This ten-page undergraduate paper outlines the principle features of Richard Wagner’s operatic aesthetic, and illustrates its practical realization with reference to the operas Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal. The author conveys an understanding of Wagner’s operatic aesthetic and illustrates its practical implications in the writing of Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal through examples from the operas and the inclusion of citations from a variety of written and Internet sources.