Elhosseiny 1

Mazen Elhosseiny
Professor Oventile
English 1A
29 September, 2015
Nietzsche Essay
In Friedrich Nietzsches masterpiece, The Dionysian Vision of the World, he explains the
different aspects of the Apollonian Dreamworld and the Dionysian Vision. Both of these
perspectives are ways to look at the world; throughout the book Nietzsche explains both
perspectives thoroughly and provides a well-thought commentary. Relatable pieces of literature
are the poems, O Carib Isle, The Hurricane, and Eternity, written by Hart Crane. These poems
can be described through both the Apollonian Dreamworld and the Dionysian Vision. The
Dionysian Vision and the Apollonian Dreamworld are both perceptions of how we view the
world around us and they can be perceived in the poems created by Crane.
The Apollonian Dreamworld is the perception that life is always pleasurable and it does
not have a single ounce of negativity to it. It is the type of perspective in which everything has its
own individual beauty, that everything is considered sober rather than intoxicated. When
Nietzsche says in his book that Finally [] nonsense of mortality, he trying to portray that
with form comes beauty, every form is different in its own way and cannot be precisely
replicated again (Ulfers, 6). He is also trying to show us that when in the Apollonian
Dreamworld beauty cannot be tainted by humans because it is in its eternal form, and with
humanity comes mortality. When proclaiming everything has its own individualistic features that

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make it its own unique entity rather than merging everything and see it as one flow, we see true
art in its purest form. When the world is sober through the Apollonian Dreamworld it allows us
to understand the objects without developing ideas about them, meaning we fully understand the
object when we perceive it, rather than in the Dionysian Vision we would start to develop ideas
on how to use and control said object. This being said, perceiving objects during sobriety, allows
us to see order, stability, stasis, and serenity. Nietzsche says that A primordial fullness []
short-lived existence, meaning that the basic thought of humans is starting to fade and leave
being a world of suffering (Ulfers, 6). But in this world of suffering comes the Apollonian
Dreamworld to act as cover over it to delude the human eye, it allows this life to be bearable
even though it is deceiving us into believing this world is more than an actual reality. And
through the beauty of the Apollonian Dreamworld it allows us to see a prolonged version of the
Dionysian Vision, a compromise of a short-lived experience and an absolute entity. The
Apollonian Dreamworld is a perspective filled with everlasting joy and bliss.
The Dionysian Vision can be described through intoxication. Intoxication is a state of
mind in which we feel divine ecstasy and we tend to make connections between objects that
arent relatable. The part of our minds that allow the separation of objects is impaired which is
why everything seems to be merged during the Dionysian Vision, for example the denial of
distinguishing a physical world from a metaphysical world, this type of impaired separation
comes from the influence of Heraclitus. The influence of Heraclitus also affects the idea of
coming into and passing away from this world because of the mortality that limits us. One of the
influences of Heraclitus says The strifes of opposites that gives birth to all that comes to be
(Ulfers, 9). This influence of Heraclitus proposes that nothing would be invented if everything
would be judged as the same, and since it would be under the same judgment, innovation would

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cease to exist. And in innovation the influence of Heraclitus is expressed through reconstruction
for the better, but in order for reconstruction to take place, destruction must take place first. From
the Dionysian Vision of the world Nietzsche says Intoxication is [] undoes boundaries
(Ulfers, 6). In the quote we see that Dionysus is also known as the liberator, and as the
liberator, Dionysus undoes boundaries by allowing people know the feeling of intoxication.
Through this intoxication an ecstasy is perceived; the boundaries are undone by this ecstasy
when we seem to merge together objects that have no relation with one another. The flow of time
is also affected when in a relaxed state of mind, it is a constant battle of back and forth time
seeming either too long or too short. In the Dionysian Vision reality is shown through a
primordial state in life; and through this a chiasmic unity, the constant fusion and separation of
objects.
My thoughts of Nietzsches ideas throughout the book were very profound philosophical
opinions on how the world can be perceived. Nietzsche provides two worlds perspectives we can
see the world in, as he says the Apollonian Dreamworld is just a cover for the actual Dionysian
Vision that could be perceived when intoxicated. This meaning that the world is actually filled
with intoxication and is being sugar-coated by the Apollonian Dreamworld. And when the world
is intoxicated, everything seems to merge together, but while when the cover of the Apollonian
Dreamworld comes, a layer of absolute bliss is coating the harsh reality of the Dionysian Vision.
Nietzsche refers to this as an Incomparable harmony, meaning that the Dionysian Vision and
the Apollonian Dreamworld are a constant consonance and dissonance of the rhythm of life
(Nietzsche, 2). Nietzsche also says that the consistency of the consonance and dissonance is like
the coming and passing of this life. Knowing the coming of this life is the Apollonian
Dreamworld because at a young age, life is an ignorant bliss; however, when seeing the end of

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our life and realize our mortality this is the truth that comes with the Dionysian Vision of the
world.
The Apollonian Dreamworld and Dionysian Vision are two sides of the same story, that
story is life, while the two have very different ideals and perceptions on certain aspects of life,
they still take place in the same environment. These two worlds can have a very different affects
on a person depending on the own persons qualities and attributes, these perceptions could affect
later decisions taken by people. For instance, if a person was grown up in the perspective of the
Apollonian Dreamworld, he would not know what to do if he was experienced to the Dionysian
Vision. The man would be so unaccustomed to reality because all he knew his whole life was
that life was full of pleasure and joy. In the separation of these two worlds, Nietzsche uses the
word seeming, to refer to see through the perspective of both the Apollonian Dreamworld and
the Dionysian Vision (Nietzsche, 4). This also can be related to the constant consonance and
dissonance that is used when looking at the two worlds, the seeming aspect is the transforming
between the consonance and dissonance.
The poems written by Hart Crane have symbolic citations of the Nietzsches perceptions
of the Dionysian Vision and the Apollonian Dreamworld. The first poem that is written by Crane
is the O Carib Isle, this poem has a sense of the Apollonian Dreamworld, but it seems like a
negative version of that Dreamworld. The Apollonian Dreamworld that Crane is describing is
found in when he says The tarantula [] fiddle crabs (Crane, O Carib Isle, 1-3). This negative
Apollonian Dreamworld has a very relaxing and peaceful setting while the mood of the scene is
daunting and dark. The spider is a symbol of death when it travels across the grave that is
standing next to the grave of a man on the white peaceful beach, and the rest of the beach is
empty with no other creatures that are living. It is a simple setting however a dark one, the lilies

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that are being described in the poem are used to honor the dead, and is placed near his grave.
Another moving part of O Carib Isle is when Crane speaks about the blues comedian host
(Crane, O Carib Isle, 26). This blues comedian host is a symbolism of Cranes perception of his
ultimate Apollonian Dreamworld. His vision showed him a that he is in a blues club, in which
the performer is God, life is the setting and atmosphere of the club, our emotions and thoughts
that we hold true to ourselves is the rhythm of the music, and the music itself is Gods creations.
This is how Crane perceives his Apollonian Dreamworld, while others may have a different
setting in mind because in this Dreamworld, everyone perceives things differently and has their
own idea of what the Dreamworld really is. In the next poem written by Crane, The Hurricane
describes a disaster that hits the city that is near the beach in the previous poem. In the poem
there is a repetition of the word Lord, this is a sign for someone in trouble, usually people are
at their most humble. They pray to God because underprivileged and the feeling of an unbearable
fear makes people turn to God and pray. This is feeling comes to people when they are at their
lowest point, they cannot help themselves, and they do not see themselves making it out alive,
this is why all the hope that people have is transferred in the idea of God, true colors are shown
when people are at the brink of death. The hurricane in this poem is believed to symbolize Gods
chariot, Lo, Lord [] smithereened apart (Crane, The Hurricane, 1-4). Gods Chariot is the
hurricane that is destroying the town, it is a type of punishment that is sent down upon the town,
and while the man is repeatedly saying Gods name, he is asking for Gods mercy. Cranes first
poem gives a sense of a negative Apollonian Dreamworld when compared with Nietzsches
ideas, and then The Hurricane happens and the Apollonian Dreamworld becomes something
else, a transformed Dreamworld in this process in which it is in a total negative state where all
the description of the land resides with the horror and the death that is reigning upon the city.

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And in Cranes final poem Eternity, it is describing the aftermath of the hurricane that ruined the
town in the perception of a Dionysian Vision. In the beginning scene of Eternity, Crane tells a
story about The old woman [] the town! describes the old woman migrating to another place
because her home is tarnished. She keeps only what she can carry and leaves the house (Crane,
Eternity, 1-6). In the Dionysian Vision, we see that everything is in one flow, and we fail to see
the differences between objects. Much like in this scene we see the different pieces of this old
womans house in different areas of the city, the city has now become a Dionysian land in which
everyone is devastated. It didnt matter how rich a person was before it because now everyone
suffered the same fate, all of the houses are badly damaged and the people are forced to migrate.
And in the end of the poem, Crane says that the people in the poem praying and screaming Gods
name in the second poem are saved by a rescue team. Crane describes this through The
morrows dawn [] talking U.S.A. , through this verse in the poem a Dionysian Vision is
shown in which people are thrown in graves with no funeral, this is another example of how in
the Dionysian Vision we do not see a difference between objects (Crane, Eternity, 50-60). People
are thrown into graves and forgotten with no funerals, that way no one can really appreciate or
know who is in each grave. When they see the graves they do not see individual people dying,
they see that the hurricane took them out all at once and they died from the same cause,
regardless how different the people may be. Later on in the poem, Crane says that the people are
saved and a rescue team is saving the people who are entrapped in their own city by the ruins
that surround them, and everything was soon restored as people evacuated the area.
In the Apollonian Dreamworld there is an absolute form of beauty that is stasis; it will
never change its beauty because it has the feature of its own unique form that can always be
portrayed as art. However, the Dionysian Vision is characterized by the coming and passing into

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the world, which means mortality is present in almost everything we can perceive, nothing is
really unique in this world because it is made up of small components that is found in many other
objects, which means almost every single object in the universe is relatable to one another.

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Works Cited
Crane, Hart. Complete Poems of Hart Crane. ED. Marc Simon. New York: Liveright, 1986.
Print.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Dionysian Vision of the World. 1sted. Minneapolis: Univocal, 2013.
Print.

Ulfers, Friedrich. Introduction. The Dionysian Vision of the World. By Friedrich Nietzsche.
Minneapolis: Universal, 2013. 1-24. Print.