In the climactic scene, Aschenbach sees Tadzio being beaten up on the beach by an older boy, and at that very moment--heightened by the crescendo in Mahler's "Adagietto"--he dies from the cholera infection.
In the climactic scene, Aschenbach sees Tadzio being beaten up on the beach by an older boy. Aschenbach too, stretches his hand as if to reach Tadzio, and at that very moment--heightened by the crescendo in Mahler's "Adagietto"--he dies from the cholera infection.