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The Sorrows Of Young Werther

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I always find it sad that more people do not read Goethe for pleasure alone. Yes, he was a "scholarly" writer but his works, although profound, are written in an easily understandable style. I think too many people have been needlessly scared off by Goethe's monumental intelligence and his philosophy. This is too bad. His books revolve around themes that are universal, subjects to which all of us can relate: romantic love, nature, God, beauty.

Eighteenth-century German literature was propelled by a revolution in romanticism, and writers such as Goethe celebrated their most cherished ideals in as ornate and eloquent a manner as possible. While the tendency of American and British writers to ignore the sublime and the romantic in favor of stark realism does have its place, that does not mean that the sublime and the romantic should be casually tossed aside.

The Sorrows of Young Werther is not Goethe at this best (you need to read Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship for that) but it the best introduction to Goethe anyone could find and a lovely novella in its own right. The Sorrows of Young Werther opens more amazingly than any book I have ever read and it is not overstating things a bit to say that Goethe gives us something profound and beautiful on each and every page.

The Sorrows of Young Werther is comprised, for the most part, of letters written by a hopelessly romantic young man named Werther to a friend named Wilhelm. These letters not only detail Werther's doomed love for the beautiful Charlotte, they also contain the most beautiful meditations on just about everything important in life: love, beauty, nature, philosophy, art, religion.

In Werther, Goethe clearly shows us the problems inherent in loving and idealizing something a bit too much. I think many readers will have a problem with the character of Werther. He is simply too romantic to be real. And then there will be those who will wonder how a man who is capable of uttering the most gorgeous and flowing words about beauty, art and nature can fall so hopelessly in love with one woman that he seems to forget all else that he holds dear. Well, Werther, in the best romantic tradition, has invested all the emotion he feels for art, beauty, religion, etc. in Charlotte. Once readers realize this, I think the ending of this novella will make sense to them. Yes, Werther is an extreme but once you come to understand him, he does make perfect sense.

As I said, this isn't Goethe at this best or his most sublime or even, believe it not, his most romantic, but this is certainly the best place to begin if you are just beginning your study of this monumental author or of German romanticism in general.

We tend to think of our era as unique when we descry the impact that the media has on our young people's behavior. Well the same thing happened 200 years ago when this book was first published. Impressionable young readers who identified so completely with Werther went out and committed suicide by the droves. Werther is the prototypical Romantic male, who "feels" more deeply than the rest of humanity. Unlike Heathcliffe, who settles on revenge as an answer to his thwarted designs, Werther takes it out on himself. Of course, there's a great deal of self-destruction at work in Heathcliffe's persona too. I would recommend this to a reader who is just getting to know Goethe. I read it when I was about eighteen and it definitely struck a nerve with me at that time. It made me want to read everything by Goethe I could find in translation. Read it, and if you like it, as I am sure you will, go on to Goethe's two great Romantic novels, Elective Affinities and Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. I found in my earlier readings that I never went wrong with what used to be referred to as Penguin Classics (now Vintage) translations. They're normally all top-notch, whether Greek, Latin, French, German, Russian, etc. PS: If you're a young reader, please don't take Werther too much to heart. It's only a novel, ok?

What is it about this particular novella which inspired a series of youthful suicides throughout Europe soon after its publication? Why did Napoleon insist on keeping the French translation with him during his campaign in Egypt? How did Goethe succeed in capturing the poignancy of the human heart, while fascinating a jaded but "enlightened" 18th century public? The young German author touched a universal chord with this slender volume, in which he offers tender insight on such diverse Romantic subjects as Love, Religion, Nature and Man's relationships with God and his fellow men. Why do critics consider it a classic of both German and World Literature?

Presented in a quaint literary style, this story consists of confidential diary entries and letters to a trusted friend, Wilhelm, by a senstitive protagonist, with the addition of editorial notes. (The latter results from the inveitable drawbacks of first-person narratives.) The plot unfolds as Werther, a young nobleman who interests himself in the daily activities of the peasantry, is enjoying an extended holiday in a scenic area of Germany. Free to savor the magnificent natural beauty around him, Werther is soon dazzled by the numerous charms of the delightful Charlotte--daughter of a local town dignitary. This paragon of feminie virtue and attraction appears more sensual and maternal than truly sexual.

Alas, the incomparable Lotte is already engaged to absent Albert, due home soon. Is she too naive to understand that in Werther she has acquired an ardent admirer? Is she aware of his easily-inflamed fascination, or the violent depths of his stifled emotions? Is she oblivious or heartless to his passionate despair once her fiance has returned? Just how long can she juggle two lovers, or even control her own dainty heart--which Goethe chastely and tantalizingly hides from us?

Readers will be be swept away on the floodtide of Gothe's untamed emotions, as poor Werther faces the inevitable. Ah, but which act requires or proves the greater bravery: to terminate the heart's torment by the simple act of Suicide, or to accept Life's harshness by continuing a lonely, meaningless existence? Which Hell is it better or nobler to endure: that of rejecting God's gift or that of eternal separation from the Beloved? The strain of a prolonged "menage a trois" can not be permitted to endure--neither from a literary or a moral point of view.

The last entries painfully point the way as Werther's despair cascades into definitive--albeit negative--action. Weep, hope forlornly with this ardent young man, even rage at his fate; then be swept away into the maelstrom of thwarted dreams. Analyze and pity Germany's most famous pre-Romantic hero, as he struggles though this psychological novel, for Goethe plays upon the reader's memory's heartstrings with the skill of Ossian's agonized harper.

OK, young fool falls in love with married girl. Becomes friend of the couple. Husband starts to get annoyed. Hero declares his love and then commits suicide. You can read that in the paper once in a while. So, why is this a great novel and a landmark of Romantic literature? Because it has a lot to make us think. A famous fact related to this book is that, short after it was published, a series of suicides took place in Europe, mostly by young guys in the same situation as Werther. That should set clear the influence and strenght of the novel. It is extremely well written; the scenery is gorgeous -rural, upper class Germany in the Eighteenth century. The book is written as a secret diary addressed to a trusted friend, and to any readers, young or old, it will strike a chord in their hearts. Tell me, who is there that never experienced dreams of punishing that insensible beloved from school by committing suicide and then have her cry and repent at the funeral? But most of us are still here, with her or, most likely, with someone else or alone. We survived love's infatuation; Werther did not, and he is now a prototype of unlimited love (or lack of maturity, depending on your point of view). I prefer to see it as a great story written, at an early stage, by one of the greatest geniuses of all time. "Werther"

There is no doubt about the literary poignancy of this book, or for that matter the masterful mind of its author. But it must be said that the undeniably strong sorrows of young Werther came from an all-consuming love of himself-not from love of another. Or rather he seemed in love with the idea of having someone to consume his idle days and, what he imagined, his large and thoughtful mind. His precipice, from which he condescended to view his every move, thought and encounter, was lofty indeed.

The pastoral atmosphere of the book is what captivated this reader. It's a pity Werther couldn't heed Albert and Lotte's sound advice about retuning his strong emotions...or at least spend more time under Linden trees with his Homer (this would have been my suggestion to him). Perhaps it was the poetry of the equally love-torn Ossian, which came to replace his classic text, that helped spur on his emotional demise. Whatever the case, it was painful to read of his self-indulgent romance with his ideas of love and devotion. He was kidding himself in the grandest and noblest fashion imaginable.

Please don't think me a heartless soul, or someone who couldn't possible understand such an intense love; I just didn't see it that way. However much frustration I felt at Werther's extreme pathos, I remained in awe of the beauty of Goethe's emotive and descriptive writing. Am I contradicting myself here...with talk of emotion? You be the judge.

I loved this book. It is about young Werther, who falls in love with a married woman. Yet he cannot stop obsessing about her. His obsession drives him and becomes fatal. Once he realizes there is no hope between them, he commits suidice.

The prose is excellent - almost poetic. The scenery is meticulously described and is just breath-taking.

The quotes on love are profound and thought-provoking. My favourite was, "Must it so be that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?"

Oh, Werther !

This is a great classic for everyone to read - but I recommend it to mature readers. The language is okay enough, but if you're not used to reading books written in a different era, you might have some trouble getting through it. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a tragic romantic read.

I have just finished reading Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther and I don't think I've read anything so powerfully moving in years. It is at once both tragic and beautiful. The story consists of letters that Werther has written to a friend describing his passion for "Lotte", his charming, but very married, love interest. We watch as the overly-romantic Werther gradually becomes unhinged and finally kills himself when he realizes he can't have his beloved. Besides this lovely, sad story you also get Goethe's beautiful translation of Ossian's poems near the end. Reading this novella brought back memories of how I once had such passionte yearnings for the loves of my own life --- before I thankfully (and regretfully) got more worldly-wise. This one will be high on my favorites list and will be re-read often.

Johnann Wolfgang von Goethe's _The Sorrows of Young Werther_ (1774) is an epistolary novel recounting a young man's obsession with a woman who is affianced and later becomes married. In letters to an older family friend, Wilhelm, Werther describes his life while living in a small German provincial town, his growing obsession for Lotte, and his fledgeling efforts to separate himself from her and move on. Over the course of a year and half, from May 1771 to December 1772, Werther's letters outline the downward spiral of his own desperate romantic passion.

Ironically, the reason why Werther is in the rural village near Walheim, where he mets Lotte, is because Leonara, a woman whom Werther has flirted with, has fallen desperately, and perhaps dangerously, in love with him. Having left home as an escape and for respite, Werther is unsure whether he is "blameless" in Leonara's situation or if he did not "relish her perfectly genuine naïve expressions which so often made us laugh." Werther's uncertainty about his motives, his misperceptions of others, and his lack of concern about the effects of his behavior are a constant. At one point, he writes to Wilhelm, "No, I do not deceive myself!" claiming that Lotte loves him, only to doubt a few sentences later, "Is this presumption, or a sense of true proportion?"

The relationship between Albert, Lotte's husband, and Werther is especially interesting, as it moves from friendship to antagonism, entirely due to Werther's erratic behavior. In the end, Albert inadvertently helps Werther carry out his final plans by fulfilling a request from Werther. Albert's participation reveals a subtle, yet interesting psychological dynamic--hinting perhaps at Albert's own secret jealousies and frustrations, while also ironically realizing Werther's wish to drive a final wedge between Albert and Lotte.

Werther embodies the romantic extreme, and he is similar to other characters and personae found in writers from the Romantic Period, or of works written in the Romantic style. There is an irony to his plight, as the reader sees Werther's self-deception fester in the letters and as a result, the reader understands Werther more fully than Werther understands himself. The book appeals to the loves and obsessions of youth--again taken their utmost lengths. The book is a classic example of the values of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century romanticism.

My thoughts about the book are different from when I first read it as a nineteen-year old. Werther seemed more intriguing then. This time, I found myself imagining the thoughts and feelings of the characters Werther describes, particularly Lotte and Albert, versus Werther's own delusional depictions.

It may be difficult for contemporary readers to understand why, after reading "The Sufferings of Young Werther", so many young German men of Goethe's time killed themselves. Not only did they kill themselves but also they dressed in the same clothing that Werther wears when he takes his own life. Clearly they identified with Werther and it is incumbent upon us to understand why.

For those of you who are not familiar with the story, Werther is a youthful German gentleman at the dawn of his civil service career. Unlike his contemporaries, Werther is awkward, socially clumsy, and extremely sensitive. He is also desperately in love with a woman named Charlotte (Lotte) whose feelings toward Werther are not mutual. After Lotte rejects him, Werther goes to a party where he is publicly humiliated. This being more than Werther can bear, he returns home and kills himself with a pistol.

Werther's suicide is more than a response to Lotte's rejection. In a sense it is a disavowal of the society he lives in. Werther's emotions and sensitivity make him something of an oddball among his peers who ultimately scorn and reject him. At the end of the story, Werther is not only heart-broken but also isolated.

Some reviewers have drawn interesting comparisons between Werther and other romantic heroes such as Heathcliffe. The comparison that interests me the most is the one between Werther and Pechorin, the notorious protagonist of Lermantov's "A Hero of Our Times". Unlike Werther, Pechorin is a man of action who isn't rejected by women or society but who ultimately rejects them. Pechorin does not kill himself directly, but he leads a life-style, replete with adventures and duels that ultimately results in his destruction. Both characters essentially feel that they have no place in the world they live in and each orchestrates his own destruction.

In a sense, Werther and company are predecessors of existentialist anti-heroes such as Merseault, the taciturn narrator in "The Stranger". They may also be the precursors of more contemporary figures such as Jim Morrison, Janice Joplyn and Kurt Kobein. If literature reveals a trend of alienation and self-annihilation in the western world during the past two hundred years, then we ought to ask ourselves why it occurs. Perhaps as the world grows more organized, technical, and full of protocol it requires an increasingly larger degree of conformity. Cooperation and team-work demand the removal of individual impulses. If one can't love or can't act outside of public requirements then one has few alternatives left. When critics complained to Goethe about the copycat Werther suicides, he responded that if the commercial system killed so many young men, then couldn't Werther have a few. Suicide, like so many other extreme acts of destruction, isn't the solution to rejection, loss, and alienation, but it is certainly a symptom that is difficult to ignore.

Goethe met Charlotte Buff at a ball in Wetzlar, where he arrived looking for a Position/Career after finishing his studies. A friendship developed between Charlotte, Goethe and Christian Kestner (her fiancé), in the summer of 1772. Charlotte was eventually obliged to tell Goethe plainly that he must not expect her to return his love. At seven o'clock on the morning of September 11th Goethe quit the town without warning. Away with friends in Koblencz, Goethe heard of the suicide of his former acquaintance at Wetzlar, Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem. In September 1771 Jerusalem had taken a job in Wetzlar as secretary to von Hoefler, an ambassador. He was of an artistic disposition, and had been cold-shouldered by Wetzlar's high society. Goethe returned to the town to find out the details of Jerusalem's death. He asked Kestner for a written account, on which he was to base the final pages of his novel.

The novel is therefore partly autobiographical, partly biographical. Kestner noted that in the first part of the novel Werther was Goethe and in the second Jerusalem. Goethe later described the writing of the work as the business of four weeks, during which time he proceeded with the unconscious certainty of a sleepwalker, and specifically spoke of it as a "confesion". As it often happens, many readers started to confound reality with fiction: in spring 1776 a torchlit procession made its way to Jerusalem's grave. Nevertheless, there seems to be little evidence that Goethe's novel prompted a suicide epidemic. Yet a heated debate did rage over the question of the novel's probable corrupting influence. Meanwhile, teh novel was being translated into every major European language.

The English translation was produced by Daniel Malthus (father of the economist) in 1779. Influenced by Richardson's epistolary novels and Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, Young and Gray, Hamlet and Ossian, it offered a familiar atmosphere, with scenes of patriarchal country life and wild, tempestuous landscape as were suitable to the prevailing English taste. Yet after the French Revolution Goethe and other German writers were identified with Jacobinism and condemned. Wertherism was supplanted in due course by Byronism.

The part of the novel which caused Goethe to be thought a Jacobin by English conservatives in the 1790s was the passage that dealt with Werther's exclusion from aristocratic society. It is true that beyond the struggles of one individual to assert his own larger sense of his place in creation lies a very real and discontented sense of the gap between aristocratic high society and the common folk.

The novel is also a sensitive exploration of the psychopathology of a gifted but ill-adjusted young man. The letter form is an apt expression of one-sided and lonely communication. The author interposes an ironic distance between the reader and Werther, which makes the novel a work of exhilarating style and insight. Werther can be considered the first great tragic novel. The weaknesses in Werther's character, his inconsistencies, are the very material on which his character is built, this is, the novel itself as a "litany of antitheses".