ve no idea what crime he committed and in many ways does not seem surprised that he is being punished in spite of that fact. Man's position in this world is always to be the transgressor against some higher power he or she never really knows or understands.
Thomas Mann places the emphasis on death in "Death in Venice," and when thoughts of death intrude, the issue of the meaning of life in the face of death becomes more vital. Camus and other existentialists emphasized that man was absurd precisely because he was to die--life had no meaning because it came to an end. Aschenbach is both an artist and a man about to die. As an artist, he has perhaps heightened senses and a stronger perception of the details of the world around him. As a man about to die, he sees the order of this world and of his life disintegrating before his eyes, slipping away into nothin
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