Beyond Good and Evil Character Analysis

Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche is the author and the only narrator of Beyond Good and Evil, although he occasionally constructs and engages in Socratic dialogues with characters such as Dionysus to argue certain points. Highly critical… read analysis of Nietzsche

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer who revolutionized opera in the 19th century, pioneering a style called Gesamtkunstwerk, or “total works of art,” which synthesized musical, visual, dramatic, and textual elements in a… read analysis of Richard Wagner

Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his philosophy of pessimism. Schopenhauer argued that life was the product of a blind, cosmic will that human reason was powerless to interpret, as its knowledge… read analysis of Schopenhauer

Plato

Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher and student of Socrates. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Plato’s entire body of work survived, and he has had a lasting influence on philosophy. Plato developed several important… read analysis of Plato

Kant

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German philosopher who advocated a doctrine called transcendental idealism, arguing that human forms of perception and reason structure all experiences, which we cannot know beyond their appearances. He also located… read analysis of Kant

Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military officer who rose to power during the latter part of the French Revolution, eventually becoming Emperor. Renowned for his strategic and political prowess, Napoleon was a hugely influential—and controversial—figure… read analysis of Napoleon

Frederick the Great

Frederick the Great was an 18th-century Prussian king whose military feats and social reforms are credited with establishing Prussia as a major European power, paving the way for German unification a century later. As a… read analysis of Frederick the Great

Socrates

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher often considered the founder of the Western philosophical tradition, and of ethics and moral philosophy in particular. None of Socrates’s writings have survived, and he is instead known primarily… read analysis of Socrates

Dionysus

Dionysus is the ancient Greek god of wine, fertility, festivities, theater, and ecstasy, often associated with a freedom-loving cult that took him as its symbol. Because of his destabilizing, outsider status, Dionysus is frequently invoked… read analysis of Dionysus

Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza was a 17th-century Portuguese Jewish philosopher who was a major influence on Enlightenment thought. Living and working in Amsterdam, Spinoza asserted that God should be considered as a causa sui, a position… read analysis of Spinoza

Voltaire

Voltaire was the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, a prominent 18th-century French Enlightenment writer and philosopher. Voltaire was known for his sharp criticism and satire of the church, religious intolerance, and slavery, and for his… read analysis of Voltaire

Gaius Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar was a Roman general and dictator whose assassination prompted the end of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire. Nietzsche sees in Caesar an individual who is made great by… read analysis of Gaius Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, actor, and poet, often considered one of the greatest writers to work in the English language. Nietzsche upholds Shakespeare as a positive example of the “historical sense,” as he… read analysis of William Shakespeare

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a 16th-century German priest and the initiator of the Protestant Reformation, as well as a translator of the Bible into German. Luther’s work is to Nietzsche both exemplary of slave morality… read analysis of Martin Luther

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was an English biologist known for his theory of evolution, one of the major philosophical upsets of the 19th century. Darwin’s ideas were quickly applied to other spheres of life, such as politics… read analysis of Charles Darwin

Minor Characters

Epicurus

Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who taught that humans should strive to live happy, peaceful lives, maximizing their freedom and minimizing their pain and suffering. This teaching, to Nietzsche, also belongs to moral philosophy’s misguided attempt to abolish suffering.

The Stoics

The Stoics were a school of ancient Greek philosophers who argued that virtue was the most important expression of the “good,” and that humans live in accordance with their nature, propositions that Nietzsche strongly disagrees with.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance inventor, artist, and polymath, who Nietzsche upholds as an example of an individual who is great both because and in spite of the contradictory, chaotic nature of their being.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an 18th-century Austrian composer who was among the most influential composers of the Classical period.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Generally considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time, Beethoven’s work spanned the transition from the Classical to the Romantic style in European music.

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer and musical prodigy of the Romantic era. Both Mendelssohn’s Jewish origin and his heterodox tastes set him apart from many of his contemporaries, leaving his work largely overlooked until the mid-20th century. Nietzsche, however, was a great admirer of Mendelssohn.

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann was a German composer and music critic, active in the early 19th century. Schumann was a leading composer of the Romantic era and is to Nietzsche an example of its flaws.

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was an influential English philosopher of the early modern era, best known for his political philosophy of the state.

David Hume

David Hume was an 18th-century Scottish philosopher whose writing on empiricism and rationality was greatly influential for Enlightenment humanism.

John Locke

John Locke was an English philosopher and empiricist whose work was enormously influential across European philosophy and politics, positively and negatively inspiring the likes of the American revolutionaries, Voltaire, and Kant.

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, and leading utilitarian, often considered to be one of the most influential English philosophers of his time.

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was a 19th-century English philosopher and prominent utilitarian. An important early reader of Darwin, Spencer is credited with coining the term “survival of the fittest.”

Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine was a German poet and writer. A political radical, Heine was exiled to France for much of his life.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Hegel was a leading philosopher in the school of German Idealism and major influence on modern philosophy.

Beyond Good and Evil Characters