The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Sorrows of Young Werther has been written in 1774 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This epistolary novel is strongly inspired by the author’s life and even contains true facts. The story mostly takes the form of letters written by the protagonist, Werther, to his friend Wilhelm in which he depicts his life, his thinking and his feelings.

The story begins as Werther moves to Wahlheim to concentrate on his drawing and painting, but he rapidly falls in love with the easy lifestyle of the peasants and finally doesn’t accomplish much work. As fast as he fell in love with the village, he falls in love with Charlotte, the village bailiff’s daughter. He describes her as more than perfection for him or any other person, but he clearly knows they will never be together, because she already has a fiancé. Unfortunately, like any other lover, this won’t stop him, and as time goes by he gets more and more obsessed by this woman he will never have. Adding to his obsession, Albert, Charlotte’s fiancé, comes back in town and Werther and him turn out to be friends though Werther is persuaded that Charlotte would be happier with him.
This situation is slowly killing Werther who decides to leave Wahlheim without telling anyone to work in a far away town. This new adventure turns out to be less pain relieving than he thought and he has no other options than coming back to Charlotte. When he does, he finds out that his love for Charlotte has only gotten stronger during his absence. Werther feels incredibly hopeless and in a final attempt to get Charlotte, he tries to kiss her, but she refuses and orders him never to see her again. Werther then puts in place his final plan which he thought about since months. On Christmas night, at midnight, Werther shoots himself and dies the next morning.
“We took a few turns in the room to recover our breath. Charlotte sat down, and felt refreshed by partaking of some oranges which I had had secured,—the only ones that had been left; but at every slice which, from politeness, she offered to her neighbours, I felt as though a dagger went through my heart.”
“No, I am not deceived. In her dark eyes I read a genuine interest in me and in my fortunes. Yes, I feel it; and I may believe my own heart which tells me—dare I say it?—dare I pronounce the divine words?—that she loves me!
That she loves me! How the idea exalts me in my own eyes! And, as you can understand my feelings, I may say to you, how I honour myself since she loves me!”
These quotes are meaningful to me, because like for most of the story, I can identify myself to Werther. I never gave oranges to a woman during a date though once, a few weeks ago, I bought a drink to a girl I like and she gave about half of it to her friends and I can tell I felt the exact same as Werther. It’s hard to understand how something so natural can destroy the strongest man’s defences, leaving him vulnerable faced to the good willing of his love. It’s also impressing to see that even after 250 years, courtship didn’t change so much.

If I had to suggest a different ending for the story, I’d suggest the exact opposite: Charlotte would accept Werther in her life as her new fiancé and Albert, rejected, would have to face the same difficulties Werther did. It would be interesting, because Albert said many times that suicide was for weak persons and he would now have to accept it as a solution or not and live his life like a “strong man”, alone and desperate.

499 words (without the quotes)