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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 makes his way back to his cave by indirect wanderings. When passing a great city, he is blocked by a fool whom the people call “Zarathustra’s ape.” Raving at length, the fool tells Zarathustra to turn back—he will find nobody who is receptive to him, only the virtuous and pious. But Zarathustra stops the fool, scolding him for his revengeful spirit and his false use of Zarathustra’s teaching. But he ultimately passes the city by; it contains nothing to make either better or worse, and before the great noontide comes, it must be destroyed.
Zarathustra’s ape symbolizes his opposite, and someone for whom Zarathustra might be mistaken by the unwary. Those who don’t understand Zarathustra’s ways—that he destroys out of love, for instance—might confuse a “vengeful” person for someone who follows his teaching. Ultimately, even though the ape is a false prophet, Zarathustra agrees that the city is not worth addressing, though he passes it by without vengeance.
Themes
