Confronting the Dragons: Judith Lebiez assesses a Freudian analysis of the ‘Ring’

Review of Tom Artin, The Wagner Complex: Genesis and Meaning of ‘The Ring’ (Free Scholar Press, 2012).

November 2014, Volume 8, Number 3, 84–7.

Tom Artin in The Wagner Complex has commonalities with Wagner’s hero Siegfried. He boldly follows his intuitions and displays a certain irreverence towards parental figures, Wagner and Freud included. There is something heroic in going so deeply into Wagner’s cavernous mind to confront the dragons sleeping there. Artin comes back from this quest with a few golden truths and an ability to understand what Wagner’s characters really mean.