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 history of humanity is filled with shame, and Zarathustra thinks that the compassionate are too lacking in shame. If someone must be compassionate, then they should try to do it from a distance; doing things for those who are suffering is inferior to enjoying oneself. Humanity’s “original sin” is too little enjoyment. The more they learn to enjoy themselves, the better they “unlearn” how to harm others.
Basically, Zarathustra argues that compassion is wrongheaded if it isn’t accompanied by shame. If someone is aiming to create the Superman, they should be pained on humanity’s behalf in the face of human weakness and suffering. And the happier such a person is, the more helpful they can actually be to humanity.
Themes
If one person sees another suffering, it’s better to feel shame on his account than to injure his pride by helping him. Being obligated to another person makes a sufferer resentful, and stings of conscience only make him sting others. The best way to help a suffering friend is to be like an uncomfortable bed for him, since great love is beyond pity. Great love wants to create a neighbor like oneself.
Nietzsche teaches that the traditional values of pity and compassion actually harm their objects by placing sufferers in the debt of those who help them and thereby creating resentment. The most loving thing to do for a friend is to spur them on toward the Superman too.
Themes
