How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The recipient of this smile hurried off with it as if it were a fatal gift. He was so shaken that he felt compelled to flee the light of the terrace and front garden and hastily sought the obscurity of the rear grounds. […]Leaning back, arms dangling, overwhelmed and shuddering repeatedly, he whispered the standard formula of longing—impossible here, absurd, perverse, ridiculous and sacred nonetheless, yes, still venerable even here: "I love you!" (4.20)
Let's talk about Tadzio's "fatal gift." With a single smile, seeming to acknowledge Aschenbach's attention, Aschenbach is thrown into quite a frenzy, which ends with him admitting to himself that he loves Tadzio. In this case, the possibility of Tadzio reciprocating means Aschenbach acknowledges that his desires for Tadzio are sexual, and not just an artist's appreciation for his beautiful form. What might that realization have to do with mortality?
Quote #8
Such was Venice, the wheedling, shady beauty, a city half fairy tale, half tourist trap, in whose foul air the arts had once flourished luxuriantly and which had inspired musicians with undulating, lullingly licentious harmonies. The adventurer felt his eyes drinking in its voluptuousness, his ears being wooed by its melodies; he recalled, too, that the city was diseased and as concealing it out of cupidity, and the look with which he peered out after the gondola floating ahead of him grew more wanton. (5.9)
Death in Venice isn't the best travel guide. In this novella, the city embodies Aschenbach's own decline, appearing on the one hand as a symbol of European civilization, and on the other becoming diseased and trying to conceal it. The city, like Aschenbach, is portrayed as a dying entity.
Quote #9
In the general commotion and confusion he ventured a glance in Tadzio's direction and, as he did so, noticed that when returning the glance the boy was equally grave, as if he were modeling his conduct and facial expression on Aschenbach's and the general mood had no hold upon him because Aschenbach remained aloof from it. There was something at once disarming and overwhelming in this telling, childlike obedience; it was all the elderly man could do to keep from burying his face in his hands. He also had the feeling that Tadzio's tendency to pull himself up and take deep breaths was the sign of a constricted chest. "He is sickly and has probably not long to live," he thought with the objectivity that strangely enough breaks free on occasion from intoxication and longing, and his heart swelled with pure concern and a concomitant profligate satisfaction. (5.28)
Here, we get another reference to Tadzio's mortality. It's interesting to not that Aschenbach's observation of Tadzio's mortality becomes a moment of "objectivity" that "breaks free […] from intoxication." Aschenbach can be objective when it comes to thinking about Tadzio's death, but is it maybe his own death that he's thinking about instead?