Previous
Of the Bestowing Virtue
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 withdraws into the mountains once again, away from humanity. He has spread his teaching and must wait for the results—but he is filled with impatience. Months and years pass by as Zarathustra’s wisdom grows. Finally, he wakes one morning before dawn and ponders a dream he’s just had. In the dream, a child brought Zarathustra a mirror and invited him to look at his reflection. When Zarathustra does so, he is shaken by what he sees: a sneering devil. He realizes that this means his teaching has been distorted; it’s time to seek out his disciples once more.
This chapter is a counterpart to “Zarathustra’s Prologue” at the beginning of the novel, as Zarathustra retreats into solitude once again. After years alone in the mountains, he dreams that his disciples have begun to proclaim a distorted version of his teaching. As he’d predicted, his disciples have strayed, even to the point of contradicting what he taught them—and this signals to him that it’s time to leave his mountain once more.
Themes
Zarathustra leaps up happily, and his animal companions (the eagle and serpent) look at him with amazement. Zarathustra tells his animals that his love is overflowing—he has been in solitude for too long and has forgotten how to be silent. The secluded lake within him must stream downward toward the seas. Like any creator, he now finds that his old speech no longer suffices; he wants to speak in a new language. His “wild wisdom” can no longer be contained.
In keeping with “bestowing virtue,” which Zarathustra described earlier—the uncontainable, inexhaustible will to power that overflows from a higher individual—Zarathustra now goes forth to share the wisdom he’s accumulated with others.
Themes
