The triumph of disaster in Death in VeniceAt the beginning of Death in Venice, Gustav von Aschenbach, the illustrious author of Munich, goes for a walk one afternoon of May. While waiting for the train to go home, he sees a man in front of him, a man who intrigues him. Defiantly, even ferociously, the man's angular face stares back at Aschenbach. Aschenbach quickly walks away from the stranger, who soon disappears. Whether it was the intriguing stranger or the warm temperature, he doesn't know; However, Aschenbach is gripped by a burning desire to travel. A severe ascetic, Aschenbach never knew the sweet idleness that belonged to youth. In the novel an observer compliments Aschenbach by saying: "'You see, Aschenbach has always lived like this' - here the speaker makes a fist with the fingers of his left hand - 'never like this' - and lets his hand hang relaxed from the back of the chair." On this particular day, however, trembling at the thought of having to work for yet another summer, he obeys his primal and exotic side and decides to take a short vacation. He leaves for Treiste, but after a stay of only ten days, he realizes that he doesn't like the area and leaves for Venice on a small boat. On the boat, he notices a clearly old man trying to recapture his youth and is disgusted by the gigolo. Calling a gondolier, Aschenbach travels to the beautiful city of Venice and immediately checks into a hotel. Making himself comfortable in the living room, he takes time to examine his surroundings and the people he will be vacationing with. The group sitting at the table next to him, he notices, is of Polish origin, and his attention is immediately attracted by a young man, an extraordinarily handsome fourteen-year-old boy. Pale and long... half the paper... year) when Aschenbach's story begins. In Mann's life, the novel is highly emblematic in that much of Aschenbach is autobiographical. Much like Aschenbach, Mann enjoyed status early in life; poor health was a shared complication; and both exercised self-imposed order (Mann also conducted all his literary work at the crack of dawn). The determination to sustain and survive existed in the spirit of both artists. Yet "Death in Venice" is not at all a strictly autobiographical story. However, much of what concerns the artist Aschenbach is part of the artist Mann and can therefore be interpreted as a vague symbol of Mann. Perhaps Aschenbach is an extreme example of the imperfections that Mann battled throughout his life; if this is indeed the case, then Aschenbach is not only a sign of Mann's fragility, but an emblem of the errors that afflict us all..