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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—The Boy with a Thorn :
Mann alludes to the famous Boy with a Thorn statue (sometimes also referred to as Spinario or Fedele) in a pivotal scene in which Aschenbach first observes Tadzio and his family at the hotel:
Softness and tenderness obviously presided over his existence. They had refrained from subjecting his beautiful hair to the shears; like that of the Boy with a Thorn, it curled over his forehead and ears and was even longer at the back of his neck. The laces, bows and embroidery on his English sailor suit, with its puffy sleeves that narrowed below and closed tightly around the delicate wrists of his still childlike but slim hands, gave his delicate figure a rich and pampered appearance. He sat in semiprofile opposite his observer, one foot, shod in black patent leather, placed in front of the other [...]
While Tadzio's sisters wear severe and modest outfits that Aschenbach thinks of as nun-like, Tadzio is allowed to dress in a more free and comfortable fashion, and his hair has been left quite long. As he stares at the boy, whom he feels has been raised in an environment of "softness and tenderness," Aschenbach thinks of the "Boy with a Thorn," a Greco-Roman (or Hellenistic) bronze sculpture that has been copied many times since antiquity. The statue, depicting a nude male youth with shoulder-length curling hair who attempts to remove a thorn from his foot, reflects classical beauty ideals and was also celebrated by neoclassical art historians and artists in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Mann's allusion to the sculpture highlights Aschenbach's tendency to view the world, and Tadzio in particular, through the lens of art. Throughout the novel, Aschenbach continues to compare Tadzio to various works of art and mythological figures associated with Ancient Greece, reflecting his inability to confront life directly.
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