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 must go into solitude again, because “the stillest hour” has ordered him to go away. He heard a voice saying, “You know, Zarathustra, but you do not speak!” Zarathustra tries to resist the voice, which informs him that he is not yet humble enough. Zarathustra says that he has failed to reach other people with his teaching. The voice retorts that what people need most is someone who “commands great things.” Zarathustra has the power to rule, but he will not. The voice therefore orders Zarathustra to go “as a shadow of that which must come” and so command. In doing this, he must become a child. Because Zarathustra still resists this duty, the voice orders him back into solitude. Zarathustra is overwhelmed with grief at departing from his friends, and no one can comfort him. He goes away alone.
In this chapter, Zarathustra seems to wrestle internally with the need to impart his most obscure teachings. He resists proclaiming ideas that humanity is not yet ready for and that he knows they will reject; he feels ashamed of his inability to get through to them. For that reason, he must retreat into solitude again and develop a childlike humility and innocence.
Themes
