# Chapter 236 explained — Beyond Good and Evil

> Chapter companion for Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.

## What happens

The narrator challenges the idealized, uplifting view of womanhood presented by Dante and Goethe, asserting that a noble woman would reject the notion that the 'eternally feminine' draws men upward, as she believes the same of the 'eternally masculine'.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nobility and Order of Rank

The perspective is explicitly attributed to a 'noble woman,' suggesting a distinct, higher-order viewpoint that challenges sentimental or metaphysical ideals.

### Critique of Modernity

Implied critique of romantic, idealistic cultural sentiments (the 'eternally feminine') as a modern weakness or falsehood to be overcome by a noble perspective.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Directly challenges the poetic ideals of Dante and Goethe regarding women, asserting a counter-perspective from a 'noble woman's' viewpoint.

### Dante Alighieri

Cited for his line 'ella guardava suso, ed io in lei' ('she looked upward, and I at her'), which is presented as a foundational example of the idealized, uplifting view of womanhood.

### Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Cited for his interpretation of Dante's line as 'the eternally feminine draws us aloft,' which the narrator presents as the target of a noble woman's opposition.

## Key lines

> I have no doubt that every noble woman will oppose what Dante and Goethe believed about woman... 'the eternally feminine draws us aloft'; for this is just what she believes of the eternally masculine.

A noble woman rejects the idea that femininity elevates men, as she holds the same view about masculinity.

_Directly inverts a classic romantic ideal, asserting gender symmetry in the capacity for elevation from a noble perspective._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters/236
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/beyond_good_and_evil_se/chapters