Compare and Contrast of Florentino and Aschenbach

764 Words4 Pages
Aschenbach, from Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, and Florentino from Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Marques, are compared and contrasted through their compulsive obsessions. The obsessions with Tadzio and Fermina consumer their life as they continue to surround themselves with their obsessions. Both Aschenbach and Florentino become mentally unstable, Aschenbach spirals down into platonic love for Tadzio and Florentino becoming determined to one day have Fermina. Age also plays an important comparison in showing how Aschenbach aged so much and then died, and how Florentino aged backwards, he started out like an old mad, being sick and gross all the time, and continued to stay in this stage until he too was an old man. Within their love obsessions, both Aschenbach and Florentino follow their obsessions around to a point of stalking.Aschenbach and Florentino both place themselves in a position to see their obsessions, giving them the ability to watch from a distance. Aschenbach would get up early and go to the beach just to see Tadzio playing in the water. He would stay there all day, and then at dinner, sit at a table far enough away to where he could watch him from a distance. Unlike Florentino, Achenbach’s platonic love never reached Tadzio, and he never had a conversation with him. Florentino falls romantically in love with Fermina at a young age and would sit on a bench in the park to watch her go to and from school, and church every Sunday. Although his obsession can be somewhat justified because Florentino confronts Fermina about his love for her, he is still at the point of erotic obsession as he continues to watch for her for the next fifty years. These examples fall into the category of how each man’s mind is slowly slipping away. The mind of both Aschenbach and Florentino is an unstable universe which only revolves around their obsessions,
Open Document