Thus Spoke Zarathustra · Chapter
The Three Evil Things explained
Zarathustra recounts a morning dream in which he weighed the world, and then proceeds to weigh the three things traditionally cursed as evil: voluptuousness, passion for power, and selfishness.
What happens
Zarathustra recounts a morning dream in which he weighed the world, and then proceeds to weigh the three things traditionally cursed as evil: voluptuousness, passion for power, and selfishness. He revalues each as wholesome and necessary, defending selfishness as healthy self-enjoyment of the powerful soul, and proclaiming the coming of the great noontide.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This is the dramatic climax because Zarathustra achieves the ultimate psychological peak of the *Yes-saying* p…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Will to Power and Creation
Passion for power is portrayed as a creative, destructive force that breaks down the rotten and hollow, and as the teacher of great contempt.
- The Body and the Earth
Voluptuousness is defended as innocent and free, the garden-happiness of the earth, and selfishness is rooted in the healthy, powerful body.
- Death of God and Revaluation of Values
Zarathustra revalues the three traditionally cursed things, blessing selfishness and proclaiming a new morality for the great noontide.
Characters to notice
- Zarathustra
Narrates his dream of weighing the world and revalues the three evil things, blessing selfishness and announcing the great noontide.
- The Higher Men
Implied as those who might understand the revaluation; Zarathustra speaks of 'free hearts' and 'lion-willed' individuals.
- The Priests
Criticized as spurious wise who have abused selfishness and taught selflessness as virtue.
Key passages
“Passion for power: the earthquake which breaketh and upbreaketh all that is rotten and hollow; the rolling, rumbling, punitive demolisher of whited sepulchres; the flashing interrogative-sign beside premature answers.”
The drive for power is like an earthquake that shatters everything decayed and false; it is a destructive force that exposes hypocrisy and questions all easy answers.
Zarathustra revalues passion for power as a necessary, cleansing force rather than an evil.
“And he who proclaimeth the ego wholesome and holy, and selfishness blessed, verily, he, the prognosticator, speaketh also what he knoweth: 'Behold, it cometh, it is nigh, the great noontide!'”
The one who declares the self sacred and selfishness good is a prophet who announces the approaching great noontide, a turning point in history.
Zarathustra links the revaluation of selfishness to the coming of the great noontide.
