Previous
British psychologists
Wagner is a German operatic composer; he’s Nietzsche’s former friend but current enemy. Nietzsche thinks that Wagner used to be a good artist but became seduced by Christianity in later life, which ruined his art. To Nietzsche, Wagner’s earlier operas (like Luther’s Wedding) were bold, creative, complex, and interesting. Nietzsche thinks Wagner’s later operas (like Parsifal) become shallow vehicles for moral posturing, which makes them both bad and culturally damaging.
Richard Wagner Quotes in On the Genealogy of Morals
The On the Genealogy of Morals quotes below are all either spoken by Richard Wagner or refer to Richard Wagner . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
What Do Ascetic Ideals Mean? Quotes
What is the meaning of ascetic ideals?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Nietzsche opens his third and final essay with the question he’s going to answer throughout the remainder of the book. As he indicates in framing his question, he’s focusing on “ascetic ideals”: values that advocate maintaining distance from emotional, bodily, and materialistic urges. Nietzsche’s concern isn’t so much with what ascetic ideals are, but what they mean for a culture. Nietzsche aims to show that the ascetic ideal—the idea that distancing oneself from everyday life is meaningful—is pervasive in European culture and that its impact is disastrous for humanity. He’s going to show—by looking at intellectual figures like Wagner, Kant, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusan
At any rate, this should be the case with all mortals who are sound in mind and body, who are far from regarding their delicate balance between ‘animal’ and ‘angel’ as necessarily an objection to existence—the brightest and most insightful of them, such as Goethe and Hafiz, have even seen in this another of life's charms. Such ‘conflicts’ actually make life all the more enticing.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Nietzsche begins his survey of European culture in his time by looking at Wagner’s operas. Although Wagner and Nietzsche were close friends for much of Nietzsche’s life, they’d fallen out by the time Nietzsche writes On the Genealogy of Morality, partly because Nietzsche grew skeptical about Wagner’s evolving approach to his compositions. Here, Nietzsche writes that Wagner’s turn to religion makes his art much more reductive, which reduces its quality. Nietzsche thinks that Wagner’s earlier work (such as Luther’s Wedding) is more sophisticated: it plays with the tension between sensual urges and spiritual ones—or the “animal” and the “angel” in Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint ape
He suddenly realized that more could be effected by the novelty of the Schopenhauerian […] notion of the sovereignty of music, as Schopenhauer understood it; music set apart from and distinguished from all the other arts, music as the independent art-in-itself, not like the other arts, affording images of the phenomenal world, but rather speaking the language of the will itself, straight out of the ‘abyss,’ as its most personal, original and direct manifestation.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Nietzsche is discussing operatic composer Wagner’s turn to religious themes in Wagner’s later operas like Parsifal. Nietzsche thinks that Wagner is influenced by the philosopher Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche outlines Schopenhauer’s theory about music in this quote. Schopenhauer believes that the world is divided into to two domains. First, there is the “phenomenal” world—which is the world as people see it. Schopenhauer thinks that all reality and existence, however, are underscored by a universal, relentless, perpetual, exhausting striving that he calls the “Will.” The will is a metaphysical phenomenon: it can’t be seen, but it’s there, driving everything and giving shape Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error
Get the entire On the Genealogy of Morals LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Richard Wagner Character Timeline in On the Genealogy of Morals
The timeline below shows where the character Richard Wagner appears in On the Genealogy of Morals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Third Essay: What Do Ascetic Ideals Mean?
2. Nietzsche looks at the operatic composer Richard Wagner, who celebrates “chastity” in his later operas. Wagner depicts “chastity” and “sensuality” as opposites—meaning that...
(full context)
3. Nietzsche berates another of Wagner’s operatic characters in the opera Parsifal. This time, Nietzsche’s target is Parsifal, a simple country...
(full context)
...the artist to disappear so that the work can come alive in its own right. Wagner, however, turns his art into a reflection of his own beliefs—specifically, his turn to chastity...
(full context)
...just reflecting the views of society, their patrons, or a particular philosophy. Nietzsche thinks that Wagner was seduced by Schopenhauer’s philosophical ideas about music. Wagner used to think of music as...
(full context)
...to moral posturing. Germans are numbed because they feel superior and listen to too much Wagner. Nietzsche thinks that everywhere in Europe, all he smells is bad air.
(full context)
