ABSTRACT
Thomas Mann's early childhood seems to have been influenced mainly by women. As the family was well-to-do, summers were spent on the shores of the Baltic. Death in Venice was written in such a period of stress, and it is the aim of this essay to try to trace in part how the author's emerging profound conflicts were sublimated in the creation of an artistic masterpiece. Gustav Aschenbach is at first not aware of the impression which Tadzio has made on him. Preconscious signals of anxiety, however, follow directly. He feels tired, has "lively dreams" during the following night, and is, in general, "out of sorts." Of greater importance was probably the concurrent illness of Mann's wife, which may have forced the author into closer affectionate ties with his young children. In a letter written by Freud to Theodor Reik, Freud alludes to Mahler's withdrawing of libido from his wife and to Mahler's "obsessional neurosis.".
