Carrying through

“Carrying through” is Gustav von Aschenbach’s favored expression for the sustained exertion that binds artistic work to moral purpose. It names not a single achievement but the determination to persist, and his own career and hopes for old age give that ideal its particular weight.

Meaning and Artistic Ideal

Aschenbach regards “carrying through” as the essential concept of the virtuous in action and passion. In his novel on Frederick, he sees its pure apotheosis: the ideal receives artistic form through a work that exalts persistence. The expression thus joins conduct and creation, making endurance both an ethical commitment and a principle of artistic construction.

The Principle Against Physical Frailty

The ideal arises in tension with Aschenbach’s bodily circumstances. Ill health kept him from attending school as a boy, so he was instructed at home; he grew up without companions and came to understand that his kind often lacked not talent but the physical foundation needed to sustain it. This vulnerability makes persistence more than an abstract virtue: it is the answer he embraces to the risk that a person may give his best early and fail to extend his powers across the years.

Time, Discipline, and the Work of a Lifetime

Aschenbach earnestly wishes to grow old because he believes the greatest and most comprehensive artistry is permitted to bear fruit characteristic of each stage of human development. “Carrying through” therefore reaches beyond completing an individual work. It implies sustaining artistic capacity over time, allowing it to change and mature rather than exhausting it in an early burst. The phrase condenses his aspiration to make endurance the condition of a lifetime’s art.