How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Preoccupied with the tasks imposed upon him by his ego and the European psyche, overburdened by the obligation to produce, averse to diversion, and no lover of the external world and its variety, he was quite content with the view of the earth's surface that anyone can gain without stirring far from home, and never so much as tempted to venture beyond Europe. Especially now that his life was on the decline and his fear of failing to achieve his artistic goals—the concern that his time might run out before he had accomplished what he needed to accomplish and given fully of himself—could no longer be dismissed as a caprice, he had confined his external existence almost exclusively to the beautiful city that had become his home and the rustic cottage he had built for himself in the mountains and where he spent the rainy summers. (1.7)
Does Aschenbach have a midlife crisis or what? One of Aschenbach's motivations for wanting to escape to Venice is his experience of writers' block. But there's more to it than that, and this passage makes clear that Aschenbach's change, from never even feeling "tempted to venture beyond Europe" to longing for the exotic, has something to do with the realization of his own mortality—his fear, "that his life was on the decline and his fear of failing to achieve his artistic goals." What else is writer's block than the death of writing?
Quote #2
There was nothing stirring behind the stonemasons' fences, where crosses, headstones, and monuments for sale formed a second, uninhabited graveyard, and the mortuary's Byzantine structure opposite stood silent in the glow of the waning day. Its façade, decorated with Greek crosses and brightly hued hieratic patterns, also displayed a selection of symmetrically arranged gilt-lettered inscriptions concerning the afterlife, such as "They Enter into the Dwelling Place of the Lord" or May the Light Everlasting Shine upon Them," and reading the formulas, letting his mind's eye lose itself in the mysticism emanating from them, served to distract the waiting man for several minutes until, resurfacing from his reveries, he noticed a figure in the portico above the two apocalyptic beasts guarding the staircase, and something slight out of the ordinary in the figure's appearance gave his thoughts an entirely new turn. (1.3)
Remember this guy Aschenbach meets in the graveyard? Well, suffice it to say that encountering this strange-looking fellow is what inspires Aschenbach to travel. Of course, it's also significant that he meets this guy in a graveyard, with "Greek crosses" (foreshadowing later references to ancient Greece) and various Christian inscriptions about death. Mortality is there from the very beginning.
Quote #3
His motto was Durchhalten, "Persevere," and he regarded his Frederick-the-Great novel as nothing short of the apotheosis of this command, which he considered the essence of a cardinal virtue: action in the face of suffering. Then, too, he ardently desired to live to old age, for he had always believed that the only artistic gift that can be called truly great, all-encompassing, and, yes, truly praiseworthy is one that has been vouchsafed productivity at all stages of human existence. (2.4)
When it comes to writing, we already know that Aschenbach is one tough cookie. At the beginning of Death in Venice, his life is defined by a philosophy of perseverance, which informs his understanding of writing as a kind of heroic duty. But even this "action in the face of suffering" has something to do with a fear of death—his "ardent desire to live to old age" seems to mask his fear of losing his artistic productivity.