Abstract
This dissertation discusses the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann and explores two recreations of the story: Benjamin Britten’s 1973 opera Death in Venice, and Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film Death in Venice. The primary framework used to analyze all three versions of Death in Venice is Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. My thesis is that in each of their versions of Death in Venice, Mann, Britten, and Visconti were exploring health and decadence in the creative impulse. All three men realized the need to find a balance between the rational and the emotional impulses. Borrowing from the ancient Greeks, Nietzsche equates these impulses with the gods Apollo and Dionysus. In Death in Venice Gustav von Aschenbach represents the failure to find the balance between these gods. In their versions of Death in Venice, Mann, Britten, and Visconti each explore the archetypal relationship between Apollo and Dionysus from their own personal perspective and examine the impact of this relationship on the creative impulse.
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