100 Nietzscheished and limited. A feeling of inadequacy was evident in language, but
at the same time, it wove the fabric of society more tighdy together, and
language was undergoing an obvious upsurge in power. Public discourse
had turned ideological, which Nietzsche called the "lunacy of general
terms" (1,455; WB § 5) that grab and push individuals in directions they
were not intending "as though they had arms of ghosts" (1,455; WB §
5). Word and deed may accord, but there is no correspondence of feel-
ing. Nietzsche wrote: "Now, when the music of our German masters
resounds in a humanity that is so severely handicapped, what is actually
resounding? Precisely this true feeling, the enemy of all convention, all
artificial alienation, and incomprehension between one individual and
another: this music is a return to nature, yet at the same time a purifica-
tion and transformation of nature, since the need for this return to
nature arose in the soul of the most loving people, and it is nature trans-
formed into love that we hear in their art" (1,456; WB § 5).
Nietzsche considered this "true feeling" a mythical Dionysian life
force. He expected Wagner's music drama to furnish a Dionysian
reunion in the depths of feeling, a communion through art in the way he
had portrayed Greek tragedy. "The bond between one person and
another is forged once more by the spell of the Dionysian Now...
each person finds himself not only united, reconciled, and blended with
another but altogether fused, as though the veil of maya had been torn
asunder and was only fluttering in shreds before the primordial mysteri-
ous unity" (l,29f.; BT§ 1). Nietzsche experienced Wagner's music drama
as a great Dionysian cosmic game. To bring this experience to the level
of consciousness, he applied his distinction between the Apollonian and
Dionysian to Wagner.
The destinies and characters of individual figures are Apollonian, as
are their speeches, actions, conflicts, and rivalries. The resounding foun-
dation, however, is Dionysian. Although there are variations, which the
Wagnerian technique of leitmotifs explicidy emphasizes, all divergences
sink back into the resounding ocean. Dionysian musical ecstasy melts
away the masks representing specific characters to expose an empathetic