During our last class we discussed The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. During the course of our discussion, we talked about how we felt about Werther as a character. At the time of our last class I hadn't finished The Sorrows of Young Werther, so I hadn't formulated any strong opinions on the matter. However, since finishing the reading I have come to the conclusion that Werther is an incredibly selfish, immature character.
Werther only seems to care about himself throughout the entire story. For most of the novel he simply complains about how sad his life is, and mentions how he thinks Lotte would be much happier with him than Albert. Werther has no real evidence to back this up, in fact, it seems that if Lotte thought she would be happier with Werther, she would have been with him, but instead stayed with Albert throughout the entire story.
When Werther leaves Walheim, he writes that he is doing a good thing because it hurts him to much to see Lotte with another man. If Werther had an ounce of maturity he would at least have had the courtesy to tell Lotte he was leaving. It's my opinion that Werther leaves without telling Lottte just to cause her anguish for rejecting him.
When Werther decides to go back to Walheim it's because he misses Lotte, who has since married Albert and been just fine. Instead of letting Lotte enjoy her new marriage, Werther has to come back into her life more distressed than ever. When Werther finally tells Lotte exactly how he feels Lotte rejects him. It's obviously understandable that Werther would be sad and even depressed after this, but he goes way beyond what a normal person would do and decides to kill himself. I don't think Werthers suicide stems from his sadness, I believe he was trying hurt Lotte by showing her what she had driven him to do. Werthers plan works better than he expected, his suicide doesn't go smoothly and he lays on the floor dying for a long time.
Werther never shows any signs of caring about anyone but himself. He seems to be dependent on his family for income yet he doens't show any gratitude. He claims to be in love with Lotte yet he causes her more pain than joy. Most characters usually start off with problems or flaws but they progress throughout the story, Werther is no different at the beginning of the novel than he is at the end.
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I disagree, I do not believe that Werther is that immature. He is dealing with complex emotions and an intense love for someone who cannot truly love him back the way he wants them to. Lotte is slightly selfish herself because she wants to have Albert as her husband but does not want to lose Werther as her truest friend. Werther realizes how he cannot be around Lotte and does not tell her he is leaving because then she probably would have cried or something to force him to stay. Staying with Lotte would have made him more unhappy and would have caused a strained relationship between Werther and Lotte and Albert. While I do not agree with Werther's decision to kill himself, I can see why Goethe made this choice for the character. Werther is a man who intensely loves someone, who cannot love him back in the same way and it starts to cause problems. There was no way that all three of them could continue to live harmoniously, so Goethe decided that there could be a redemption through death. That because of Werther's suicide, it is the ultimate show of love in that he is allowing Lotte to love Albert without having to have the awkward relationship with Werther. Werther gives himself up for Lotte and Albert to be together. While it was a slightly depressing novel, I enjoyed Goethe and thought that the end was poetic. I see how Werther could be construed as selfish, but I do not believe that he was.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Amy said about Werther killing himself for the good of Albert and Lotte's relationship. This shows he isn't selfish; a selfish person would have stayed around, continuously trying to win Lotte by sabotaging her relationship with Albert. In class we talked about suicide as a sign of weakness, but I don't feel that is really the case here. Werther felt like one of the three had to die, and he unselfishly chose himself. A weak person would have feared death, but I believe Werther showed strength by being able to confront and accept his reality, as dismal as it was. We also talked in class about staying alive to fulfill a purpose in life, even if it was unknown. However, Goethe shows that Werther believed his purpose in life was to die for Lotte. For example, Werther writes, "That I was granted the good fortune to die for you, Lotte, to sacrifice myself for you...it has been granted to only a few noble men to shed their life's blood for those they love" (129). Therefore, Werther believed he had been "granted" the opportunity to die for Lotte, which he saw as a heroic gesture with which to express his love. While it is rather despressing to say that one's purpose in life is to die, I don't think that Werther can be called weak or selfish in choosing to take his own life. And while I certainly don't advocate suicide, I feel the events leading up to the end of the novel made Werther's demise no surprise.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Werther's choice to commit suicide was what he believed to be his purpose in life. However, I think that he got too caught up in paying attention to little details rather than looking at the big picture. Werther has a one track mind and that mind is focused on love. He has a love for nature, the art, music, literature, but most importantly love for Lotte. It is here that Werther focuses to heavily on the details. He analyzes and reflects upon every minuscule detail of his and Lotte's relationship. It is through this analysis one would think he would be able to think more clearly and allow him to have an emotional release, however reflecting on his love for Lotte does not help him at all. Rather, Werther harbors these intense feelings and does not know what to do with them. His vision is hazy and it is when he can't see straight that he makes the decision to kill himself. I disagree that Werther was immature and agree with Amy when she said he is "dealing with complex emotions". It is these emotions which cloud his every thought.
ReplyDeleteWerther is arguably not merely static throughout the text but in actuality continues to decline. Wether is a product of Romantic philosophy and represents the epitome of the movement. Werther has relinquished all self-control and has surrendered to the whims of his emotional state. Rather than combating the ideals of the Enlightenment with a character who is able to embrace the intimate and artistic spectrum of life, Goethe has practically created the poster-child for the fight against Romanticism. There is nothing romantic about the weakness present within Werther and neither is there any reason left to enlighten the reader.
ReplyDeleteThe situation that Werther faced is a situation that many people have faced, including some of us. ''It must be bad, if not everybody was to have a time in his life, when he felt as though Werther had been written exclusively for him,"
ReplyDeletesaid Goethe to his secretary (Goethe-Institut). These emotions and his actions are quite typical of someone belonging to the human race, though his suicide was quite extreme. He must have had an irrational or unstable personality to actually go through with taking his own life, when he could've moved far away and let her go as most people do in this situation. Either way, I would not call him especially immature or selfish than most people in his situation.