Symbolism Of The Man In Nietzsche's 'The Lion'

2. The lion

Having experienced both what sin had to offer and what a moral life in accordance with Christian values had to offer, it is the time for Stephen to become a lion. He has set his soul into the wild battle abovementioned and as Nietzsche says “But in the loneliest desert the second metamorphosis occurs. Here the spirit becomes lion, it wants to hunt down its freedom and be master in its own desert.” (Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 2006, p. 16).

Dedalus at this moment starts to question everything in his life: his nationality, his religion, his language. He realizes that his life cannot be as the life of a simple man for that he had the artistic skill. This discovery of his creativity comes to him as a prophecy that is revealed

The word “lion” in itself connotes living the life as a “king of the jungle”, thus being seduced by neither society, nor fear from hell and having achieved to be the owner of oneself. The lion stands as a symbol for courage. In order that the camel, being metamorphosed into a lion, can achieve the Overman, it must object the values that the society and culture imposes to man. Because of his rejection to sign a petition about the revival of Irish language, though he scorns English language, his friend responds in a frustrating manner “I can’t understand you . . . One time I hear you talk against English literature. Now you talk against the Irish informers. What with your name and your ideas – Are you Irish at all?” (Joyce, 2005, p. 199). He cannot sign it because it makes him part of the group which he does not want to belong anymore. Consequently, Stephen rejects everything that the society he belongs to propagates for and embraces his freedom as a new man, as an

Resolution: The child

The last stage of metamorphosis of the spirit is to become a child. Nietzsche explaining the need of the man to become a child as a means to reach the Overman notes

But tell me, my brothers, of what is the child capable that even the lion is not? Why must the preying lion still become a child? The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a wheel rolling out of itself, a first movement, a sacred yes-saying. Yes, for the game of creationmy brothers a sacred yes-saying is required. The spirit wants its will, the one lost to the world now wins its own world. (Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 2006, p. 17).

Thus, the man, in order to achieve the final resolution needs to transform himself into a child. The child step aims to cleanse the remaining of the past. In this stage, the man could gain the innocence of a child and therefore forget. By forgetting the past, man can at last be completely