Essay on Relationship between Art and Life in Death in Venice

Relationship between Art and Life Explored in Death in Venice The novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann examines the nature of the birth between maneuver and deportment. The progression of the main character, Gustave Von Aschenbach, illustrates the concept of an Apollinian/Dionysian continuum. Apollo is the classic god of art, thus something Apollinian places an emphasis on form. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine-colored and chaos, hence something Dionysian emphasizes energy and emotion. In The own of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche suggests that,... the day-and-night development of art is bound up with the Apollinian and Dionysian duality--just as procreation depends on the duality of the sexes, involving perpetual strife with only periodically interact reconciliations.. in the Greek world there existed a tremendous opposition, in origin and aims, between the Apollinian area of sculpture, and the nonimagistic, Dionysian art of music (33). The Greeks embodied this concept in t he clear figures of their gods just as Thomas Mann, a great reader of Nietzsche, embodied it in his characters (33). At the beginning of the novel, Gustave is depicted as an extremely, if not overly, civilized man. He is an artist, but he approaches art coldly and rigidly. It is more a job than a joy for him, and it is in truth his urge to seek flight from his rigid, cold, and passionate service that brings him to Venice (Mann 6). Although Gustave loves this service, he is shortly in a state of frustration To him it seemed that his work had ceased to be marked by that fiery play of fancy that is the product of joy... (7). His beliefs can be summarized in the words mind and art, thus missing the crucial ingredients of life and sensuality. Gu... ... painting Figures on Rocks at the touch of the Sea. Life is found to be problematic if lived at either extreme, a midpoint of some slip must be established. A dynamic state of oscillation, the best environs for the cultivation of cre ativity, would have prevented Gustaves uncontrollable exhibition of previously inhibited Dionysian qualities. The ideal state for the production of art and living in superior general seems to be a mixture of art, mind, and life. Works Cited Mann, Thomas. Death in Venice and otherwise Stories. New York Random House, Inc., 1989. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. 1872. In The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York Vintage Books, 1967. Vibert, Jean-Georges. Figures on Rocks at the Edge of the Sea. Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana.