Final Writing Test

The Sorrows of Young Werther (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) presents many great topics as it depicts the life of an average young man. Even though he could be considered as average, Werther is extremely sensible and this will finally cause his death.

Werther doesn’t die simply because of his love for Charlotte. He lived many painful experiences and he comes to believe that happiness is nowhere else to be found. As he can’t get any happiness whether in Charlotte or in the rest of his life, he believes there is no other solution than committing suicide.

This literary essay briefly explains how Werther is too sensible which makes him think he suffers much and how Charlotte comes to represent the “final achievement” for Werther, an achievement he can’t get trough.

Firstly, Charlotte is not the only thing that bothers Werther. In his very first letter, you can already tell that Werther has many problems: “My dear friend I promise you I will improve; I will no longer […] continue to ruminate on every petty vexation which fortune may dispense”. It is pretty ironic that he says he will no longer worry about every little problems of his life since he simply finds a bigger one to forget them all. This first letter also shows how he is conscious of his defect. He his conscious of it until his very last moments, but his desperation overwhelms him. Werther says: "Must it be so that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?" which clearly shows his lost of confidence in life. During his last days, he states that he wakes up wishing he is death because he doesn’t want to remember his sufferings; sufferings which he had enough for a whole life according to him. Falling in love with Charlotte didn’t kill Werther; it simply pushed him faster to this inevitable ending.

Secondly, Werther thinks he can’t be happy without Charlotte because she is the representation of perfection for him, he says it many times: “An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses”. Perfection is what everyone looks for and for Werther, it is Charlotte. Considering the rest of his sad life, he has nothing else to care about. He will spend all his energy in seducing Charlotte, forgetting at the same time all his other troubles. The fact of not getting his perfection makes him think his life is a nonsense, he has no other life goal anymore. The proverb says: “the higher you climb, the harder you fall” and this is exactly what happens to him. He gets happier and happier, literally blinded by his love, and when he finds out he won’t get Charlotte, he opens his eyes and see all his problems again. If Werther had been happy before Charlotte, he would have probably got over that sad experience.

To conclude, many reasons pushed Werther to commit this dreadful act. His love for Charlotte did help him to do it, but if he wasn’t that sensible from the beginning, he surely wouldn’t have done it. Werther killed Werther; no difference in his life could have changed this. Because of his being, it was inevitable

(560 words)