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 of his heart’s “twofold will,” gazing downward into the abyss and simultaneously grasping upward. His will clings to humanity and also toward the Superman. Zarathustra’s first “manly prudence” is to allows himself to be deceived so that he will not be on his guard against deceivers; this allows him to be among humanity without becoming tainted by other people.
In Nietzsche’s later work Beyond Good and Evil, he says that the superior person must wear a mask. Here, Zarathustra introduces that idea: the true higher individual doesn’t make his superiority obvious but adapts himself to other people, not wishing to be found out by others, so as not to shame them.
Themes
Zarathustra second manly prudence is to be more considerate to the vain than to the proud. The vain are ease his melancholy and keep Zarathustra bound to humanity. His third manly prudence is that he doesn’t let others’ meekness spoil his delight in the wicked.
It's not obvious how Zarathustra distinguishes between the vain and the proud, but the reader can assume that, like the “wicked” in whom he delights, they do not allow traditional morality to stifle their wills.
Themes
The “good and just” are so unfamiliar with what is truly great that they would fear the Superman’s goodness—they would even think that the Superman was a devil. Zarathustra wants to see his fellow humans disguised as the good and just. Then he, too, will sit among them disguised, in order to misunderstand them—that is his last manly prudence.
Self-righteous, conventional types cannot recognize the Superman for what he is: a higher form of humanity. The idea of “disguise” restates the fact that Zarathustra doesn’t want to be recognized by humanity for what he is; maybe others are also disguised behind their self-righteous appearance.
Themes
