"So This Is How You Spend Eternity"

Time, Groundhog Day and Wagner's Parsifal.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Two fools a minute: Bill Murray and Richard Wagner.
Photo of Bill Murray from promotional art for Groundhog Day © 1993 Columbia/Tri-Star Pictures.

It's Groundhog Day...again, and this morning's entertainment was a rewatch of the 1993 Bill Murray comedy. If you've never seen it, Groundhog Day is the Harold Ramis film about a Pennsylvania weatherman who travels to sleepy Punxsatawney, PA only to find himself trapped in a (seemingly) infinite time loop where it is always February 2nd. In this essay, we will explore how Phil's plight mirrors the plot of Wagner's final (and most mysterious) opera, Parsifal.