Tristan and Isolde

This tragedy poignantly evokes the tale of Tristan and Isolde (from Listen: Brief, disc 5), since the two lovers are from opposite worlds (Scotty appears finacially independent while Judy is a shopgirl) but brought together by fate, in this case, accidentally through Gavin Elstar's murder plot. Each lover loses their self in their love, Scotty by allowing himself to be obsessed, and Judy by allowing herself to be changed. The death of self is the only way they can unite in love: “to surrender to it is to give oneself over to the death drive: hence the Romantic obsession with unions in death, of which Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (from "Prelude and Liebestod") is the supreme expression in Western culture” (Wood 35). There is a passion in Vertigo’s music, specifically the love theme(from "Goodbye/The Tower"), which completely opposes reason, which is part of the juxtaposition with Mozart, Midge and their rational inadequacy.