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I started this thesis to explore whether Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy expected too much of Wagner when he made him the next composer of tragedy. Richard Wagners opera Tristan und Isolde is what Nietzsche believes to be the rebirth of tragedy. Nietzsche uses Wagner in comparison to the ancient Greeks whose Attic tragedy was the original formation of tragedy. This investigation considered the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and what sort of structure makes the tragic art form that is music drama. Tragedy is what reveals the human condition to mankind, yet simultaneously shields him from the full effect of the devastation of that realisation. The effect of this is that man is consoled about life and can live on. Nietzsche theorises about two art drives that are symbolised by the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. The Apollonian art drive represents language and the Dionysian art drive represents music. These two drives combine together to create tragedy. However the conditions for this synthesis are not easy to procure as these two drives clash against each other in disagreement. As seen by Nietzsches examples of the Greeks, there is an element that can destroy tragedy. This is Socrates. Socrates has the power to undermine the Dionysian drive. Once this has happens Greek tragedy is dead. Wagner rescues tragedy by recreating it as opera and he is Nietzsches genius artist by constituting the rebirth of tragedy. My aim was to derive what makes tragedy and how the Apollonian and Dionysian art drives combine to make the tragic art form. I did this by exploring the effects of the art drives and what their representative arts are. Once this was done I decided to inspect the Socratic element which is introduced to music drama through Euripides. This destroys the Dionysian element of tragedy and also dissolves the Apollonian … so there is no possibility of the tragic art form existing. I also deduced what sort of artist is capable of creating tragedy. After th