Editing Parsifal (section)

===Schopenhauer===
Wagner had been greatly impressed with his reading of the German philosopher [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] in 1854, and this deeply affected his thoughts and practice on music and art. Most writers (e.g. [[Bryan Magee]]) see ''Parsifal'' as Wagner's last great espousal of Schopenhauerian philosophy.<ref name ="Magee"/> Parsifal can heal Amfortas and redeem Kundry because he shows compassion, which Schopenhauer saw as the highest manifestation of human morality. Moreover, Parsifal displays compassion in the face of sexual temptation (act 2, scene 2); Schopenhauerian philosophy suggests that the only escape from the ever-present temptations of human life is through negation of the [[Will (philosophy)|Will]], and overcoming sexual temptation is in particular a strong form of negation of the Will. Schopenhauer also claims that compassion should be extended to non-human sentient beings as well, supporting this claim by the lives of Christian saints and mystics and the Indian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. This worldview finds in ''Parsifal'' its expression in the holy status of animals within the Kingdom of the Grail, in the shocked response to Parsifal's "murder" of the swan (act 1, scene 1), which awakens in the youth the first unaware throb of compassion, or in Gurnemanz's "sermon" about the ''Good Friday Spell'' affecting nature and humanity's relation towards nature (act 3, scene 1). Wagner himself in his older age became an advocate of vegetarianism and an opponent of vivisection, participating in an anti-vivisectionist petition to the Reichstag in 1879; he also professed what might be called early environmentalist sentiments.{{sfnp|Berger|2017|pp=341–342}}{{sfnp|Magee|2002|pp=1–2}}{{sfnp|Kienzle|2005|pp=92–93, 98}} As the exact opposite of compassion and therefore as the ultimate moral evil Schopenhauer sees the act of ''Schadenfreude'', the enjoying of the suffering of another living being; it is precisely this sin of which Kundry is guilty when she maliciously laughs in mocking pride at the sufferings of the Redeemer and as a result of which she falls under Klingsor's curse (recounted in act 2, scene 2), broken only at the moment when she is again capable to weep and thus express compassion during the ''Good Friday Spell'' (act 3, scene 1). When viewed in this light, ''Parsifal'', with its emphasis on ''Mitleid'' ("compassion") is a natural follow-on to ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', where Schopenhauer's influence is perhaps more obvious, with its focus on ''Sehnen'' ("yearning"). Indeed, Wagner originally considered including Parsifal as a character in act 3 of ''Tristan'', but later rejected the idea.<ref>''Dokumente zur Entstehung und ersten Aufführung des Bühnenweihfestspiels Parsifal'' by Richard Wagner, [[Martin Geck]], [[Egon Voss]]. Reviewed by Richard Evidon in ''[[Notes (journal)|Notes]]'', 2nd series, vol. 28, no. 4 (June 1972), pp. 685 f.</ref>