Apollonian and Dionysian

There is no point is stating Nietzsche’s genius, most would agree that he had some amazing things to say, even if they do not agree. I find myself agreeing with many things that he says, specifically how he breaks down, or creates a different way to look at what theater does to us and for us.

He compares aspects of theater in his essay The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music utilizing the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. First he describes the Apollonian aspect as being the tangible part of theater, the stage, the construct of the play itself, separation of the audience as is like physical art forms that Apollo was responsible for, like sculpture, paintings and such.

Then there is the Dionysian aspect which occupies the art world within the mind in the states of dreams and drunkenness.

A representation of Dreams

While separate and unrelated to theater it means nothing. But when compared to each other and then the audience it is neat to see the whole picture. The audience is put into a kind of emotional frenzy when there is action on stage, specifically anything tragic. Then in the Greek tradition the Chorus would end the play explaining why things happened the way that they did. This serves as a way to calm the audience down from say a murder, suicide so that thought can take place to possibly see the why and the how’s. The emotion would be the Dionysian and the chorus and the medium of theater would be Apollonian. Both of these seem to work in opposition, and in many ways they do, but only on the surface. This tug of war between pathos and logos, or emotion and rational thought give the audience a unique full experience. The emotional side provides the shock and jarring experience that many enjoy when they see a production, then the very structure and idea of that structure allow for that emotion to be contained and visited in a controlled manner by the viewer; allowing for them to visit aspects of a production in a controlled manner at their leisure. Like I said before I like this perspective, primarily because I never saw these aspects of theater. Now that I do, I feel as though I gain much more from the whole experience.