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| Alexey Venetsianov : Viaticum |
The cousins make a short walk up the hill and take a rest on a bench.
1. Bildung
Hans is still not his
usual self. His beloved Maria’s do no taste as they should. Joachim conforts
Hans that he will get used to the life “up here”
3. Death
“illness and death” are
no serious matter up here
“They deal with the
death quite discreetly…” Hans starts to wonder about dying.
Joachim recounts the
Hujus girl story: the misery and terror of dying. The young girl sees the
approaching priest who is going to administer her the viaticum as a
personification of death and is terrified.
Hans finds that there is
something respectable in someone dying and that the moribund deserves respect.
Joachim and Behrens
find that there is a certain way one should behave when dying.
6. Note
Joachim’s coughing and
the fact that the stroll in the meadow is taxing for him reminds us that he is
very ill.
Hermine Kleefeld
whistles at the boys with her pneumothorax.
The Half lung club :
Kleefeld, Levi, Iltis
Viaticum, sacrament for
the dying
