Gustav von Aschenbach Timeline and Summary

•  Back
• More 

• Aschenbach goes for a stroll in Munich and encounters an odd-looking fellow in the graveyard, which inspires him to go on a trip.
• After a false start, he decides to go to Venice. On the boat ride there, he runs into an old guy masquerading as young.
• Aschenbach is disappointed by the weather in Venice, but enthralled by the beauty of a young Polish boy, Tadzio.
• He decides to leave Venice when the weather doesn't improve, but his baggage is put onto the wrong train, and he's forced to stay behind. That's no problem, though, because all he can think about is Tadzio.
• Aschenbach stays in Venice for weeks. The weather is picture perfect, and he watches Tadzio on the beach and follows him around Venice.
• On one of his days spent in Venice, Aschenbach notices warnings about hygienic precautions being taken, and smells disinfectant in the air. He tries to find news about what's going on in the newspapers, but can't find anything conclusive.
• Many hotel guests start to leave the hotel, but Tadzio and his family remain.
• Aschenbach sits near Tadzio during a performance involving another pretty strange-seeming dude; when Aschenbach asks him about the precautions being taken in Venice, the man denies that there's anything to worry about.
• Aschenbach visits a British travel agent who tells him the truth: Venice has been hit by cholera.
• Aschenbach decides against informing Tadzio's family.
• That night, he has a pretty wacky (and steamy) dream about a stranger god being worshipped by orgiastic revelers.
• He decides to get himself some new, youthful clothes and visits the barber, who dies his hair and applies makeup to his face to make him appear younger and more attractive to Tadzio.
• While trailing Tadzio and his family through Venice, Aschenbach stops, feeling feverish, and eats some slightly rotten strawberries. The narrator starts quoting Socrates talking to Phaedrus.
• The next day, Aschenbach learns that Tadzio's family is planning to leave Venice; he goes to watch the boy play on the beach one last time.
• After witnessing a fight between Tadzio and one of his friends, Aschenbach watches Tadzio wade into the sea, imagining that the boy is beckoning to him.
• Aschenbach's found dead in his beach chair.