SparkNotes: Death in Venice: Review Quiz

On his walk in Munich, Aschenbach passes:

(A) A public library

(B) A bratwurst stand

(C) A stonemasons' yard in which blank gravestones are for sale

(D) An Internet cafe

Aschenbach gets an urge to travel after seeing:

(A) A poster in the window of a travel agency

(B) A strange red-haired man dressed as a tourist

(C) A book about Italy

(D) A movie about Italy

The first "vision" Aschenbach has is a daydream about:

(A) A sultry, grotesquely fertile, tropical swampland

(B) Bathing on the beach with fourteen-year-old boys

(C) A farm in Iowa

(D) His own funeral

Who is the passenger who catches Aschenbach's attention on the boat to Venice?

(A) A polite, slightly plump middle-aged woman

(B) A particularly lewd and rambunctious "young" man who turns out to be wearing a wig and rouge

(C) A red-haired traveling musician

Aschenbach rides in a gondola; what is it likened to?

(A) A coffin

(B) A stagecoach

(C) A cradle

(D) A pomegranate

What happens when Aschenbach disembarks from the gondola?

(A) He loses his balance and falls into the water.

(B) The gondolier snatches his wallet and paddles away.

(C) He has another daydream.

(D) He goes to get change for the fare but finds the gondolier gone; he is told the man has no license and was escaping the police.

Who is with Tadzio when Aschenbach first sees him?

(A) The boy's sisters and governess

(B) The boy's close companion Jashu

(C) Another older man

(D) Secret Security

Why does Aschenbach decide to leave Venice?

(A) He is disgusted by his erotic interest in Tadzio and wants to avoid any further contact.

(B) Venice is not inspiring enough for his work.

(C) He knows the overcast, sultry weather is bad for his frail health.

(D) He is homesick for Munich.

Why does Aschenbach not leave Venice after all?

(A) His luggage is sent on ahead of him but has been misaddressed; he must stay and wait for it to be returned.

(B) The weather clears up.

(C) He oversleeps and misses his train.

(D) He decides to take up a new career as a gondolier.

Aschenbach's first clues that a disease might be spreading in Venice are:

(A) The Italian newspapers' reports tracking the disease

(B) Dead bodies floating in the canals

(C) A dwindling number of tourists and that sweet smell of bactericide

(D) His own death from the cholera

Aschenbach mentally compares Tadzio to all of the following EXCEPT:

(A) Hyacinth

(B) Eros

(C) Narcissus

(D) Socrates

At the concert given by street musicians at the hotel, Aschenbach's attention is particularly occupied by:

(A) The red-haired guitarist

(B) The buxom blonde tuba player

(C) The organ grinder's monkey

(D) The lovely sunset over the lagoon

At the concert, Aschenbach drinks:

(A) Strawberry juice

(B) Pomegranate juice and soda

(C) A good German beer

(D) A cappuccino

Who tells Aschenbach the truth about the cholera?

(A) Tadzio

(B) A gondolier

(C) The hotel barber

(D) A British clerk at a travel agency

What figures appear to Aschenbach in his second vision of the novella?

(A) Orgiastic worshippers of a "stranger-god"

(B) Tadzio's family

(C) Pink elephants

(D) Strange red-haired men

How does Aschenbach change his appearance?

(A) He shaves his head and wears an aviator cap.

(B) He dyes his hair, wears make-up, and dresses elaborately.

(C) He pierces his nose and begins wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.

(D) He goes on a diet.

Why does Aschenbach alter his appearance in this way?

(A) He thinks his eighty-year-old parents back in Munich could use a good shock.

(B) He has begun to sense that Tadzio's governess is keeping the boy away from him, and he wants to disguise himself so that he can continue to watch the boy.

(C) The hotel barber convinces him that cosmetics actually present a more "truthful" picture of one's inner self if one still feels young on the inside.

(D) He is bored.

Who tries to suffocate Tadzio in the sand?

(A) Aschenbach

(B) Tadzio's sister

(C) A strange red-haired man

(D) Tadzio's playmate Jashu

What is the last image of Tadzio that Aschenbach sees?

(A) Tadzio sitting with his family

(B) Tadzio pointing outward and beckoning

(C) Tadzio lying and gasping in the sand

(D) Tadzio eating strawberries

What does Aschenbach die of?

(A) Malaria

(B) A broken heart

(C) Cholera

(D) Writer's block