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 joyfully returns to his cave. He addresses his cave and himself, acknowledging that among other human beings, he will always be lonely; humanity, which wants to be indulged, cannot understand him. Solitude is his home, where he can be completely himself. He has now learned that it’s wisest to pass by the masses of humanity, and that he hates being tainted by them.
Zarathustra contrasts the peace and enlightenment of his solitude with the superficiality of the masses. Nietzsche believed that the vast majority of people were not capable of accepting his teachings; he anticipated a small, select following.
Themes
Among humanity, there is nothing but noise and indulgence. Zarathustra tried to sit among humanity for their own sake and not to blame them for their “smallness,” but he found himself pitying them, which is “stifling for all free souls.” Ultimately, all Zarathustra learned from humanity was to conceal his own riches. It’s better to live in the pure air of the mountains than among the bogs of the “gravediggers” (scholars).
In Nietzsche’s philosophy, pity is a danger because it leads a person (specifically a higher individual like Zarathustra) to indulge the masses at the expense of future generations. “Pity” here takes the form of Zarathustra changing himself to accommodate the masses.
Themes
