Previous
Of the Compassionate
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Rethinking Morality
The Superman and the Will to Power
Death of God and Christianity
Eternal Recurrence
Summary
Analysis
Zarathustra speaks to his followers about priests. He pities them, as they are enslaved to the one they call “Redeemer.” By teaching them shame and penitence, their churches prevent their souls from reaching the heights; they taught people to love God only by nailing people to the Cross. Redemption can only come by a greater man than any who has yet existed—the Superman.
Zarathustra isn’t referring only to literal clergy, but to all who preach and practice traditional Christian values. Nietzsche saw such values as obstructing souls, keeping them from realizing their full power by subjecting them to shame and repulsive ideas about redemption. Ultimately, only the Superman—created by people themselves—can bring redemption.
Themes
