Research Paper on:
The Theme of Alienation in Death In Venice and Notes From The Underground

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Thomas Manns Death in Venice and Fyodor Dostoyevskys Notes From the Underground, one can decipher several elements of social, political and economic alienation that serve to cause considerable strife in  the characters existence. Death is the recurring theme of alienation in Manns Death in Venice, a theme so forceful and perceptive that the  reader goes away with a distinctly different impression from of ones focus of self-awareness and wholeness. Sometimes that understanding is a sense of calm and tranquillity -- almost an  unrealistic fantasy; other times the sensation is decidedly more abrupt and disconcerting. Nevertheless, the author is effective in his pursuit to present death as considerably more than a mere  state of being; rather, Mann digs significantly deeper into the perplexity of the human psyche to reveal the emotional complications of death as it relates to alienation. "A solitary,  unused to speaking of what he sees and feels, has mental experiences which are at once more intense and less articulate than those of a gregarious man. They are  sluggish, yet more wayward, and never without a melancholy tinge. Sights and impressions which others brush aside with a glance, a light comment, a smile, occupy him more than  their due; they sink silently in, they take on meaning, they become experience, emotion, adventure" (Mann PG). Manns Death in Venice taps into the consequences -- or aftermath --  that war brings with it. For the soldiers, those consequences are not always indicative of the negative connotation often associated with death, but rather the author focuses in on  the beneficial aspects that comes with the threat of impending death. In the above passage, Mann is acknowledging the fact that everything becomes more intensified and carries more weight