ABSTRACT
Having affected the 'artistic distance' of the 'transcendent buffoon' and the art of mocking self-reflection, Zarathustra is now able to look down upon himself and laugh and weep over 'the hero no less than the fool' performing in the drama of his soul. It is precisely the fragmentary nature of Zarathustra's psyche and its dramatic attempts at reintegration that is staged in Part IV. Zarathustra's pilgrimage in Part IV recounts, and to a certain extent relives, this voyage. The higher men whom Zarathustra encounters – the soothsayer, the two kings, the conscientious man of spirit, the sorcerer, the last pope, the ugliest man, and the voluntary beggar – are in small part caricatures of those cultural figures whom Zarathustra has at some time 'honoured and revered', and in large part allegorical representations of the decadent values and nihilistic ideals which these figures body forth and which continue to take refuge in the innermost recesses of Zarathustra's soul.
