Key Arguments

• Zarathustra observes the ugliest man’s transfigured demeanor and directly asks whether he reawoke the dead God and why.
• He presses the paradox: was not the God killed for good reason, why reform and convert back?
• The ugliest man refuses to settle whether God lives or not and claims he learned from Zarathustra how one must kill ‘most thoroughly’ (ellipsis in text).

Source Quotes

Appearances teach this, O Zarathustra– appearance!’ – ‘And you yourself,’ finally, said Zarathustra and turned to the ugliest man, who was still lying on the ground, his arm raised toward the ass(for he was giving him wine to drink). ‘Speak, you inexpressible creature, what have you been doing! ‘You seem to me transformed, your eyes are glowing, a mantle of the sublime lies about your ugliness: have you done? ‘Is it really true what they say, that you woke him up again?

‘Is it really true what they say, that you woke him up again? And why? Was he not killed off and done away with for good reason?

Was he not killed off and done away with for good reason? ‘You yourself seem awakened to me: what have you done? why did reform? Why did convert yourself? Speak, you inexpressible creature!’ ‘O Zarathustra,’ answered the ugliest man, ‘you are a rogue!

Speak, you inexpressible creature!’ ‘O Zarathustra,’ answered the ugliest man, ‘you are a rogue! ‘Whether still lives or lives again or is thoroughly dead– which of us two knows that best? I ask you. ‘But one thing I know– from you yourself I learned it once, O Zarathustra: whoever would kill most thoroughly, .

I ask you. ‘But one thing I know– from you yourself I learned it once, O Zarathustra: whoever would kill most thoroughly, .

Key Concepts

• ‘Speak, you inexpressible creature, what have you been doing! ‘You seem to me transformed, your eyes are glowing, a mantle of the sublime lies about your ugliness:
• And why?
• ‘You yourself seem awakened to me: what have you done? why did reform? Why did convert yourself? Speak, you inexpressible creature!’
• ‘O Zarathustra,’ answered the ugliest man, ‘you are a rogue! ‘Whether still lives or lives again or is thoroughly dead– which of us two knows that best? I ask you.
• ‘But one thing I know– from you yourself I learned it once, O Zarathustra: whoever would kill most thoroughly, .

Context

At the culmination of the confrontation sequence, Zarathustra turns to the ugliest man (feeder of wine to the ass) as the alleged reanimator of God; the ugliest man parries with agnosticism and hints at a Zarathustrian doctrine on ‘thorough killing’ (the passage breaks off).

Perspectives

Nietzsche

Stages the paradox of nihilism and its return: killing God badly ensures his revenant life; only ‘thorough’ killing—revaluation—prevents relapse. The ugliest man mirrors and mocks Zarathustra’s teaching.

Zarathustra

Seeks accountability and clarity: if God returns, it’s due to incomplete overcoming. He wills a thorough, value-creating ‘killing’ that prevents the festival of relapse.