Thread: Tristan's love potion

Love is a decision-making process. One does not love without making the critical decision at the opportune time. In the case of "Tristan und Isolde", the love potion represents this decision both lovers have to make. It might even represent the marriage that was never meant to happen.
However, Wagner's music is so transcendental that such a fuss about the potion can only distract rather than helping us to indulge in this immense Gesamtwerk and in this superb and complex music, in particular.

Principe

Originally Posted by mamascarlatti

Read this and you can see it lots:

Really?? Damn! I was sure it was an opera board neologism.

Originally Posted by guythegreg

Really?? Damn! I was sure it was an opera board neologism.

Nope. A very common drink in the Hitchhiker universe.

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, the effect of which is like having your brains smashed out with a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

Originally Posted by Aksel

Nope. A very common drink in the Hitchhiker universe.

Thanks for the explanation. A condition all opera lovers secretly aspire to!

Originally Posted by guythegreg

Thanks for the explanation. A condition all opera lovers secretly aspire to!

Although I think it could (and should) be used to great effect on opera boards.

Who loves the duet after they take the potion? God that is sublime and wayyy too short. Bad Wagner not being long-winded enough.

It's a good scene though.

Men: Hail King Marke!

Brangane: Oh **** oh **** oh ****!

Tristan & Isolde: And not a single **** was given.

Men: Hail King Marke!

Originally Posted by Glissando

Tristan went to get Isolde for King Mark for a couple of reasons. One is that people around King Mark were beginning to feel suspicion of Tristan, since Tristan was the next in succession to Mark's throne. This suspicion was fostered by Melot, who was scheming to become next in line himself. Tristan wanted to prove that his friendship for Mark was untainted by any such self-interest, so he convinced Mark that he should marry Isolde, who would then become next in line to succeed to the throne. Tristan was then planning to go away and never be around Cornwall again. This knightly notion of self-sacrifice for the ideal of honor can also be seen in the fact that Tristan was willing to kill himself by drinking the poison after Isolde accused him of dealing with her deceitfully. Tristan was therefore willing to take this plan of sacrifice to the ultimate extent of dying for it.

So that's one reason. And a second reason that dovetails with that, is that by marrying Isolde, Mark would be re-asserting power over the newly-chastened Ireland. Cornwall would then be subsuming Ireland under its power by solidifying the connection with a marriage. So this is presumably why Tristan was able to convince Mark that he should marry Isolde.

Your explanation makes good sense to me. I have to offer another; emotional rather than political:

After Isolde has healed Tristan, and sent him back to Kornwall, he finds himself hopelessly in love with her, in spite of the distance. Given his guilt and debt towards her, and the humiliations he has inflicted upon her, his sense for justice and honor tell him that there is no way for him to ever try and realize this love.

Yet this love is overbearingly strong and threatens to make him lose control. So how to keep this love in check? There’s only one sentiment that he believes could hold him back: his relentless dedication to, and respect for, King Marke. If Isolde married King Marke, she would be terminally unattainable for him. (Besides, the two most beloved persons of his would each gain a worthy mate, and they could have a natural heir together – Tristan is broken and would not assume the throne).

Seems like the perfect solution. But Marke doesn’t even have an inclination ever to marry again. Tristan has to keep increasing pressure. Only after he threatens to leave court and country for good, Marke finally gives in.

But as we see, things turn out differently. On the ship, Isolde demands that they together drink Sühnetrank (drink of atonement), or she won’t enter Kornwall. Seeing and acknowledging her rage, Tristan drops his plan, and accepts whatever her verdict is. They drink what they both believe is lethal poison. But they don’t die. After that, both of their behavior is drastically changed. They no longer seem to care for categories of honor, loyalty, or duty, and follow only their love.

What has happened? Surviving what you believe must be your death is a rather traumatic experience. It alone can make you re-evaluate your live and recognize the essential.

But Brangäne tells us that what they drank was the love potion. Was that drink the cause for their transformation? Or, asked differently: Had nothing happened on the ship, and had Tristan and Isolde seen each other at Markes’s court on a day-to-day basis – would they be able to suppress their feelings?

Ungeminnt
den hehrsten Mann

stets mir nah zu sehen, –
wie könnt ich die Qual bestehen?

Unbeloved

seeing always near to me

the most noble man, –

how could I stand the torment?

Isolde knew that this wasn't going to work. She would rather turn to drastic measures.

So, what does the love potion actually do? At the most, it speeds up the events that would have happened in time at the court anyway. (Yes folks, imagine! Wagner’s speeding up things!)