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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the weather on this first day in the novella?

2. On his walk, what does Aschenbach pass?

3. Why does Aschenbach look at the world differently?

4. Approximately how old is Aschenbach?

5. What is Aschenbach's father's profession?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Aschenbach pride himself on?

2. What was suspicious about the gondolier? Why does he run away?

3. What are some of the main tones and themes of Part One?

4. Why does Aschenbach decide to go to Venice?

5. How does the gondola play into the series of deathlike images and foreshadowing?

6. How is the first victim of the sickness relevant to Aschenbach?

7. What does Aschenbach believe is heroic? How does this aid his writing?

8. Why does Aschenbach think he hesitated to approach Tadzio?

9. What about the Polish family in the hotel catches Aschenbach's eye?

10. When Aschenbach sees the Polish boy in the hotel, what does he compare him to? Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are the similarities between Aschenbach and Tadzio? Why is he pleased with this unlikely resemblance? What about this relationship wears down Aschenbach's self-esteem, yet builds up his self-importance?

Essay Topic 2

The beginning of "Death In Venice" is full of foreshadowing.

1) Highlight points in the book where Mann and the narrator make abstract foreshadowing.

2) Highlight points in the book where you feel the outcome is predictable, given the concreteness the narrator or Mann has given the reader.

3) Highlight points where the course of the book changes, and what the narrator and Mann had established seem to veer from the reader's predictions.

4) To what point does this predictability work towards?

Essay Topic 3

Aschenbach has a complex relationship with "youth" in "Death In Venice."

1) What is Aschenbach's relationship to youth early in the book?

2) How does Aschenbach run parallel to youth throughout the book?

3) How do Aschenbach and youth intersect in "Death In Venice?"

4) How does death play a role in Aschenbach's relationship to youth?

(see the answer keys)

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