Next, the frightening gondolier in Venice (who steers a boat that reminds von Aschenbach of a coffin) shares many of the same characteristics as the teeth-baring stranger, including a distinctive hat, reddish hair, and prominent teeth. First, while in the graveyard, he spots a strange foreigner who bares his teeth ferociously. The death's head is the dominant leitmotif in this novella, with different representations of the same ominous man appearing in closer and closer proximity to von Aschenbach. the death's headĪ death's head is a human skull or a more subtle representation of death. Thus, decadence is closely related to, and indeed often causes, degeneracy. Although the feeling's spring from a reasonable source (the boy's beauty), von Aschenbach is decadent in how excessively fervent is feelings are, and his obsession leads to his downfall. In Death in Venice, the issue of decadence appears through von Aschenbach's homoerotic feelings for the Polish boy, Tadzio. In addition, the degeneracy of the individual and society at large was represented in the works of Mann's contemporaries, including Oscar Wilde and Andre Gide. The theme of decadence was extremely popular in fin-de-siecle European literature.
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