Aschenbach's Metamorphosis

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Thomas Mann's Death in Venice delineates poet Gustav Aschenbach's transformation from a man of discipline and constraint to a creature of unbridled passion and desire. A chance encounter with an intriguing foreigner wakens the cold intellectual man to his unrest, which he diagnoses as wanderlust (4). Aschenbach's departure from his home city of Munich to the shores of Venice marks his foray from a life of fearful duty into an intoxicating world of liberty. Free from the long-borne burden of society's expectations, Aschenbach is able to introspectively explore the nature of his discontent and opt to eschew the conventions which had preserved his former life of suppressed longing. Though his disciplined life in Munich afforded him wealth and high regard among peers, Aschenbach's pursuit of perfection had left him exhausted and repressed. As an aquaintance once remarked: “See, Aschenbach has always lived like this” —and he formed a fist with his left hand—“but never like that”—and he let his now-open hand drop nonchalantly from the armrest of his lounge chair." Intended to describe Aschenbach's tense and resticted manner, the symbolism of this phrase has two actual meanings; not only is Achenbach's personality anxious and reserved, he is also clutching onto an imposed moral certainty with a tenuous grasp. Mann confirms the remarking observer's use of a fist to represent Aschenbach's state of mind as true indeed, though he clarifies that Aschenbach had conditioned himself to be so robust, it had not come naturally. Aschenbach is dedicated to "moral resoluteness in the presence of deepest knowledge" (6) which he maintains by restraining his emotions and desires, writing discontent off as merely "the character of innermost genius" (5). He loves the "rigorous, frigid and argent duty"(5) of his work and takes pride in his immense discipline. His greatest creative impulses
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