Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Gustav von Aschenbach

Death in Venice revolves around the life and death of Gustav von Aschenbach. In fact, the novella is so totally centered on Aschenbach, it often reads like his biography. (Check out "Point of View" for more.) While there are definitely other figures in Death in Venice, most obviously Tadzio, none comes anywhere close to receiving the same TLC that Aschenbach gets from the narrator. He's not just the novella's main character; he's the novella's only character, the only one who has both a physical exterior and a psychological interior.