Previous
The Honey Offering
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
The next day, Zarathustra is sitting in front of his cave again when he’s alarmed by a shadow next to his own. A weary prophet has joined him, his eyes filled with evil premonitions. Zarathustra welcomes the prophet, who warns Zarathustra that soon, “waves of great distress” will surround his mountain.
In this chapter (and in the coming chapters), Zarathustra interacts with a number of symbolic “higher men.” The prophet is the philosopher Schopenhauer, who influenced Nietzsche. In Schopenhauer’s teaching, pity was considered to be the ultimate virtue. Pity will be Zarathustra’s greatest temptation.
Themes
Zarathustra listens and hears the sound of a distant human cry. The prophet tells Zarathustra that he has come to seduce Zarathustra to his “ultimate sin”: pity. The human voice cries to Zarathustra again and again, and he is shaken. The prophet tells Zarathustra that the Higher Man is calling for his help, and Zarathustra trembles.
According to Nietzsche’s teaching, humanity should not be pitied; the best way to help humanity is to seek the Superman. That’s why pity is a form of seduction and temptation to Zarathustra—it distracts him from the higher goal of helping humanity evolve.
Themes
The prophet criticizes Zarathustra, telling him that anyone who seeks happiness here will not find it, because it no longer exists. But this jolts Zarathustra out of his distress—he knows there are still “blissful islands.” He resolves to seek out the Higher Man in the forest. Zarathustra bids the prophet to wait in his cave while he undertakes his search.
Zarathustra is finally overcome by the prophet, unable to bear the Higher Man’s distress. He is also motivated by his steadfast belief that joy exists—a belief that the gloomy prophet doesn’t share.
Themes
