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A Critical Examination of Tiie Death of God in Nietzsche: Pity, Revenge and Laughter G

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A Critical Examination of Tiie Death of God in Nietzsche: Pity, Revenge and Laughter G Diálogos, 64 (1994) pp. 59--91. A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF TIIE DEATH OF GOD IN NIETZSCHE: PITY, REVENGE AND LAUGHTER G. STEVEN NEELEY W'hen gods die> they always die severa/ kinds ofdeath .1 Nietzsche is known as the great trumpeter of the death of God. In several bold and dramatic passages, he informs us not only that God is dead, but also how His death was brought about. The reports on the ex­ act mode of death, however, are inconsistent. In several places, Nietzsche suggests that God fell victim to violence. Elsewhere, we are told that God died out of psychic trauma. A thorough examination of the various passages in whic\1 Nietzsche explicitly mentions the death of God will reveal an interesting weave of thought which has not yet been ade- · quately explored by the commentators. An investigation into this concep­ tual network will yield a richer appreciation of the death-of-God theme and will shed new light on Nietzsche's account of the emotions involved. 1 Tbe Deatb of God The stray light of a madman illuminated the most tremendous event of human history. Nietzsche's prophetic tolle Mensch of The Gay Science ran into the market place, leaped into the midst of the crowd, and pierced them with his eyes: "Whíther is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have kílled him-you and I. All of us are his murderers... Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as 1 Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, i~ The Portable Nietzsche, trans., Walter Kaufmann, New York: Viking Press (1954) part 4, § 6. 59 yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. Finally, there is a curious passage in Zaratbustra which suggests that God remains dead. And we have killed him." God may have died out of a psychic trauma of an entirely different sort. "How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What Nietzsche informs us that the "old gods" met with a "good gay godlike was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled end": to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?"2 They did not endin a 'twilight,' though this lie is told. lnstead: one day A similar tale of murder is spun by the "ug1iest man" of Zaratbustra they laugbed themselves to death. That happened when the most god­ who confesses that he murdered God out of the spirlt of revenge: less word issued from one of the gods themselves the word: 'There is one god. Thou shalt have no other god before me!' But be bad to die: he saw with eyes that saw everything; he saw man's (Nietzsche, Zarathustra., part 3, § 8) depths and ultimate grounds, all his concealed disgrace and ugliness. His pity knew no shame: he crawled into my dirtiest nooks. This most Kaufmann lists the many passages in Nietzsche in which we are ex­ curious, overobtrusive, overpitying one had to die. He always saw me: pressly told of the death of God.3 Of those passages, only those cited di­ on such a witness I wanted to ha ve revenge or not live myself. The god rectly above tell us the mode of God's death. The passages reveal that who saw everything, even man- this god had to die! Man cannot bear God may be said to have died in several different ways: He was mur­ it that such a witness should live. dered in the spirit of revenge; He died out of his pity for mankind; and (Nietzsche, Zarathustra, part 4, § 7) the "old gods" laughed themselves to death. Pity and revenge are two fundamental attitudes which play an important role in Nietzsche's Elsewhere, however, we are led to believe that God dies a less vio­ thought. Furthermore, pity and revenge are closely related attitudes in lent death. There are two passages in Zaratbustra in which God dies out the sense that pity is often a disguised forro of vengeance. Laughter is of pity. In the section aptly entitled "On The Pitying," Zarathustra con­ also an important lietmotif in Nietzsche's writing, which symbolizes, ínter fides: ''Thus spoke the devil to me once: 'God too has his hell: that is bis afia, the state of the spirit which is beyond tragedy. The primary goal of love of man.' And most recently 1 heard him say this: 'God is dead; God this paper is to ask-and hopefully, answer-the question: Why, out of a d.ied of his pity for man" (Ibid., part 2, § 3). Similarly, in the later section near infinite number of possible ways to die, did Nietzsche choose to entitled "Retired," Zarathustra asks the "old pope" if he knows how God portray the death of God through scenarios involving these particular died: "Is it true what they say, that pity strangled him, that he saw how emotions? There is considerable literature in the fi eld, and it is considered man hung on the cross and that he could not bear it, that Iove of man de riguer to at least mention the death-of-God theme in any serious work became his hell, and in the end his death?" (Ibid., part 4, § 6). Eventually, on Nietzsche. Yet none of the commentators have focused squarely on the "old pope" replies: the issue at hand. Moreover, the psychological dynamics of pity, revenge and laughter present a fertile and continuing source of interest in When he was young, this god out of the Orient, he was harsh and Nietzsche scholarship. Accordingly, a second and related goal will be to vengeful and he built himself a hell to amuse his favorites. Eventually, however, he became old and soft and mellow and pitying... Then he examine Nietzsche's thoughts on pity, revenge and laughter and to ex­ sat in his nook by the hearth, wilted, grieving over his weak legs, weary plore whatever connections they may have to the death-of-God theme. of the world, weary of willing, and one day he choked on his all-too­ great pity. (Nietzsche, Zarathustra., part 4, § 6) 2 Friedrich Nietzsche, Tbe Gay Science, trans., Walter Kaufmann, New York: Vintage 3 The list occurs in Kaufmann's translation of Tbe Gay Science, supra, note 2, p . Books 0974) part 3, § 125. 167. 60 61 verse interpretation concerning whether the will-to-power denotes 11 Pity and Revenge something empirical or is rather a hypothesis entertained on Hollingdale suggests that pity and revenge are but two of a large methodological grounds alone, but the question arises concerning the number of effects which proceed from a single cause, namely: the will­ actual scope of the will-to-power. One might ask whether the will-to­ to-power.4 Near the beginning of the AntiChrist, Nietzsche presents a power properly pertains to the entire cosmos, only to the organic series of questions and answers which represent the very core and direc­ ldngdom, or merely to the realm of human psychology. Moreover, the tion of the philosophy of power as it has been built up and refined dur­ proposed analysis of pity and revenge is complicated even further by the ing the course of his writings: notion that the two emotions appear to occur on a variety of different levels. Thus, it is possible to address individual psychological states of What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, these attitudes, or universal ontological states of pity and revenge. 7 At the will to power, power itself. bottom, any analysis which attempts to grapple with such elusive What is bad? Everything that is born of"weakness. concepts as the will-to-power or its various complex psychological manifestations is destined to be fraught with difficulty. Yet, despite an What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. S inevitable margin of imprecision, such an undertaking will be of real benefit towards the recognition of certain subtle nuances in Nietzsche's The bold identification of will-to-power with goodness, coupled with writings. Thus, invoking the jurisprudential prescript of deciding only the assertion that happiness is the feeling of enhanced power, provides a those matters which are necessary for resol u tion of the immediate penetrating insight into Nietzsche's thought. Thus, we see "a large range controversy, this paper will proceed simply upon the recognition that for of effects which it is suggested proceed from a single cause: gratitude, Nietzsche, the will-to-power applies at least to the field of psychology, moral evaluations, the desire to arouse pity, humility, teasing, lave of and that pity and revenge arise out of competing drives for power. knowledge, production of works of art, philosophizing, lawgiving, the As a psychologist, Nietzsche is not satisfied with a mere description idea of justice, all taking their origin from sorne aspect of the possession of mental scenery; his main concem is with the inner dynamics of human of, or the dríve to preserve, or the desire to enhance power" nature and with the complex interplay of forces which mould thought, (Hollingdale, p. 79). In short: "Will to power' as the basic psychological character, and conduct. 8 Viewed as manifestations of the will-to-power, drive in man, of which all other human activities are sublimations is pity and revenge are closely related emotions. Nietzsche often speaks of ' Nietzsche's specific psychological 'theory"' (Ibid., p. 183). pity as being a more subtle form of revenge, and from the very begin­ But what precisely is the will-to-power? At one place Nietzsche states: ning, the analysis is complex.
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