The speech in the market-place

When Zarathustra arrived at the nearest town which adjoineth the forest, he found many people assembled in the market-place; for it had been announced that a rope-dancer would give a performance. And Zarathustra spake…

In the market-place Zarathustra teaches that man is to be surpassed, as the ape is to man. He describes the hour of great contempt and calls the Superman the lightning and the frenzy. The crowd laughs and asks to see the rope-dancer.

I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something that is to be surpassed.

Zarathustra opens his speech with the Superman and the demand that man be surpassed.

I conjure you, my brethren, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes!

Zarathustra calls those who preach superearthly hopes poisoners.

Zarathustra, however, looked at the people and wondered. Then he spake thus: Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous…

Zarathustra says man is a bridge and not a goal. He lists those he loves, all of them willing to perish for the sake of what is to come.

Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss.

Zarathustra describes man's dangerous crossing.

When Zarathustra had spoken these words, he again looked at the people, and was silent. “There they stand,” said he to his heart; “there they laugh: they understand me not; I am not the mouth for these ears. Must one…

Zarathustra decides to appeal to their pride and speaks of the last man. The crowd cheers and asks him to make them last men. He is saddened and says he is not the mouth for these ears.

“What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?”—so asketh the last man and blinketh.

The first description of the last man's blinking indifference.