Friedrich Nietzsche was a classical philologist going on to concentrate more on his philosophies, he wrote texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science. He was influenced by Schopenhauer and Lange, especially Schopenhauer in his later ideas. He worked on his philosophy until he became mentally ill in 1889 then died in 1900.
He wrote ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ between 1883 and 1885 in four parts. He states it’s ‘For all and for none’, this sentence shows that he wrote this book for everyone to read but also for nobody in particular. This book starts with the prologue introducing us to the character Zarathustra who goes of into the wilderness to evolve himself. Whilst being in the wilderness for ten years he speaks to the star stating he knows the wisdom he has gained and that he wants to share it with the people so they too can gain wisdom. ‘I should like to give it away and distribute it, until the wise among men have again become happy in their folly and the poor in their wealth.’ Zarathustra is Nietzsche idea of a prophet; he talks to the star to show his superiority too human’.
Making his way to the village he finds an old saint who asks him why he would go back to civilization when he can be one with nature and God in the wilderness. Zarathustra then states the infamous words ‘This old saint has not yet heard in his forest that, God is Dead!’, these words were one of the most memorable quotes of Nietzsche’s work, they emphasise his belief that God no longer exists, questioning why humans still worship something that died. He used Zarathustra as a way to teach the masses. This descent into civilization is an allusion to Plato’s Myth of the Cave in which a philosopher descends into a cave to share his insights.
Zarathustra wants the people to leave behind their belief in God so they can concentrate on evolving into something more than human, ‘I teach you the Superhuman’, and he speaks to the people about what it is to be more than human. To be more than human they must leave their old soul behind, he describes this soul as being poverty, dirt and a miserable ease. Justice, virtue, happiness, pity and reason are the things people should leave behind to become ‘superhuman’. He also wants the people to be true to the earth instead of to God who he believes is dead. Hearing what Zarathustra has to say the crowd laugh thinking he is talking about the tight-rope walker. He uses the disbelief of the crowd to emphasise the arrogance of humans.
The tight-rope walker heard a voice behind him telling him to move so a better man could get in front of him. The voice then jumps over the tight-rope walker making him fall to his death. Nietzsche writes this as if the devil is standing behind the man or a jester teasing the man. This voice could be a symbol of tradition and how it holds humans back from becoming more than what they are. Nietzsche makes the man have an instance of listening to the voice which is when the tight-rope walker falls, Nietzsche is saying that people need to leave tradition behind and never look back. Zarathustra tells the man that he will not be dragged to hell like he thinks as there is no devil and there is no hell. He mentions to the man that it is an honourable thing to die for his work, so will bury him with his own two hands. Nietzsche is trying to show how his wisdom is beyond anything that people have known before, to convince people of the superhuman. Nietzsche knows that people don’t like thinking there is no meaning to life but wants to show that believing in God numbs the soul so he gives them a new hope instead. To be connected to the earth and to nature as the highest form of human. This evolution of human’s is what Nietzsche wants to take over the belief of God.
Zarathustra waits until dark to take the man’s dead body, however he is approached by the same voice that stood behind the tight-rope walker. He tells Zarathustra that nobody believes what he told them and they hate him and wish to kill him. This part of the story emphasises that people won’t listen too new things that are unknown to them. They do not wish to hear that God is dead and they can evolve if they let go of their sole, to them this sounds like something the Devil would say. The man then takes the dead body to the graveyard where the grave diggers comment that ‘the Devil will drag Zarathustra to hell as well as the dead dog, so there is no point saving him’. Nietzsche see’s how ignorant people are towards death. He wrote of how the crowd treated the man once he had fallen from the tightrope, as if the man was cursed, he wants to teach people that you can sin because there is no devil but they will have themselves to answer to.
Zarathustra wakes the next day to see a serpent wrapped around an eagle’s neck, not as prey but as friends. This wakes a thought in Zarathustra, that he would be wasting time educating the masses but instead he needs companions who will follow him at their will. This explains why it was written both ‘for everyone and for no-one’, he wished to find people who would follow his philosophies and pass them on to others. With the ending that Zarathustra wanted disciples you see that Nietzsche wanted Zarathustra to act as a Jesus figure for his philosophies. He believed that like Jesus his philosophies would be rejected at first but then accepted if he found followers to acknowledge him. Nietzsche is a original philosopher in his thoughts of how mankind can evolve, completely rejecting any influence of religion. His ideas were modern for his time and slightly out there, he wanted people to reject the ideas they had been previously told and accept that ‘God is dead’ and they should now focus on growing as humans.
