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Intro
Zarathustra, a 30-year-old sage and prophet, has retreated into the mountains. After 10 years of solitude, he emerges from his cave, wanting to descend to humanity in order to bestow his wisdom. He ventures down the mountain into a forest, where he’s surprised to encounter an old saint who doesn’t yet know that “God is dead.”
Arriving at a town, Zarathustra addresses the people who are assembled for a tight-rope walker’s performance. He tells them, “I teach you the Superman. Man is something that should be overcome.” The Superman, a more mentally and spiritually evolved version of humankind, is the meaning of life; the people should believe in him instead of in heavenly hopes. However, the people just laugh at Zarathustra. Suddenly, the tight-rope walker, startled by a mocking buffoon, falls off his rope. After the tight-rope walker dies, Zarathustra carries his corpse away from the town and buries it. The next day, he realizes that his calling is not to address the people but to lure individuals away from the masses. He will find other “creators of values” and teach them about the Superman.
Zarathustra goes on to addresses his followers through a long series of discourses. He teaches them that the spirit evolves through three changes: from burdened camel to freedom-loving lion to innocent child. Though the lion destroys conventional values, only the child can create new values; this symbolizes the spirit’s ability to will its own will. Zarathustra also teaches that he has overcome his belief in God, and he urges his followers to do the same. This is because belief in the afterlife was created by people who resent life itself—people who cannot be bridges to the Superman. Instead of listening to those who despise the earth and preach death, Zarathustra’s followers should be warriors who fight for the overcoming of man. This overcoming, the creation of new values, generally occurs in solitude, far away from the masses.
Zarathustra then says that different groups of people have different values: what seems praiseworthy to one group is considered shameful by another. He concludes that values aren’t handed down to people from heaven—rather, values are an exertion of power. In other words, there are no such things as objective values. An example is love of neighbor. While this is traditionally regarded as one of the highest moral values, Zarathustra argues that it’s just a way of hiding from the Superman. Another example is the valorization of death. Zarathustra believes that even Jesus Christ died too soon because he had not yet learned to love the earth; others have suffered from this example ever since.
Zarathustra eventually retreats into solitude again, exhorting his disciples not to slavishly imitate him, but to go forth and repay him by finding themselves. Years later, he dreams that his old followers are portraying him as a devil, and he rejoices at this, knowing that it’s time to teach them anew. In the ensuing discourses, Zarathustra touches on many topics, including pity. In his view, compassion for one’s neighbor is misplaced, because pity only creates obligation and resentment. Great love should go beyond pity. In a similar vein, protests for “equality” should be resisted. Agitation for equality is usually the weak’s envy and vengeance in disguise; human beings are not equal, or else there would be no need for the Superman. Zarathustra also elaborates on the concept of the will to power, an “unexhausted, procreating life-will,” which is the fundamental human drive. Everyone possesses will to power, though only the strong express this will fully, overcoming themselves again and again.
Zarathustra then tells a story about overthrowing a mocking dwarf, the Spirit of Gravity, who symbolizes humanity’s guilty conscience. He also has a vision of a shepherd biting the head off of a snake that’s choking the shepherd to death, then jumping up laughing—symbolizing the need to reject burdensome, conventional values in order to live freely and exercise one’s will to power. He wanders among the people and is disgusted by people’s contentment with mediocre virtues and easy lives. He implores people to “be such as can will!”
After this, Zarathustra makes his way back to his cave, rejoicing once more in solitude. Since it’s not yet time to approach humanity again, he discourses to himself, revisiting his major teachings. He reiterates the need for humanity’s higher individuals, or creators, to discover new values, a new good and evil. The old value systems must be shattered by a new nobility, who will rebuild a new system, despite the supposedly “good and just” people who will oppose this.
One morning, Zarathustra awakens, overwhelmed by a new thought. Talking with his animal companions (an eagle and a serpent), Zarathustra realizes that everything in existence has recurred an infinite number of times and will do so again. This doctrine of Eternal Recurrence is different from an afterlife—rather, it’s an endless return to the same life. Only a creator, a higher man who exercises the will to power, can embrace the eternal recurrence; mediocre people are too burdened by sin, regret, and dread to embrace it. Zarathustra then sings a song expressing his “lust for Eternity.”
Years later, Zarathustra awaits a sign that it’s time to descend to humanity once more. A gloomy prophet visits him and draws his attention to a distant cry of distress. Shaken by this, Zarathustra decides to help the distressed. He wanders through the forests of his domain, encountering a number of those he considers to be Higher Men. They include two kings, a scientist, a sorcerer, and an old pope. He also finds the “ugliest man,” a pitiful figure who killed God rather than be pitied by a deity too soft and compassionate to exist. In addition, Zarathustra meets a beggar and the shadow of a freethinker. Though these people are all just bridges to the Superman, Zarathustra invites them back to his cave for a celebratory feast and a discussion the Higher Man’s role and characteristics. He reiterates the importance of overcoming man in pursuit of the Superman, something achieved by means of the will to power. That night, the Higher Men make a misguided attempt to worship a donkey, leading Zarathustra to both scold their ignorance and praise their progress beyond belief in God. The Higher Men then rejoice with Zarathustra in the idea of the Eternal Recurrence.
The next morning, Zarathustra is approached by a laughing lion, which he recognizes as the sign that it’s time for his final descent to humanity. When the Higher Men spring back from the lion in fear, Zarathustra realizes that he has overcome his lingering weakness: his temptation to pity them. He is now ripened and perfected; his children (the race of the Superman) is near; and the great noontide will soon rise. With this, Zarathustra leaves his cave, shining like the sun.
