Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
The Erotic Utopia
Tristan und Isolde (1857-59) put this revolutionary optimism of the Ring into question. Prompted in part by his disillusionment with the failed revolution and in part by his enthusiastic reading of Schopenhauer, Wagner now realized that the erotic love that was supposed to provide the foundations of the new post-revolutionary society was singularly unsuited for this role. Eros turned out to be a cruel deity inexorably driving its devotees to transcend the finite daily realm of customary social rights and obligations and ecstatically enter the infinite metaphysical night of nothingness.
Keywords: Eros, irrationalism, nothingness, Arthur Schopenhauer, Tristan und Isolde, Richard Wagner, will
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