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9. What Is Noble
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Beyond Good and Evil, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Good and Evil
Knowledge, Truth, and Untruth
The Individual and the Crowd
The Dark Side of Modernity
Women and Men
Summary
Analysis
In this concluding poem, Nietzsche offers an ode to friendship, calling his friends to join him in a place high above the world. In his solitude and suffering, however, he has changed greatly, prompting surprise in his friends. They leave, unable to accommodate themselves to the conditions in which he, the noble soul, now exists. Despite this, Nietzsche has no regrets, as his quest for the philosophy of the future demands tremendous personal adaption—and sacrifice. He awaits new friends, perhaps the philosophers of the future, who are ready to join him in his noble separation, and prepares to celebrate the coming of a new era for humankind and the world.
Nietzsche’s poem seems to speak as much to the state of his life at the time of publication as the book itself, as he bemoans the inability of friendship to overcome differences of morality and philosophy. Indeed, the powerful desire for friendship betrays a deep loneliness, one which only makes Nietzsche more determined to pursue his ideals, no matter the cost.
Themes
