The bermensch

And Faust
Dylan Williamson
Candidate number :003717 - 0050

THE EMBODIMENT OF
THE BERMENSCH IN
FAUST

Is it A Bird, Is it a Plane,
No, Its

SUPERMAN!

The bermensch
The bermensch is an ideal that man can be
more than just what he currently is, and that he
strives to be what others can only hope to
believe in.

In a sense, the bermensch is similar to

Superman, except instead of superior
physical strength he superior psychological
abilities.

What is the
bermensch?
I teach you the overman (bermensch?). Man is
something to be surpassed. What have you done to
surpass him?(13) Thus Spoke Zarathustra
The bermensch is an ideal that states what man
should hope to be
How a man should act in order to be the best man that
he can be
Faust shows that he himself is on his own journey to
self-improvement and enlightenment.

Friedrich Nietzsche
15 October 1844 25 August 1900
A German philosopher and writer
Wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Brought the idea of the bermensch
into the spotlight
Held Goethe in great esteem

His Ideals
Believed that religion was used as an excuse
to hide from ones problem
Believed in self improvement in order to
better ones self
Hoped to see man realize his own follies and
thus be able to learn more and thus enter a
state of psychological superiority compared to
his past self
All traits that can be found in Faust

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Written through 1883-1885 as a philosophic
novel
About Zarathustra, and his journey through
the lands as he tries to teach his beliefs and
way of life to others in order to allow them to
improve themselves
Used as a way to show how Nietzsche's
beliefs, mainly those of the bermensch
could work in realistic situations as portrayed
in the novel

Faust
Faust is a man who holds many of the traits of
the bermensch and also does many of the
things Zarathustra says men should do.
Faust demonstrates the bermensch qualities
throughout his journey with Mephistopheles, as
compared with how Nietzsche describes
Zarathustras teachings and ideals
Faust goes out into the world, with
Mephistopheles, in order to try and fulfill his
own goals, as he strives for self-improvement.
This is what drives the plot.

Sleepers
What will you do in the land of the sleepers?(12)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
To Burgdorf! I promise you youll get/The best girls
there, the best beer yet,/And plenty of good quarrels
to pick(27) Faust
Theres nothing better, on a holiday,/Than talk and
noise of war to while the time away.(29) Faust

Strives
Man is a rope stretched between animal and
overman - a rope over an Abyss. A dangerous
crossing, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous
looking back, a dangerous trembling and stopping.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a
goal: what can be loved in man is that he is an overgoing and a down-going.(15) Thus Spoke
Zarathustra

Man is supposed to overcome challenges through his

own endeavors.
The journey to his self improvement and fulfillment is
what matters, not necessarily the end result.

Faust Strives
Faust strives towards his goal of learning
more about the meaning of Nature through
the use of communicating with spirits
This striving ultimately leads him on his
journey to self-fulfillment and to try and
improve his own life.
He works with Mephistopheles in order to try
and achieve his own goals, in order to seek
more satisfaction with the way he lives.

Why does he strive?

What good is my reason!(14)
What good is my happiness!(14)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
I take no pleasure in anything now(15)
how these walls still cramp my soul,/This
cursed stifling prison-hole/Where heavens dear
light must pass/Dimly through panes of painted
glass! (16) Faust
Faust no longer feels meaning in life with how
he lives it.

God is dead
God is dead!(2) Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Man must then fill in the position of God, and
also remove the parts of his life which rely on
God.
You gentle, puissant choirs of heaven, why/
Do you come seeking me? The dust is
stronger!/Go, chant elsewhere to tenderer
souls! For I/Can hear the message, but
believe no longer.(26)
Due to this, man should replace the figure of
God with his own strength instead

Faust kills God

God is dead!(13) Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Faust acknowledges his own lack of belief in his
faith when speaking with Margareta
The names(God) mere noise and smoke-what
does it do/But cloud the heavenly radiance(109)
Faust
In his mind, God isnt necessary to his life, allowing
him to replace the strength of God with himself, as
well as his love for Margareta.

Three Metamorphoses
the spirit becomes a camel, the camel a lion,
and the lion at last a child.(24)
In order for Faust to become the overman he
must understand himself.
This represents the three stages of Fausts
journey on him being an overman and how
Faust has evolved on his journey on the pursuit
of self-improvement

A Camel
All these heaviest things the weight-bearing spirit
takes upon itself: and like the camel, which, when
burdened, speeds into the wilderness, so the spirit
speeds into its wilderness.(25)Thus Spoke
Zarathustra

Well, thats Philosophy Ive read/And Law and

Medicine, and I fear/Theology too, from A to Z(15)
Faust works his whole life for the pursuit of
intellectual knowledge, and after taking this
burden, wishes to live his life with more meaning
than just this knowledge.

A Lion
To create new values - that, even the lion cannot
yet accomplish: but to create itself freedom for new
creating - that can the might of the lion do.(25)

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

If I ever lie down in sloth and base inaction,/Then
let that moment be my end!/If by your false
cajolery/You lull me into self-sufficiency, If any
pleasure you can give/Deludes me, let me cease to
live!/I offer you this wager!(52) Faust
By accepting a deal with Mephistopheles, Faust is
able to go out into the world and pursue what he
wants.

A Lion
To create new values - that, even the lion
cannot yet accomplish: but to create itself
freedom for new creating - that can the might
of the lion do.(25)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Tonight that sweet young thing shall
lie/Between my arms, or you and I/Will have
been together long enough.(82) Faust
In his pursuit of Margareta, Faust allows
himself to pursue new freedoms, an live life
the way he wishes to.

A Child
Innocence is the child, and forgetting, a new
beginning, a game, a self propelling wheel, a first
movement, a sacred Yes.(26)Thus Spoke
Zarathustra
Oh, stop, stop! Think what it is you say!/Just one
step, and were on our way(147) Faust
Oh why was I born, at such a cost!(148) Faust
Faust ends up becoming a child by the end of his
journey, except instead of being ready to learn
without knowledge, he is powerless to do anything
to save Margareta as he forgets the nature of
consequences. He ends relearning that happiness
may elude his grasp.

The Overman

Works Cited
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von, and David
Luke. Faust. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987. Print.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, and Thomas
Common. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for
All and None. Trans. Bill Chapko. N.p.: n.p.,
2010. Print.