Woman's Role and the Overman

Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” covers many topics. This work is composed of many short stories where he covers different themes and ideas. Nietzsche’s key ideas comprise of friendship, marriage, thoughts on women and the “Übermensch” or overman. He talks a lot about the concept of overcoming and the only way that man can succeed is to overcome. In addition, the idea of “life-affirmation” is central to his philosophy.

Nietzsche’s ideas of life affirmation tie into the topic of the overman, life-affirmation is the questioning of any code that drains one’s energies, however socially recognized those ideas might be. He believes that living by such principles is a waste of time and not a life worth living. Nietzsche believes that religion, although it is comforting for oneself, is a self-delusion. He reasons that all values are the creations of humans; therefore, all humans are responsible for living up to those high values, which they created themselves. Nietzsche also speaks about women in a controversial way as well as stereotypical. Nietzsche brings together the idea of the overman and that woman is supposed to be the one to produce one. Although woman achieves great things, Nietzsche still has somewhat negative thoughts toward them when really woman should be glorified for being able to do this.

Nietzsche wrote the book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” in which he voices his opinions about many things. He speaks mainly about the overman but also speaks of friendship and women. It seems as though he wrote this book to speak his real thoughts through a different “person”, which would be the character Zarathustra. Nietzsche constantly brings up the concept of man being able to succeed only if he overcomes (Jonas 154). “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Nietzsche starts out with Zarathustra coming out of the wilderness where he was for ten years. He goes to try to teach