32 pages • 1 hour read
Friedrich NietzscheThe Birth of Tragedy
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1872A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 16-25 Summary
Nietzsche argues that the defining conflict of the day is that between “insatiable optimistic knowledge” and “the tragic need for art” (76). Only the future will decide which principle will win out, but there are signs on the horizon of a revival of the tragic spirit among people who have realized the limitations of the scientific worldview.
Nietzsche consolidates some of the ideas he has explored up to now. In addition to the Apolline/Dionysiac divide, he posits one between the “plastic” arts (e.g., sculpture and painting) and music, which is superior because it is “the immediate language of the will” (79). The plastic arts, by contrast, thrive on the healing power of illusion because they depict natural phenomena, and thus they are inherently Apolline in nature. Music alone can convey tragedy and the Dionysiac because it points to an eternal, collective life beyond this life; it is thus the ideal means for depicting the destruction of the noble individual, which is the essence of tragedy.
The problem with music in contemporary times is that it is too often degraded to the level of depicting emotions and natural phenomena, a role shared by the plastic arts. This is what happened to music with the invention of opera, which was created by amateurs who did not truly understand the power of music but thought of it as subservient to words. Instead of using music to express the ineffable universal will, opera composers used it to depict the meaning of the text, which Nietzsche sees as inherently superficial.
Furthermore, the inventors of opera, inspired by the optimistic spirit of Renaissance humanism, labored under the delusion that man in his “natural” state expressed himself in song; thus, it follows that all human beings are naturally artists and what they have to express is worth listening to. For Nietzsche, this is essentially an idealistic fantasy that has no basis in reality. Essentially, opera for Nietzsche is an expression of a Socratic rationalistic spirit, and as such is opposed to the Dionysiac and tragic spirit.
Richard Wager, inspired by philosophers like Kant and Schopenhauer, is trying to free opera and music from these traditional limitations and misunderstandings. He is using his operatic music to express the tragic ethos in Germanic myths. This revolution has great significance for the future of art, thought, and politics, and most especially for the German-speaking world. In order to transform their culture, Germans need to free themselves from the influence of Romance-speaking cultures and instead learn from the example of the ancient Greeks by returning to their own Germanic myths and legends—an area in which Wagner is leading the way—just as the Greeks used their myths to create great tragedies.
According to Nietzsche, modern humans need to wake up and recognize the limitations of reason and science. Otherwise, disastrous consequences may follow. When the earthly utopia promised by science does not come about, people will be disappointed and social anarchy may follow. In addition, culture will cease to be a living force and will become merely an academic pursuit of collecting and studying the works of the past.
Only by rediscovering the tragic basis of reality and the concomitant need for the healing power of art can humanity find wholeness and cultural vitality again. Uncovering the power of mythology will allow us to find the cultural roots that we need for nourishment and which science cannot provide. Nietzsche stresses that in order to appreciate Wagnerian music properly, we must become “aesthetic listeners”—the type of listeners who understand music as an expression of the tragic essence of life, not as fodder for academic criticism or moral lessons.
Chapters 16-25 Analysis
The third group of chapters describes a possible “rebirth” of tragedy in modern times, reflecting The Redemptive Power of Art. From the start, Nietzsche sharpens the central conflict: It is a war being fought between “insatiable optimistic knowledge” and “the tragic need for art” (76), a battle waged for the soul of German (and European) culture. Nietzsche’s rhetoric is at its most strenuous in this section as he urges readers to embrace the tragic spirit and change the future of Western civilization. In contrast to many philosophers, Nietzsche grants art (rather than, say, politics) the main role in shaping the future.
The particular art form that will achieve this is opera (or “music drama”) as practiced by Richard Wagner. Somewhat paradoxically, Nietzsche exalts Wagnerian opera while at the same time deprecating opera in general as contrary to the true mythic/tragic spirit. He argues that the deficiency of much of opera lies in its origins with the optimistic tradition of humanist Renaissance rationalism. Wagner, by contrast, is using opera to revive the spirit of the original Greek tragedy which emphasized fate and the dark, Dionysiac forces of reality. Wagner’s significance, for Nietzsche, is that he is recreating the tragic spirit in his art and harnessing The Primordial Power of Music, and that he is doing so as a specifically German artist. Nietzsche thus addresses the text specifically to his fellow countrymen in the hopes of keeping alive Germany’s cultural greatness.
Nietzsche’s cultural rhetoric includes a marked ethnic element: He distinguishes between the “Aryan” cultural heritage and other cultural traditions, including the “Semitic.” These terms were used by anthropologists before Nietzsche, and would be taken up again in the 20th century by theorists advocating white or “Nordic” racial superiority, including the Nazis. However, Nietzsche himself was later strongly opposed to extreme nationalism and to the antisemitism espoused by Wagner and others. Nietzsche’s admiration for Wagner would later drastically cool, and the two men parted ways. In his later writings, Nietzsche would not engage in the pro-German cultural rhetoric prevalent in The Spirit of Tragedy, in which he urges Germans to free themselves from the influence of foreign cultures, whom he characterizes as “wicked dwarves” (116).
In warning that human society will eventually be disappointed when science reaches its limits, Nietszche once more emphasizes Reason as Decline, Not Progress. Nietszche even suggests that societal anarchy could result, which implies that the irrational Dionysian forces in art help to combat the more dangerous anarchic forces that could destroy society if humans do not have a more productive outlet for their inherent irrationality.
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