On Love and Death

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First edition (publ. Diogenes) OnLoveAndDeath.jpg
First edition (publ. Diogenes)

On Love and Death is an essay written by Patrick Süskind concerning the connection between "the two elemental forces of human existence."

Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter, known best for his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, first published in 1985.

Contents

Summary

Süskind begins by describing differing views of love, and then elaborates using a combination of personal anecdotes, brief biographies of historical figures such as Heinrich von Kleist, and mythological stories of love. The first example involves Süskind bearing witness to a couple having oral sex during a traffic jam. The second example centers around a dinner party attended by Süskind, during which a couple fawn over each other and ignore the rest of the dinner guests. The third example is an account of the German writer Thomas Mann and his infatuation with a young waiter named Franzl. Süskind then analyzes these examples in terms of Plato's philosophy. The first example is used to illustrate "animal love", the second used to illustrate "delusion" or "frenzy", and the third used to illustrate ideal, "Platonic love."

Heinrich von Kleist German poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer

Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, The Broken Jug, Amphitryon, Penthesilea and the novellas Michael Kohlhaas and The Marquise of O. Kleist committed suicide together with a close female friend who was terminally ill.

Thomas Mann German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

Paul Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer.

Süskind then proceeds to relate love and death. Kleist and Goethe occupy this section of the essays. Both Kleist and Goethe harbored suicidal thoughts stemming from their respective love lives. Süskind uses these stories as well as brief references to Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde to illustrate a central theme of the essays: an "erotic longing for death."

<i>Tristan und Isolde</i> opera by Richard Wagner

Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90, is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting. Wagner referred to the work not as an opera, but called it "eine Handlung", which was the equivalent of the term used by the Spanish playwright Calderón for his dramas.

The final section of the essays is devoted to a comparison of two mythological accounts of love: the stories of Orpheus and Jesus Christ. Süskind likens the two figures to each other in that both ventured into the realm of death because of their love; however, Süskind is critical of Jesus for his almost political motives and his "distance and inhumanity", in the sense that he was completely immune to the frenzy of love. He praises Orpheus for his courage and selflessness. While Jesus could count on divine assistance, asserts Süskind, Orpheus ventured into Hades with only his prodigious skill as a musician and his desire to reclaim his beloved Eurydice. In addition, Süskind states that the story of Orpheus is more moving to readers because it is a story of failure. Whereas Jesus is "only a god", Orpheus is "a more complete human being."

Orpheus legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek mythology

Orpheus is a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. Some ancient Greek sources note Orpheus' Thracian origins. According to Tzeztes, his home was the Odrysian city of Bisaltia. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.

Eurydice oak nymph, or one of the daughters of Apollo

In Greek mythology, Eurydice was an oak nymph and one of the daughters of Apollo. She was the wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music.

Works referenced in the essays

Phædo or Phaedo, also known to ancient readers as On The Soul, is one of the best-known dialogues of Plato's middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium. The philosophical subject of the dialogue is the immortality of the soul. It is set in the last hours prior to the death of Socrates, and is Plato's fourth and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days, following Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito.

Symposium

In ancient Greece, the symposium was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, or conversation. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara. Symposia are depicted in Greek and Etruscan art that shows similar scenes.

Amphitryon Figure in Greek mythology, husband of Alcmene

Amphitryon, in Greek mythology, was a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in Argolis. His mother was named either Astydameia, the daughter of Pelops and Hippodamia, or Laonome, daughter of Guneus, or else Hipponome, daughter of Menoeceus. Amphitryon was the brother of Anaxo, wife of Electryon and Perimede, wife of Licymnius.

Related Research Articles

Richard Wagner German composer

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

<i>Orpheus</i> (film) 1950 film by Jean Cocteau

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Hermann and Dorothea is an epic poem, an idyll, written by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe between 1796 and 1797, and was to some extent suggested by Johann Heinrich Voss's Luise, an idyll in hexameters, which was first published in 1782-84. Goethe's work is set around 1792 at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars, when French forces under General Custine invaded and briefly occupied parts of the Palatinate. The hexameters of the nine cantos are at times irregular.

Gottfried von Strassburg medieval German poet

Gottfried von Strassburg is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan, an adaptation of the 12th-century Tristan and Iseult legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside the Nibelungenlied and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, as one of the great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages. He is probably also the composer of a small number of surviving lyrics. His work became a source of inspiration for Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde (1865).

Iseult lover of Tristan in the Arthurian legend

Iseult, alternatively Isolde, Yseult, Ysolt, Isode, Isoude, Iseut, Isaut, Iosóid (Irish), Esyllt (Welsh), Isolda (Spanish), Isotta (Italian), is the name of several characters in the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The most prominent is Iseult of Ireland, wife of Mark of Cornwall and lover of Tristan. Her mother, the Queen of Ireland, is also named Iseult. The third is Iseult of the White Hands, the daughter of Hoel of Brittany, sister of Kahedin, and eventual wife of Tristan.

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Tristan and Iseult medieval romance

Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance story, retold in numerous sources with as many variations since the 12th century. The story is a tragedy about the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult. The narrative predates and most likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, and has had a substantial impact on Western art and literature. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall plot structure remains much the same.

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References

Süskind, Patrick On Love and Death, The Rookery Press, Tracy Carns Ltd. New York, New York, 2006