Black Lives Matter.
Support the Equal Justice Initiative.
Menu
Shakespeare
Literature
Other Subjects
Blog
Log In
Help
Artboard
Created with Sketch.
Resubscribe
Perform Search
Shakespeare
Literature
Other Subjects
Blog
Log In
Help
! Error
Created with Sketch.
Death in Venice
Thomas Mann
Study Guide
Summary
Plot Overview
Summary & Analysis
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3a
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5a
Chapter 5b
Chapter 5c
Analysis
Characters
Further Study
Context
Full Book Quiz
Section Quizzes
Context
Summary
Characters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3a
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5a
Chapter 5b
Chapter 5c
Study Questions
Further Reading
Writing Help
How to Write Literary Analysis
Suggested Essay Topics
How to Cite This SparkNote
Further Study
Full Book Quiz
Further Study
Full Book Quiz
This page requires JavaScript
, which you don't seem to have. Please try a different browser.
1. On his walk in Munich, Aschenbach passes:
A public library
A bratwurst stand
A stonemasons' yard in which blank gravestones are for sale
An Internet cafe
2. Aschenbach gets an urge to travel after seeing:
A poster in the window of a travel agency
A strange red-haired man dressed as a tourist
A book about Italy
A movie about Italy
3. The first "vision" Aschenbach has is a daydream about:
A sultry, grotesquely fertile, tropical swampland
Bathing on the beach with fourteen-year-old boys
A farm in Iowa
His own funeral
4. Who is the passenger who catches Aschenbach's attention on the boat to Venice?
A polite, slightly plump middle-aged woman
A particularly lewd and rambunctious "young" man who turns out to be wearing a wig and rouge
A red-haired traveling musician
5. Aschenbach rides in a gondola; what is it likened to?
A coffin
A stagecoach
A cradle
A pomegranate
6. What happens when Aschenbach disembarks from the gondola?
He loses his balance and falls into the water.
The gondolier snatches his wallet and paddles away.
He has another daydream.
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.
7. Who is with Tadzio when Aschenbach first sees him?
The boy's sisters and governess
The boy's close companion Jashu
Another older man
Secret Security
8. Why does Aschenbach decide to leave Venice?
He is disgusted by his erotic interest in Tadzio and wants to avoid any further contact.
Venice is not inspiring enough for his work.
He knows the overcast, sultry weather is bad for his frail health.
He is homesick for Munich.
9. Why does Aschenbach not leave Venice after all?
His luggage is sent on ahead of him but has been misaddressed; he must stay and wait for it to be returned.
The weather clears up.
He oversleeps and misses his train.
He decides to take up a new career as a gondolier.
10. Aschenbach's first clues that a disease might be spreading in Venice are:
The Italian newspapers' reports tracking the disease
Dead bodies floating in the canals
A dwindling number of tourists and that sweet smell of bactericide
His own death from the cholera
11. Aschenbach mentally compares Tadzio to all of the following EXCEPT:
Hyacinth
Eros
Narcissus
Socrates
12. At the concert given by street musicians at the hotel, Aschenbach's attention is particularly occupied by:
The red-haired guitarist
The buxom blonde tuba player
The organ grinder's monkey
The lovely sunset over the lagoon
13. At the concert, Aschenbach drinks:
Strawberry juice
Pomegranate juice and soda
A good German beer
A cappuccino
14. Who tells Aschenbach the truth about the cholera?
Tadzio
A gondolier
The hotel barber
A British clerk at a travel agency
15. What figures appear to Aschenbach in his second vision of the novella?
Orgiastic worshippers of a "stranger-god"
Tadzio's family
Pink elephants
Strange red-haired men
16. How does Aschenbach change his appearance?
He shaves his head and wears an aviator cap.
He dyes his hair, wears make-up, and dresses elaborately.
He pierces his nose and begins wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.
He goes on a diet.
17. Why does Aschenbach alter his appearance in this way?
He thinks his eighty-year-old parents back in Munich could use a good shock.
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.
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.
He is bored.
18. Who tries to suffocate Tadzio in the sand?
Aschenbach
Tadzio's sister
A strange red-haired man
Tadzio's playmate Jashu
19. What is the last image of Tadzio that Aschenbach sees?
Tadzio sitting with his family
Tadzio pointing outward and beckoning
Tadzio lying and gasping in the sand
Tadzio eating strawberries
20. What does Aschenbach die of?
Malaria
A broken heart
Cholera
Writer's block
Previous section
Context
Next section
Context Quick Quiz
Popular pages:
Death in Venice
Characters
CHARACTERS
Take a Study Break
Every Shakespeare Play Summed Up in a Quote from
The Office
Every Book on Your English Syllabus, Summed Up in Marvel Quotes
Pick a Greek God and We'll Tell You Your Biggest Flaw
If Fictional Characters Had Tinder
20 Literary Twitter Memes You'll Only Understand if You've Read the Book
Pick 7 Movies and We'll Tell You What Book You Should Read While You're Social Distancing
5 Disturbing Details You Never Noticed in Classic Novels
