The Sorrows of Young Werther
Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe was one of the big authors. I Germany they are very proud
of him and visiting you will get bombarded with adds from Goethe schools to
learn German. My own experience with Goethe is however very limited and I
mostly know of him from Faust, his famous play.
Back in the
day, though, what really made Goethe famous was “The Sorrows of Young Werther”
(“Die Leiden des jungen Werthers”). This was all the rage back in the late 18th
century and I found it hilarious to learn that there was even a smart Chinese
printer who made a version for export in Europe. Why does that sound so
familiar today?
“The
Sorrows of Young Werther” is a fairly short novel in the sentimental style that
was so popular at the time and of which I already had a few examples. Only,
Goethe goes all-out. His protagonist, Werther, is hyper emotional and sensitive
to a degree that makes Rousseau look drab. In a modern context he would
probably be diagnosed as bi-polar, but in the 18th century this
sensitivity is merely fashionable. Werther gets moved by the simplest things in
nature and gets a kick out of just watching people, but he is also easily
agitated and provoked into a frenzy. We meet him as he arrives in Wahlheim
where he soon meets and gets enchanted by Lotte. Only, Lotte is already engaged
to Albert, a very decent and agreeable young man whom Werther also befriends.
Soon Werther is in an odd triangle, being madly in love with Lotte while having
an amiable friendship with Albert.
Eventually,
Werther leaves the couple when this is getting too weird. He embarks on a
diplomatic career but keeps clashing with his employers. It is clear that
Werther considers himself smarter than all these men, but he is also out of
touch with decorum and his career flounders. In disappointment he returns to
Wahlheim and continue the triangle, but with a melancholic and depressive
slant. He is like a moth to the flame and it is devouring him until in the end
he kills himself.
The
interesting thing here and the brilliance of Goethe is that we see all this
with the eyes of Werther. Goethe sets up an epistolary novel, what today would
be called “found footage”, consisting of letters Werther writes to his friend
Vilhelm. That means we are supposed to read Werther’s own account of the
affair. Sometimes he is completely biased as an unreliable witness, projecting
his emotions on what he observes, sometimes he more objective, trying to be
rational, to the extent of rationalizing his own actions. His emotional rush
are the colors used to describe the scenes and Werther is always in an
emotional state. The epistolary novel is at this time not new, but Goethe uses
it very successfully to paint this character by letting us witness his
writings. That the character itself is insufferable is another thing, but there
is no question that Goethe manages to bring him to life.
Part of the
legend is that the novel is partial autobiographical, Goethe was himself
involved in such a triangle, and many readers saw this as an endorsement of the
hypersensitive lover and made an ideal out of this desperate infatuation. I
think this impression is merely a result of Goethe’s skill, that Werther
becomes so real to the reader, a bit like Orson Welles “War of the Worlds”
radio show, that they buy into the character and the romance. I think Goethe
was a lot more critical to Werther, I think he painted him a bi-polar, as a
sociopath who is unable to cope with life, more like a warning than an example.
But because Werther is so real he was misunderstood.
This was
maybe not my kind of book, triangle dramas are not my thing, but Goethe’s
talent is unquestionable, and I look forward to his other entries on the List.
