
dignity, and he can no longer keep them hidden. He, who possessed this
secret knowledge for so long, becomes possessed by it.

Finally, shortly before Aschenbach's death, the symptoms of the
disease, cholera, and the "illness", homosexuality, become so intertwined as
to be inseperable and indistinguishable from each other; Aschenbach's death
seems to have come as much from his inner turmoil from the suppression

of his secres, as from the cholera iself:

[Dieses] schlimme Geheirnnis der Stadt [verschmolz] mit seinem
eigensten Geheirnnis. . . (Mann, Iod 512-13) Aber zugleich wandte er
bestandig eine spiirende und eigensinni e Aufrnerksamkeit den
unsauberen Vorgfingen irn Innern Ven ' zu, jenem Abenteuer der
AuBenwelt, das mit dem seines Herzens unkel zusammenfloB. . . .
(Mann, 2% 516) Fr hatte mit gewissen, nur halb kdrperlichen
Schwindelanféllen zu kampfen, die von einer heftig aufsteigenden
Angst be leitet waren, einem Gefiihl der Ausweg und

Aussichs osigkeit, von dem nicht klar wurde, ob e5 sich auf die

 

43

AuBere Welt oder auf seine eigene Existenz bezog. (Mann, Io_d, 535)
Thus, in the end, Aschenbach and Venice are both victims of their hidden

secres.

The fact that Mann uses the cholera theme to illustrate aspects of the
suppression of knowledge shows that this suppression is negative. Nothing
good comes from hiding the presence of the disease. Although the city's
actions stem from instincs of self-preservation, it is ultimately those very
actions that lead to the city's disaster. The same irreconcilable alternatives
faced homosexuals: Risk public reaction at revealing the truth, or risk

self-destruction at sublimating it. This is the dilemma which faced Thomas

Mann. As Gerhard Héirle, in M" rw i 1i i H m ‘ “ i
W wrote of Manns diaries:

Die Tagebiicher sind die Dokumente der Produktionspsychologie eines
Homosexuellens, der notwendig des Do pellebens bedarf, um er selber,
um in der Verdoppelung wahr zu sein. Gewand des Alltéiglichen
und Anekdotischen iiberliefern sie das Geheimnis ihrer eigenen
Notwendigkeit sowie der des literarischen Schaffens. (Harle 211)

The writing of Tod in Vededig can be seen as a sort of "coming out," a
cathartic process, which allowed Mann to focus his energy upon creative
production rather than in sublimating his homosexual attraction and
allowing it to destroy him, as it does his tragic hero, Aschenbach. The
struggle with the question of risking openness or living secretively is still
relevant. This is the the terrible predicament in which AIDS victims find
themselves today. The reflection of the present in this literary work of almost

a century ago gives Mann's work a new and meaningful significance.

APPENDIX

44

APPENDD(

1 Cholera is still a concern in developing counties, and is even used as
a potent weapon, in an altogether different sense today: The "Siiddeusche
Zeitung" of Weds, July 25, 1990 reported that a team of doctors had confirmed
that a bomb dropped by the Sri Lankan government on Tamil rebel fighters
was filled with cholera germs. The Sri Lankan government denies it.

2 "Contagion" is defined in Stedman's Modical Dictiongy, 21st ed.,

1966 as "t'ansmission of an infectious disease by contact, either immediate or
medicate, with the sick; one one the modes of infection."

3 "Eugenics" is defined by The American Heritage Dictiona_ry, 1976, as "
the study of heriditary improvement, especially of human improvement by
genetic cont-o

4 "Abulia" is defined as "loss of will-power" by Webster's, "krankhafte
Unenschlossenheit" by the Duden, and "an extreme loss of initiative and
will power" by Longman Dictionary of Psychology and Psychiatry (Smith 104).

5 Cholera and homosexuality were added to the list of fauls of the
Jews, reaffirming many people's anti-sernitic sentimens. The importation of

cholera into Hamburg in 1892 was blamed by various expers upon poor Jews

45

emigrating from Russia, who stayed in the filthy, overcrowded boarding
houses in Hamburg on their journey to a new homeland (Evans 282-83). The
image of the biologically degenerate, "feminized" (castrated) Jew was
associated closely with that of the homosexual during the fin-de-siecle as well
(Gilman 267).

5 Interestingly, one of the best-known homosexual righs fighters, Karl
Heinrich Ulrichs, fled southward in his middle-aged years, tired after many
years of fighting for homosexual righs. In the mid-18805, he settled in
Aguila, Italy, where he died in poverty and exile. This, says James Steakley,
author of The Homosexual Emang’oadon Mooemnt 91' Qormaoy, adds "a
special resonance" to Mann's M (22).

7 This brings to mind the words of Krafft-Ebing, as he reneged his
stance that homosexuality was a disease. He wrote that all "noble activities of
the heart" associated with heterosexual love as well as the defecs thereof,

"can be equally associated with homosexual love" (Robinson viii).

LIST OF REFERENCES

46

LIST OF REFERENCES

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GuletteMr M aret Mor enthal. 'Th'e Exile of Adulthood: "Pedophilia m the
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Harle, Gerhard. Mannerweiolichkoit: Zur Homosexualitéit bei Klaus und
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Jonas, Ilsedore B. Thomas Mann and Italy. Trans. Betty Crouse. University,

47

Alabama: U Alabama P, 1979.

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--. Diaries 1918-1939. Trans. Richard Clara Winston. London: Robin Clark,
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New York: Russell 8: Russell, Inc., 1962.
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Chamberlin, J. Edward and Sander L. Gilman, eds. pagomration: The Dark
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Chambers, IS. The Conquest of Cholera: Americas Greatost Sgourgg. New
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Hughes, William N. "Thomas Mann and the Platonic Adulterer."
Monashefte 51 (1959): 75-80.

49

Jones, James. Rev of Mannerweiblichkeit: Zur Homosexualitiit bei Klaus
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