But this tragedy is not of the very
essence of tragedy, inasmuch as here we have merely love confronted by
an unsurmountable obstacle, meeting and overwhelming it; the discord is
not inherent. Many a lover suffering from unrequited love, is born with
the tendency to become unhappy, with a secret will to the voluptuousness
of pain and melancholy; he will enjoy his unhappiness, perhaps become
productive through it. Thus, this deliberately unhappy love may be
regarded as an analogy to genuine metaphysical eroticism. For the
worship of woman is in its essence infinite striving; its object is
always unattainable, an illusion. Every earthly love, even if it finds
no response at all, may, in principle, be gratified, and is only unhappy
if external circumstances intervene. But the love of the Madonna is in
itself fraught with the tragic impossibility of requital; its foundation
is the recognition, or divination, of the fact that mortal women are too
insignificant for a passion which yearns for infinitude.
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