This depiction of Aschenbach's state of mind can be interpreted as being one way in which Mann suggests his character's definite detachment from the real world. Psychology studies can easily motivate the role a state of crisis plays in taking abrupt and drastic decisions. It most often leads the individual to engage in desperate gestures and irrational actions. Similarly, Aschenbach can no longer control his urges to see Tadzio and to be around him, even if there would be no actual contact.

The double side of his nature, that which had been denied for so long under the pressures of his German social environment cannot be repressed and the sight of an imminent death makes his actions to be even more uncalculated. Thus, "his head and his heart were drunk, and his steps followed the dictates of that dark god whose pleasure it is to trample man's reason and dignity...
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