Friedrich Nietzsche is one of history’s foremost philosophers and philologists, often called the father of nihilism. This extends to his portrayal of women in his literary works; while he focused primarily on works of dramatic theory rather than writing stories himself, these books are nonetheless the expression of his thoughts on women as a species, particularly as they relate to the overall condition of man of which he was so concerned. Nietzsche’s own personal views on women were hardly positive, as he seems to believe that women were the essence of everything that was unreasonable and distracting to the pure, philosophical male. In his works The Birth of Tragedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Ecco Homo, these perspectives on women become crystal clear, as his sense of philosophy is warped by a philosophical distaste for women in general.
In Nietzsche’s philosophical work The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche speaks of two brothers, Apollo and Dionysus, who demonstrate the classically ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ halves of our consciousness, otherwise known as the Appolonian and the Dionysian. These two cannot coexist, as one must be favored over the other in all things: "Whenever the Dionysian prevailed, the Apollonian was checked and destroyedwherever the first Dionysian onslaught was successfully withstood, the authority and majesty of the Delphic god Apollo exhibited itself as more rigid and menacing than ever" (Nietzsche). Nietzsche is all about finding a sense of balance in art, as The Birth of Tragedy revolves around the use of tragic drama by the Greeks to discover this sense of balance: "At this juncture, when the will is most imperiled, art approaches, as a redeeming and healing enchantress; she alone may transform these horrible reflections on the terror and absurdity of existence into representations with which man may live" (Nietzsche, Chapter 7). For example, when he discusses Euripides’ tale of The Bacchae, Nietzsche notes that Dionysis himself dresses up in women’s clothing, linking Dionysus’ irrational and chaotic behavior to women, and consequently criticizing them.
The structural analogy found in The Birth of Tragedy seeks to gender the “art drives” that oppose each other to create tragedy, and this is done through making Apollo masculine and Dionysus feminine (Oppel 63). In connecting these attitudes to tragedy as a whole, Nietzsche links the presence of women to pessimistic views on the Greek plays; he felt that these works by figures like Euripides and the like were not the tales of heroism that they are commonly thought to be, but just the tale of pessimistic and sadly ineffective attempts to escape our fates.
The best kinds of tragedy, then, mixes the Appolonian and Dionysian into a complete unit that allows a play or written work to show the comprehensive nature of the human experience. Also of substantial note is the fact that there are barely any real women mentioned in the work at all; it is Dionysus who must bear the brunt of this feminization, while also maintaining his status as a man. This makes it strange that Nietzsche would use an analogy of sexual intercourse, saying that Apollo and Dionysus need each other “just as procreation depends on the duality of the sexes” (Nietzsche 1). Oppel, however, argues that:
“rather than forgetting or ignoring his Greek woman, deliberately dismembered herand scattered her pieces throughout the text, with the expressed hope that she may be reborn. Rather than slighting the feminine, Nietzsche gives it mythic status” (Oppel, 64-65).
Nietzsche’s sense of nihilism and how it relates to women is continued in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. While this is one of the philosopher’s more narrative works, this plot revolves around mostly, if not entirely, male characters – the absence of women is clearly felt. For the vast majority of the work, the male perspective is seen as the ultimate ideal, in the form of the ubermensch, or ‘superman.’ As "God is dead," we have nothing to fear from Him anymore, and as a result we can transcend those godly aspirations to achieve something new. (Zarathrustra 36). Just as Nietzsche eschews discussions of gender, he seems to also ask the audience to reject mankind and humanity in general: "I teach you the superman. Man is something to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man?" (Zarathrustra 1502). Instead of focusing on specific women, the feminine characteristics that define them – “nature, the earth, the body, emotions, dreams and the unconscious” – are reinvented as means of becoming trusting, confident and assertive with oneself (Oppel 154). By omitting women, the feminine characteristics mentioned above are simply transferred to men, challenging the dichotomy of heterosexuality by making it not even possible to be fulfilled.
In an earlier passage in Zarathustra, Nietzsche also notes the role of women as being apart from men’s lives “in collectivity” (659). Women are noted to need to be chameleon-like in nature, needing to “wear all sorts of individual clothes and colors in the social playground; it is even necessary” (659). Attempts in modern times by women to adapt to gain more agency has seen them become more masculine, according to Nietzsche, which then relieves men from a sort of primitive social role. At the same time, he argues that this masculinization makes women “falsified,” as it just helps them to play a role instead of helping them be who they are.
Despite these half-hearted compliments to women, the oppressive nature of the story of the old woman and the whip remains problematic in nature. In this case, there is a little old woman that Zarathustra talks to, telling her that women’s role is to become pregnant and engage in recreation, and to obey her man out of love. The woman replies, “You are going to women? Then don’t forget the whip!”, implying that even older women agrees with Nietzsche’s views on women (743). The implication is that old, wise women who know better believe also that woman’s place is subordinate to man. To that end, Zarathustra becomes somewhat of a pep talk to uplift men’s patriarchal ideas about maintaining a sense of superiority over women. Gender roles and norms are strictly stratified, and they must be maintained if people are to achieve an ideal state of being.
Perhaps Nietzsche’s true views on women can be found in his most autobiographical work, Ecce Homo, in which he gives his personal thoughts on the world. When discussing the ubermensch in Ecce Homo, Nietzsche does not refer to a specific type of person of a specific gender – instead, he believes it is a manner of achievement that is supreme and idealistic. In fact, unlike the typical “superman” commonly considered to be his idea of the ubermensch, the concept instead refers to “the overcoming of resentment of women and of ties to birth and death – the complete acceptance of oneself and one’s mortality” (Oppel 14). In this way, Nietzsche somehow oddly sidesteps past the ostensibly sexist things he says about women in his works and turns them into transcendent figures who are able to fully escape and avoid the trappings of man’s weakness.
In this work, Nietzsche speaks of the emancipated woman, the women who are “anarchists in the world of the eternal feminine” (Ecce Homo 5). Women who are ‘emancipated’ in his mind are women who embody the values of the eternal feminine, “the woman who is turned out well” (Ecce Homo 5). Instead of fighting for women’s rights, argues Nietzsche, women should instead work against emancipation, since power is instead lost by losing their feminine qualities that keep men in line. While the idea of femininity being inexorably tied to women is strange and problematic, he only does so to backhandedly compliment women since masculinity is a greater evil. He comfortingly claims that “A little woman pursuing her vengeance would force overtake even Fate itself,” and then claims that those same women going after their own aims are undeserving of his respect (Ecce Homo).
Ecce Homo sees women divided into two groups – in one group, the “perfect” women are able to exemplify the “eternal feminine,” and the other are the “emancipated” women who lessen themselves by not focusing on childbirth (5). The latter group receives scorn by Nietzsche, as they do not have their priorities straight, as he alleges. By not having children, they do not embody the eternal feminine, and as such are not really considered good women. He even suggests a way to fix them: “Has my answer been heard to the question how one cures a woman – ‘redeems’ her? One gives her a child” (Ecce Homo 5). By reinforcing these ideals, but yet considering the idea that Nietzsche is being positive towards them, it ends up becoming a very conflicting and confusing view of women. The result is a rather bizarre instance of chauvinism, in which women are the better sex, but only because of their stereotypical cleverness that leads them to become uncomfortable in their illusory domestication of women themselves.
Works Cited
Lawlor, Leonard and Zeynep Direk. Derrida, Routledge, 2002.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Ecce Homo.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathrustra. Ernst Schmeitzner, 1885.
Oppel, Frances Nesbitt. Nietzsche on Gender: Beyond Man and Woman. University of Virginia
Press, 2005.
