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    A Wanderer at the Dawn
    A Wanderer at the Dawn
    A Wanderer at the Dawn
    Ebook120 pages1 hour

    A Wanderer at the Dawn

    By Carl Reader

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    About this ebook

    A Wanderer at the Dawn is a play about the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and takes place on the day of his death. His mind destroyed by tertiary syphilis, Nietzsche is partially paralyzed and under the care of his sister. As he lays dying, the play takes place in his mind as the various characters interact with him and illuminate the life and philosophy of this great anti-Christian. Details about his sickness, his relationship with the love of his life, Lou Salome, and his relationship with the great composer Richard Wagner, along with talks with his terribly disturbed sister and with his friend Paul Ree, comprise the majority of the work. Nietzsche emerges as a philosopher who refuses to compromise or stray from the truth, one who will not accept the intellectual degradation of mass movements like Christianity and one who insists Man can do better than he has.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCarl Reader
    Release dateJan 26, 2011
    ISBN9781458146250
    A Wanderer at the Dawn
    Author

    Carl Reader

    Carl Reader trained as a journalist at Temple University and has worked as a reporter, photographer and editor in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Montana. He's published short stories in literary magazines and on the Internet and has self-published a children's Christmas story called THE TWELFTH ELF OF KINDNESS.That book was partially published in Russia under the Sister Cities program. He's also self-published a novella called THE PERSECUTION OF WILLIAM PENN, which has been well-received in several college libraries. He works as a professional photographer and freelance writer.

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      Book preview

      A Wanderer at the Dawn - Carl Reader

      A Wanderer at the Dawn

      By

      Carl Reader

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2011 Carl Reader

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. All characters in this play are purely fictional, although based on historical characters. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is strictly coincidental.

      A Wanderer at the Dawn

      THE CHARACTERS

      FRIEDRICH WILHELM NIETZSCHE, a philosopher

      FRANZISKA NIETZSCHE, his mother

      THERESE ELISABETH ALEXANDRA FOSTER-NIETZSCHE, his sister

      RICHARD WAGNER, the composer

      LOU SALOME, a young Russian woman

      PAUL REE, a German-Jewish psychologist

      ACT ONE

      The scene is NIETZSCHE's bedroom in Weimar, August 25, 1900, the day of his death. He is in bed.

      ELISABETH

      (Rushing on-stage) Get up, Fritz. There are people downstairs.

      NIETZSCHE

      They're hallucinations. I've seen them before.

      ELISABETH

      No, these are real people, wonderfully excited people. They say it would be magnificent just to hear you walk above them.

      NIETZSCHE

      Hear me walk? I can't even get up. I need my solitude.

      ELISABETH

      I know, but they think they can learn from you just by hearing your footsteps above them, like the thunder of the gods. They're the same sort of people who have been coming the last few years, after they've found out your philosophy has ended up in the supreme insight - madness.

      NIETZSCHE

      All these people are asses, and I saw a star fall tonight. Through the window there.

      ELISABETH

      All those intellectuals you associated with were asses, and they certainly don't understand you. But please try, Fritz. These are good Germans and they've paid good money and fancy themselves philosophers, like you. The man was strutting around, and puffing out his chest and trying to act like one of your overmen and talking nonsense about all your books.

      (NIETZSCHE sits up, with ELISABETH's assistance)

      NIETZSCHE

      This is too difficult for me. (he has a hard time sitting, since his right side is paralyzed) Wouldn't it be easier to shoot these people? Promise me you'll do that. I can't lift my arm or leg.

      ELISABETH

      If I shoot them no one else will come, although they deserve it. You can sit, I know, and then I can help you up, and then you can walk, or I can drag you across the floor. What does it matter if they hear my footsteps or yours?

      NIETZSCHE

      Thunder or rain.

      ELISABETH

      What? Now we need to get you to your feet. There ... Please, come on, there might be a book sale in this. Money, Fritz, money. These people know there has never been anyone like you since the dawn of time. They said as much, and were in awe that this is the house in which you live.

      NIETZSCHE

      I can't see the floor. Am I blind now, too, like father at the end?

      ELISABETH

      Just look. It's there by your feet. They've paid good money, an excellent fee, and could talk of nothing but what you've written. They babble on about your greatness and what you mean to the new Germany, as if even they could be uplifted by you. They loved The Will to Power.

      NIETZSCHE

      Utter asses. Could I eat dinner first? I'm weak.

      ELISABETH

      God, Fritz, it's morning. Don't you know? Raise your eyes to the sunlight.

      NIETZSCHE

      No, to both. I can't see.

      ELISABETH

      I have your breakfast outside the door. Take a little walk first, for these people, before you eat. They say they are Nietzscheans and adore you. It's the money, Fritz, an excellent amount of money. Walk and then you can eat. They know what a great man you are, and need your inspiration.

      NIETZSCHE

      I am a philosopher.

      ELISABETH

      Yes, a great one. That's why these people are here. You're the greatest philosopher of all, ever. No one has ever shone the sun on mankind's ignorance as you have.

      NIETZSCHE

      Then why is it only fools adore me? A philosopher is a man who constantly experiences, sees, hears, suspects, hopes, and dreams extraordinary things. Why all these fools when I've done so much?

      ELISABETH

      All you've done is extraordinary. The extraordinary is what you've done all your life, it's true, and the sun coming up blinds all. Everyone knows you have always inspired mankind to rise up to its greatness, even these fools. I have your breakfast outside waiting for you as a reward if you can walk. Please, just a little walk first. They want to hear the thunder of your footsteps. They said they want to hear the new god crashing across the floor. (she struggles to make him stand) You know you're a god now, don't you, Fritz?

      NIETZSCHE

      I am a man who is struck by his own thoughts as if they came from the outside, from above and below, as a species of events and lightning-flashes peculiar to him ...

      ELISABETH

      Exactly.

      NIETZSCHE

      ... who is perhaps himself a storm pregnant with new lightnings.

      ELISABETH

      That is why they need to hear your footsteps - because they are thunder and pure inspiration. Imagine it, Fritz, they came to worship you, and think even your mere footsteps an inspiration. They'll all come soon to worship you.

      NIETZSCHE

      I fear that.

      ELISABETH

      It is only a small thing I ask of you, and they have already paid. Look! Just walk with me, please!

      NIETZSCHE

      (He gets to his feet with her help) I am a portentous man, around whom there are always rumblings and mumbling and gaping and something uncanny going on. A philosopher: alas, a being who often runs away from himself, is often afraid of himself - but whose curiosity always makes him come to himself again.

      ELISABETH

      They're asses, Fritz. Do it for me. I know you'll come to yourself once again, once you wipe away this darkness you're in, but don't think you're going anywhere without me right now. I asked you to walk, so that two people, a man and his wife, two crazy fools who were willing to part with their money for the experience, could hear you walk on the ceiling above and then go home and brag about it to their friends.

      NIETZSCHE

      (in pain) I can't! I'm afraid I'll break in half. Better to fall into the hands of a murderer than a woman in heat!

      ELISABETH

      Hold on! What do you mean by that? You could have the decency to do what I ask, and please these fools. The money, Fritz, the money! I have your breakfast, and you will get it as soon as this is done.

      NIETZSCHE

      Am I so important that people must hear me walk? I have no books now. Without a book in my hand, I feel like a man in the dark. (he falls back into bed)

      ELISABETH

      Damn you, Fritz.

      NIETZSCHE

      I couldn't help it. I look up at the night sky now, with its half-moon and shower of stars, and I think that life is a riddle that's worn me out. Have pity on me.

      ELISABETH

      Pity is a waste. You said it yourself. Fritz, great and good god who will lead mankind to his glory, get up. For the money! Hello, downstairs! Just a minute, please. Doctor Nietzsche

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