ipl-logo

Nietzsche's Three Metamorphoses

1031 Words5 Pages

Siddhartha has beard.

Nietzsche uses three animals, a camel, a lion, and a child to metaphor three levels of spirits. In first stage, being a camel, carrying on heavy load walks slowly on the desert. A camel follows principle and learns as much as he can. In second stage, a lion is a destroyer; break all the traditional values and morals. A lion becomes his own owner. The last stage, being an innocent child is a reconciliation with ourselves and a road to eternal lives. A child becomes a part of nature, living in the world with harmony and blissfulness.

The novel, Siddhartha is the journey of Siddhartha that how he becomes who he is. His life experience can be divided to three stages which matches Nietzsche’s theory, On the three Metamorphoses: …show more content…

The way Hesse describes that Siddhartha is nothing but himself is similar with Nietzsche when he implies that human beings are on the surface lives. Hesse states, “The purpose and the essential properties were not somewhere behind the things.” Which means nothing beyond the substance. Nietzsche states the theory on the paragraph of Consciousness in the book, Gay science. Nietzsche said, “Consciousness gives rise to countless mistakes that lead an animal or human being to perish sooner than necessary.” In other words, we don’t know about the world, the only one thing we can know is surface. However, it’s not a bad thing that we only know the knowledge of surface, because our consciousness of the world always leads us to mistakes. Thus, this is the reason why Siddhartha will go through after his false awakening. He wants to find something deeper beneath himself then he will fall in a turmoil …show more content…

He destroys his original values. He indulges himself in earthly things such as love, money and gambling. However, these physical enjoyments cannot bring him joyfulness. The truly awakening happens in the chapter of By the River. He learns from the ferryman; he listens to the river. He says,” Isn’t it just as if I had turned slowly and on a long detour from a man into a child, from a thinker into a childlike person? And yet, this path has been very good; and yet, the bird in my chest has not died.” In this phase, he transforms to a child as well as a creator. He is no longer a seeker; he becomes Siddhartha literally. This is an echo of Zarathustra who says, “a wheel rolling out of itself” and “The spirit wants its will, the one lost the world now wins its own

Open Document