Suicide Based upon Beliefs in Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Assignment Example

Suicide Based upon Beliefs in Thus Spoke Zarathustra What Would Friedrich Nietzsche think about Suicide based upon his beliefs on Life and Death in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”? The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), has been an inspiration for much of the philosophy which has come after him, including the controversial school of postmodernist theory. Widely regarded as one of Western Europe’s greatest philosophers, Nietzsche produced a body of work within a very short period (he was insane by 1888), and yet in that time managed to write some of the great works of modern philosophy, including Ecce Homo, The Antichrist, Beyond Good and Evil, and the work studied here: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The book is itself a very long and complex one, seen through the eyes of the character called Zarathustra: a name traditionally connected with the head of the Zoroastrian faith, Zoroaster, who believed that people may “Use their free will to choose their own path, that of good or that of evil” (Bekhradnin, “Thus spake Zarathushtra: An article on Zoroastrianism”). Since Nietzsche was clearly concerned with the question of whether good and evil exist in the world, Zarathustra is a natural focus for his attention. In considering the question of suicide, the first chapter where Zarathustra comes down from the mountain is significant: from his lofty position, “Zarathustra wants to become man again” (Nietzsche, page 122). The old man criticizes him: “You lived in your solitude as in the sea…Alas, would you now climb ashore? Alas, would you again drag your own body?” (Nietzsche, page 123). This is a question of life and death – Zarathustra, who has been free of his mortal shackles, now returns, to drag his own body. The spiritual and physical separation of Zarathustra is an example of the living and dead being: at the beginning of the book, Zarathustra has most clearly chosen life. Moreover, he has decided that God, or the spiritual side, is “Dead”, i.e., that only the physical self exists. “All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to…even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man?” (Nietzsche, 125). The soul and the body are not equal, and to believe in life after death is to deny current life “Do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes!...Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves…so let them go” (Nietzsche, page 125). What Nietzsche appears to be saying here is that those who focus upon life-after-death, to the detriment of the physical present, are no different from suicides, who also long for death (for different reasons); Nietzsche seems to condemn both as poisonous to other men. He also attacks them later, in “On the afterworldly”: “It is not in afterworlds and redemptive drops of blood, but in the body, that they too have most faith…but a sick thing it is to them, and gladly would they shed their skins. Therefore they listen to the preachers of death and themselves preach afterworlds.” (Nietzsche, page 145). Those who hanker after the afterworld, the life-beyond-death, are too fond of their bodies to let go, but at the same time, their desire to continue with their lives leads to an obsession with death, and life after death, that denies the very body they admire. Those who wish to live on after death are followed in almost biblical procession by those who despise the body. Nietzsche is very sarcastic about these teachers: “I would not have them learn and teach differently, but merely say farewell to their own bodies – and thus become silent” (Nietzsche, page 146). He contrasts the self with the body: “Your self itself wants to die and turns away from life” (Nietzsche, page 147). The chapter which criticizes “The Preachers of Death”, again suggests that those who despise the body are suicidal: “”These are the preachers of death; and the earth is full of those to whom one must preach renunciation of life” (Nietzsche, 156). He uses very withering sarcasm, seeming to cut back their ideals to the basic premise: “The earth is full of the superfluous; life is spoiled by the all-too-many. May they be lured from this life with the ‘eternal life’!” (Nietzsche, page 156-157). Nietzsche here is again criticizing those who consider the body, the material aspects of a man, as unworthy – he considers that those who idolize the ‘spirit’ over the body are secretly struggling with a self that wishes to be a body, while the intellect, calling itself reason, refuses. In these attacks on those who would idolize the body above the self, Nietzsche definitely does not seem in favor of suicide. Other passages in the book, however, seem to point to Nietzsche’s support of suicide: “I love those who do not know how to life, except by going under…I love those who do not first seek behind the stars for a reason to go under and be a sacrifice, but they who sacrifice themselves for the earth” (Nietzsche, page 127) “I love him who…for his virtue’s sake he wants to live on and to live no longer…I love him whose soul squanders itself…I love him who is abashed when the dice fall to make his fortune…For he wants to perish” (Nietzsche, page 127). All of these quotes appear to give a positive gloss to suicide: sacrifice and virtue are prominent in the speech. As the tumbler says when he falls: “I lose nothing when I lose my life” (Nietzsche, page 132). In his confrontations with life, Zarathustra admits to his own situation: “Deeply I love only life – and verily, most of all I when I hate life…Are you still alive, Zarathustra? Why? What for?...Where? How? Is it not folly still to be alive?” (Nietzsche, page 221-2) This praise of suicide is also approached when he describes the “Free Death” - “Die at the right time – thus teaches Zarathustra” (Nietzsche, page 183). Death in this passage is one who ‘consummates’: “My death I praise to you, the free death which comes to me because I want it…Verily, I do not want to be like the ropemakers: they drag out their threads and always walk backwards.” (Nietzsche, page 184). In these passages, death is to be welcomed at the end of a successful life. This idealization of suicide is negated by the way in which Nietzsche ends this passage: “That Hebrew died too early whom the preachers of slow death honor…would that he had remained in the wilderness and far from the good and the just! Perhaps he would have learned to life and to love the earth – and laughter too.” (Nietzsche, page 185). What can be understood by these passages is that Nietzsche is in favor of death being chosen at the right time – that is, after a long and successful life. Those who sacrifice their lives without having had this success waste their lives: “How could those who never live at the right time die at the right time?” (Nietzsche, page 183). On these passages, the philosopher’s attitude to suicide seems ever more ambiguous, and it is tempting to argue that he does not refer to ‘death’ at all, when he speaks of sacrifice, but rather to a spiritual awakening similar to Zarathustra’s own; coming out of the sea in order to “Drag your own body” again. There is another answer to the question of whether Nietzsche approves of suicide or not, and this is in the passages where he dances with life, and where he discusses his journey into life: “But wherever I found the living, there I heard also the speech on obedience. Whatever lives, obeys….he who cannot obey himself is commanded. That is the nature of the living.” (Nietzsche, page 226). However, he also finds in life the essence of living, the will-to-power “Where I found the living, there I found will to power; and even in the will of those who serve I found the will to be master” (Nietzsche, page 226). Moreover, it is clear that Zarathustra and life, or the woman which embodies life in the book, share a bond: “And life itself confided this secret to me…”I am that which must always overcome itself” (Nietzsche, page 227). Zarathustra understands the secrets: “There is much that life esteems more highly than life itself; but out of the esteeming itself speaks the will to power. Thus life once taught me: and with this I shall yet solve the riddle of your heart” (Nietzsche, page 228). It is in Zarathustra’s confrontations with Life that the answer to his feelings on suicide might be discovered. Life, in the person of the dancing girl, laughs at Zarathustra, perhaps mocking his philosophies. “’But I am merely changeable and wild and a woman in every way’ Thus she laughed, the incredible one; but I never believe her and her laughter when she speaks ill of herself” (Nietzsche, page 220). “Away from you I leaped, and from your serpent’s ire; and already you stood there, half-turned, your eyes full of desire” (Nietzsche, page 336). It is a strange relationship, full of passion, and Life challenges Zarathustra on his suicidal musings: “You do not love me nearly as much as you say; I know you are thinking of leading me soon…You think, O Zarathustra, I know it, of how you want to leave me soon” (Nietzsche, page 340). Zarathustra’s relationship with life is one of teasing and taunting. Considering the “Life lived at the right time”, message of the earlier passages, this is important – life dances with him, solicits him, and taunts him with his own idea of suicide. This is Nietzsche’s understanding of the free-life/free-death exchange – the one is necessary in order to claim the other. In considering what Nietzsche thought about suicide, the answer must be divided into two parts: firstly, he criticizes those who idolize death on the promise of an afterlife. Suicide on this premise is self-murder, and Nietzsche does not approve of this at all. He considers it evidence of a poor life. On the other hand, those whom have fulfilled their dance with life; that is, lived a life full of Will, and the overcoming of self, may choose their time to die; that is, the time of death which is convenient to them. For those that have lived a full life, Nietzsche considers suicide a continuation of that: a full death, if you will. Read More