The novel "Mario and the magician: a tragic travel experience" (1930) by Thomas Mann was generally accepted by critics as a narrative with an eminently political and anti-fascist bias. Read against the backdrop of "Death in Venice," it has also been considered an example of homoerotic literature. Here, we seek to overcome the impasses of biased and conflicting interpretations. It proposes a reading that contemplates the ethical tension between manipulation and resistance as the generator of the soap opera's deep conflict.