Dionysus: The Eternal Tragic Hero

Dionysus is eternally the fundamental archetype in western art. Tragic art,originally and essentially, belongs to the Dionysian art, imbued with Dionysian spirit.In his The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche asserts that the protagonists in Greek tragedyare all masks of Dionysus. Tragedy is the highest life-affirming art form. The reasonfor its perpetual charisma lies in the fact that Dionysian art may arouse orgiasticelation from man's innermost nature as an individual dissolves into the bosom of acosmic oneness. The tragic hero, though negated and annihilated, is only aphenomenon, whose destruction does no harm to the eternal life of the Will. Basedthis thesis on Nietzschean aesthetic theory, I attempt to interpret Dionysian spirit fromaesthetic perspective, and endeavor to solve the riddle of tragedy with the aid ofDionysian spirit. Inside the boundaries of literature, I make use of the archetype ofDionysus to analyze some tragic protagonists, the purpose of which is to associatetheir tragic destiny with the different facets of their Dionysian nature.