Sunday, September 15, 2019
Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883) Essay
In the Prologue section of Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’, he spoke of a thirty-year-old man named Zarathustra who goes into the wilderness where he stays for ten years taking pleasure in his solitude. When he decides to be in contact with the people again and ‘go under’, Zarathustra starts to share what he has learned over the past ten years. He tells about a Superman, saying that man is born to be between a beast and a Superman. Man should be able to overcome this state, yet the road is very dangerous. He preaches that man should utterly focus on this life and not the life after death. He should hold in contempt things like happiness, reason, virtue, justice, or pity. As man is becoming more and more tame and domesticated, then the last man on earth will all be alike like a herd of animals. They shall be afraid of danger and peril, which will lead to self-destruction.            In the Zarathustra Prologue, Nietzsche speaks about a crisis that is being shared by the existing humanityâ€â€the crisis of being contented with comfort alone; being as comfortable and contented as to resist the utilization of strong, positive goals in one’s existence. Each section of ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ carries with it essential points to consider, especially the Prologue section and Parts 1-3. What are these essential points? How do they all blend together to come up with the whole thought or proclamation of Nietzsche? In the end, we shall come up with the answers to these questions, together with the essential points that create Nietzsche’s preaching of nihilism. In this world of materialism and nihilism (as Nietzsche declared), is God really dead? Main Body The Crisis of Existing Humanity            In the Prologue section of ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra,’ Nietzsche speaks about a crisis that lingers in all of humanity today. Zarathustra speaks that saints are too proud and love only God and not men, as stated in the lines: â€Å"Now I love God: men, I do not love. Man is a thing too imperfect for me. Love to man would be fatal to me†(Nietzsche 21). He also stated that acts of charity should go after acts of beseech: â€Å"If, however, thou wilt give unto them, give them no more than an alms, and let them also beg for it†(Nietzsche 21). This points out that acts of charity are done for the sake of pride and self-worthiness. When Zarathustra speaks that â€Å"God is dead†(Nietzsche 22), he meant that God does not exist in this world anymore, even on people whom we think should have made God more alive. Secondly, Zarathustra speaks that people have made a shame of themselves: â€Å"Ye have made your way from the worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more of an ape than any of the apes†(Nietzsche 22). He preaches that the way to go is to be the Superman, which Zarathustra speaks as â€Å"the meaning of the earth†(Nietzsche 22) and the â€Å"herald of the lightning, †¦ a heavy drop out of the cloud†(Nietzsche 25). People are in crisis because much of life is centered on life after death and not on the present life on earth. Happiness, reason, virtue, justice, and pity appear to be useless and should not be centered on, since self-satisfaction of men is being slaughtered, while men cry to heaven for answers to satisfaction, which should only be found on earth.            Thirdly, Zarathustra speaks that â€Å"Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Supermanâ€â€a rope over an abyss†(Nietzsche 24). There is crisis and peril in trying to go through the ropeâ€â€the present state of man that should be defeated and prevailed over. Man has succeeded in transforming itself from a beast to a man, yet there is another significant task for a manâ€â€to transform itself from a man to a Superman. However, the people do not yet understand: â€Å"There they stand †¦ there they laugh: they understand me not†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Nietzsche 25). For this, Zarathustra starts to speak of the ‘last man’ because people are becoming too content and comfortable with their lives they do not see the need to have strong, positive goals anymore. Zarathustra proclaims that, if this will not change, time will come when the trees and the soil will bear no trees; when man will not see a reason to long for and dream; and when man will no longer be capable of giving birth to a star (Nietzsche 26). This inability of the last man to create something that is beyond himself would make the earth smaller and smaller, and the last man becoming weaker and weaker†¦ becoming lazier as days go by. If man is to surpass the crisis that is in the midst, then he should surpass the rope of being a man and learn how to become a Superman. The Principal Parts of the Last Man’s Soul            According to Zarathustra, man is not made up of body and soul; rather, that he is composed only of the body that, on the other hand, is made up of the spirit and the ego, which common people call the ‘soul’ (Nietzsche 40-41). Zarathustra preaches that the ego isâ€â€not saidâ€â€but done (Nietzsche 41). It is the ego that gives a sense of feeling, while it is the spirit, conversely, that discerns what is to be done considering the ego.  These two, the spirit and the ego, continuously attach to one another over one’s existence: â€Å"What the sense feeleth, what the spirit discerneth, hath never its end in itself†(Nietzsche 41). Behind the senses of the ego and the spirit is the Self (or the body), which â€Å"seeketh with the eyes of the senses, it hearkeneth also with the ears of the spirit†(Nietzsche 41); yet it appears that the Self is the master of the senses of ego and spirit, as reflected in the following lines: The Self saith unto the ego: Feel pain! And thereupon it suffereth, and thinketh how it may put an end theretoâ€â€and for that very purpose it is meant to think. The Self saith unto the ego: Feel pleasure! Thereupon it rejoiceth, and thinketh how it may ofttimes rejoiceâ€â€and for that very purpose it is meant to think. (41)           In relation to the crisis, this ordering of the principle parts of the last man’s soul leads one to think that the Self is really in the soul, which is not true, according to Zarathustra (since there is no soul). The Self is in the body, and for those who say that Self is in the soul, they are called ‘despisers of the body’ who despise because of their esteem (Nietzsche 41). Through the body, there is spirit; and through the spirit, there is worth and will. The Self, however, should be made to do what it desires mostâ€â€to be that which is beyond itself†¦ to be a Superman on earth! To be a Superman needs a special kind of selfishnessâ€â€the healthy and holy type of selfishness that â€Å"constrain[s] all things to flow towards you and into you, so that they shall flow back again out of your fountain as the gifts of your love†(Nietzsche 76). In this selfishness there is no lust or craving but true virtue that elevates the body and enraptures the spirit (Nietzsche 76). This new virtue brings power and knowledge through what he calls the ‘Will to Power’. This is what drives the powerful into wanting obedience and change. Zarathustra calls it â€Å"the unexhausted, procreating life-will†(Nietzsche 108), and together with worth and will, this is also what the last man lacks nowadays. People are unaware of the healthy and holy selfishness, which is why he cannot create beyond himself. The Way to Redemption            Zarathustra, as a teacher, tries to correct the conflicting understanding of these notions by doing the following: first, by finding his own disciples and teaching them before sending them on their own to find their Will to Power and virtue, which should both be overflowing in order for them to preach or share it with others; and second, by preaching to the most uncommon men (i.e., hunchback, the cripples, the blind men) who live apart from the rest of the people. However, because man has turned his back against the Will to Power, Zarathustra claims that there is suffering on earth as penalty for the negligence: â€Å"Everything perisheth, therefore everything deserveth to perish†(Nietzsche 132). Yet the past is past. Even the Will to Power has no power to bring back time; thus, there is suffering. But there is what is called ‘courage’ that slays giddiness, suffering, and death (Nietzsche 143). As stated, â€Å"Courage, however, is the best slayer, courage which attacketh†(Nietzsche 143). By possessing courage, man is on his way to redemption to find his Will to Power and his virtue, for the Self to find its worth and will in the spirit. At that moment, he will have the power to create beyond himselfâ€â€a being that even death, giddiness, and suffering is unable to tear down. Conclusion            â€Å"[T]ruth is always on the side of the more difficult.†–Friedrich Nietzsche in his letter to his sister, 1865 (Nietzsche&Kaufmann 29)            In Nietzsche’s ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra,’ he speaks about a crisis that is being shared by the existing humanity. There is crisis because of the following essential points: first, the non-existence of God in this world; second, the centering on life after death; third, the suffering of self-satisfaction; fourth, the longing for contentment and comfort; fifth, the lack of strong, positive goals and courage; sixth and last, having a smaller world with weaker men. With the Self as the master of the ego and the spirit, a man should not despise his body because of esteem, especially that it is the body that builds the spirit, which then builds both worth and will. Without the body, there is no spirit, worth, will, and the ego. To be a Superman is to be selfish enough to gain in knowledge and in power, yet how can all be possible without virtue and Will to Power? To have Will to Power in a changing and suffering world, however, there is a drastic need for courage. This is the way to the redemption of mankind†¦ to have the courage in wiping away suffering and pain, which has been inflicted on mankind as penalty for its negligence. Despite the past being irrevocable, man will no longer fall to self-destruction, as he has learned to go well beyond himself. Works Cited Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra. Translated by Thomas Common. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University, 1999. Nietzsche, Friedrich, and Walter Kaufmann. The Portable Nietzsche. New York, NY: Penguin Group, Inc., 1977.
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