ABSTRACT
Revolution had been present in Wagner's early dramas. The carnival of Das Liebesverbot had depicted a jubilant populace 'so strong and secure that it can waive punishment and retribution and magnanimously allow the corrupt deputy to lose himself in its midst'. The revolutionary events of 1848–49, together with Wagner's recent intellectual development, presented a renewed impetus to tum to less existentialist concerns, although a tension would remain. Wagner was all politics; he awaited from the Revolution's victory a total rebirth of art, society, and religion- and a new theatre and music. He enquired after the renowned democratic leaders of Vienna, and had Friedrich Uhl take him to a democratic meeting. Siegfried, as illustrated by the ease with which he falls into Hagen's trap, remains ensnared in the dialectic of law and the state, and thus a successor as much to Wotan's contradictory revolution from above as to Siegmund's conscious rebellion.
