Summary

After a very short note from the editor encouraging the reader to sympathize with Werther's tragic fate, The Sorrows of Young Werther begins with Werther in an ebullient mood, having escaped a young woman named Leonora, whom he implies was madly in love with him. Werther has retreated to a quiet country setting in Germany with the intention of spending his time drawing. He has left behind both his best friend, Wilhelm, and his mother, who is left unnamed. Werther and his mother do not seem to get along particularly well - a fact that we can assume because he never addresses her directly, instead speaking to her through Wilhelm. He notes, however, that he has taken care of some family business stemming from a disagreement between his mother and his aunt.

Werther is not a very diligent artist; he spends most of his time wandering the nearby rural regions and observing the customs of the peasant class. He finds the peasants enchanting and watches them as they go about their daily tasks. When he sees young women fetching water from a local well, Werther is reminded of the women in the Bible who do the same. In general, he sees the countryside as operating according to an ancient patriarchal code, untainted by the influence of erudition.

Several more examples reveal how Werther has had enough of book-learning. He tells Wilhelm not to send his library, saying that he is happy to read his Bible and his Homer - nothing more. Later, Werther dryly relates a conversation with a young man he calls V., who is enthusiastic about the latest Enlightenment thinkers and theories. Werther likes V. but is rather condescending toward his learnedness. Another acquaintance Werther makes is the Prince's bailiff, S. He notes that the bailiff's eldest daughter is much admired-Werther, too, will come to admire her, to say the least.

Although he takes joy in his surroundings, Werther's gloomy side is apparent right from the start. He writes that he finds many of the people he meets "thoroughly repulsive and quite intolerable in their demonstrations of friendship." He also states that the happiest people are the most ignorant - those who lack the intelligence or the curiosity to see the injustice of the world. This haughty note is complemented by an obsession with death. In the letter of May 22, Werther alludes to suicide, saying that through it one can "leave this prison whenever he likes."

Werther writes that he has taken to wandering over to a charming nearby village, Wahlheim. While there, he makes the acquaintance of the local landlady and some of the peasant children. He makes a sketch of two peasant brothers that depicts the elder allowing the younger to rest in his arms. Werther thinks his sketch is marvelous (not a modest man, he...) and attributes its success to the spontaneous beauty of nature. He also meets the brothers' mother, whose husband has gone to Switzerland to retrieve his inheritance from an obstinate cousin.

Also in Wahlheim, Werther meets a young "country lad" who has a rather tragic story to tell: he is in love with the widow he works for and pines all day long for her. Werther finds the rustic eloquence of the country lad as he talks about his beloved just as beautiful as the most perfectly crafted poems of the intelligentsia. He admires spontaneous passion that is imperfectly expressed and channeled through raw nature.

Analysis

First, a word about the editor's note with which the novel opens. Elizabeth Mayer and Louise Bogan's otherwise very good translation of Werther leaves out this opening note, to the detriment of the work. The note is important because it serves as a framework for the novel. First of all, it spoils the "surprise" of the ending, as it suggests that Werther meets an untimely fate. This is important to a full reading of the novel, however, as the reader should have no illusions that Werther's tale might end happily. Second, the epigraph exhorts those who might follow Werther's example to take solace in their pain by reading about Werther's. Goethe presents his book as a friend and companion - essentially the equivalent of a living pen pal like Wilhelm. Of course, historically, Werther probably incited more suicides than it prevented, but Goethe included the note specifically to warn readers against this possibility. Finally, the epigraph emphasizes the fact that this volume is edited. This is Goethe's ambiguous gesture toward verisimilitude-he pretends that an "editor," either he or someone else, has collected all of the available documents about Werther's tragic end. It is important to keep in mind while reading Werther that Goethe wants us to know that the story is edited and organized from a perspective other than Werther's. In the original 1764 edition of Werther this editorial hand was quite subdued, but he especially emphasizes the role of the editor in the revised edition of 1787, the version that is almost always read today. At the close of the novel, the editorial perspective will become especially important.

Just as the editor's note contains the seed of tragedy that will grow over the course of the novel, so the first six weeks of letters provide us with a fairly complete portrait of Werther, emphasizing his shortsightedness as well as his likeability. Werther does not, in truth, change a great deal over the course of the novel; his tragic potential and suicidal personality merely unfold according to their own logic. Goethe is the master of the Bildungsroman (which roughly translates "Novel of Education"), a novel form in which the kernel of nature in a protagonist comes into its own through narrative action. Even in this, his first work of fiction, Goethe operates according to the rule of the Bildungsroman. Werther does not do anything unlike him; the possibility of his suicide is present from the first words of the book, in the editor's note. Lotte's rejection merely catalyzes his natural chemistry.

However, in the first letters that he writes to Wilhelm, Werther is nearly always happy. He observes the world with acute sensitivity, always aware that all observations must come from himself. Indeed, Werther's own subjectivity fascinates him. (This is the same era, it is worth mentioning, during which the European stage was set for the subjective philosophy of Kant and his followers.) For example, in his letter of May 10, Werther writes, "I am so happy, dear friend, so completely sunk in the sensation of sheer being, that my art suffers. I could not draw anything just now, not a line, and yet I have never been a greater painter than at the present moment." What, one might ask, does Werther mean by that? Werther uses this paradox to illustrate his reflective state. For Werther-and for Romantics in general, of all eras and ages-perception of nature itself is a kind of painting. Because we always play an active role in interpreting the world-through our eyes, ears, noses, tongues, and flesh-we are, in a way, painting the world. This deep inner communion with outer and inner nature, in all its confusion, is the most emblematic attribute of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement in Germanic literature, of which Werther is the preeminent example.

Werther's intense subjectivity provides a basis for his theory of art, which he outlines extensively in his letters of May 26 and May 30. The dominant aesthetic theory at the time of Werther's publication held that beauty was revealed through rules-that it is through form and constraint that art comes to be. Werther admits that there is some truth in this opinion, but contends that truly overwhelming beauty follows from nature itself. In the simple-yet-profound, unstaged charity of one peasant brother caring for another, for example, Werther sees a glimpse of the infinite, the sublime. He is so passionate in his feeling that truth and beauty reveal themselves best in unadorned nature that he mocks anyone who attempts to learn about these absolutes through schoolbooks or theories (such as poor V.). The Enlightenment, he thinks, has got it all wrong. The true locus of beauty is not in the intellect or in reason, but in natural feeling and passion. It is worth adding that Goethe himself, though certainly sympathetic to Werther's passion, does not see things so simply; his novel, in fact, is a work of form, "rules," and intellect just as much as it is a passionate, unadorned outpouring of the heart.

Werther is undeniably a very interesting fellow: he rejects the erudition and rationality popular during his age, and has lovely, poetic things to say about himself. However, one cannot overlook his many obvious flaws. Remember, for example, that the novel is composed almost entirely of letters to Wilhelm. How often does he ask about Wilhelm, or about his mother? How much genuine interest does he show in anyone except himself? Even when he praises others, Werther is primarily praising his own perception of that person. Werther's standard for judging whether someone is worth his time is quite simple: he asks himself, "How brilliant does this person think I am?"

Also, Werther has a complicated relationship with the lower classes. He is a youth of obvious privilege. Though he is estranged from his mother, he is financially dependant on her, and spends his days doing essentially nothing-pretending to draw. Of course the laborers fascinate him: he hasn't done a day's work in his life. Furthermore, his idealization of lower class workers actually disguises a strain of snobbery. He writes of the peasants, "I know quite well that we are not and cannot ever be equal; but I am convinced that anyone who thinks it is necessary to keep his distance from the so-called mob in order to gain its respect is as much to blame as the coward who hides from his enemy because he fears to be defeated." Werther considers himself superior to the peasants he draws and converses with; they are like a spoiled boy's playthings, valued for their charming, poetic ignorance, useful because they offer Werther opportunities to feel liberal and wise. This example and several others, including the whole of the letter of May 22, suggest a lurking misanthropy beneath Werther's romantic facade, which will become more prevalent as the novel continues.

Summary

In the two and a half weeks since Werther's last letter, he has fallen in love. Indeed, he is so madly infatuated that he cannot even sit down long enough to write about it; he interrupts his letter to pay his beloved a visit, only afterwards sitting down to fill Wilhelm in on the events that have transpired. It seems that he met Bailiff S.'s daughter, Lotte, and she turned out to be the woman of his dreams. Her mother died several years before, and she has been selflessly caring for her younger brothers and sisters ever since.

Werther meets Lotte on the way to a dance. His first impression of her is as a mother, tending to her children. Her cheerfulness, her handsome appearance, grace, and charm all strike him immediately, and Lotte is instantly familiar with Werther, telling her siblings to call him "Uncle." As they drive to the dance, they discuss literature and discover that they both enjoy the sentimental fiction coming out of England, such as The Vicar of Wakefield. While at the dance, Lotte and Werther discover that they are perfectly suited to dancing together as well. Werther learns - much to his distress - that Lotte is engaged to a man named Albert. A storm breaks out, mirroring the turmoil in Werther's spirit, and in order to stave off fear the company at the dance gathers together, at Lotte's bidding, to play a parlor game. Werther is smitten, to say the least.

Werther begins to pay Lotte frequent visits at her hunting lodge. He moves to Wahlheim so that he can always be near her. Werther plays with her young siblings as though they are his own, extolling the virtues of family and children, and accompanies her on her visits about the region. On one such visit, to the village of St. -, Werther and Lotte fall in with the company of Herr Schmidt and Friederike. Werther berates Herr Schmidt for his gloomy disposition, claiming to hate nothing so much as a bad-humored person. Later, Lotte is engaged to visit Frau M., a woman in the town, while she is on her death bed. Everyone, it seems, loves Lotte and desires her company while facing life's darkest moments.

Lotte's feelings for Werther are decidedly ambiguous. Lotte is obviously fond of Werther, though she does not abandon herself to him the way he does to her. Lotte's feelings for Werther are never clarified, though Werther thinks that she begins to give him sympathetic looks, and often plays the clavichord to work off the tension (or the awkwardness) of their visits. Werther, meanwhile, says that he is happier than he has ever been during these days when he visits Lotte. He attempts to commemorate his happiness by sketching her, but cannot do so to his satisfaction, and instead settles for an image of her silhouette.

Meanwhile, the voice of Wilhelm creeps into the narrative, suggesting that Werther dedicate himself to drawing if that's his reason for staying in Wahlheim or, alternatively, that Werther take a position under the envoy. Wilhelm himself promises to secure this position for Werther. Werther seems dismissive of the opportunity for now.

Analysis

These are Werther's happiest days, and it is crucial to recognize how near Werther's happiness is to despair. When Lotte grants Werther's request to visit her again, he writes, "Since then, sun, moon, and stars may continue on their course; for me there is neither day nor night, and the entire universe about me has ceased to exist." This, somewhat surprisingly, is Werther's way of expressing passionate happiness; the reader must be forgiven for confusing this passage with a description of suicide.

These two valences, joy and despair, are knit together in everything Werther does. When he berates Herr Schmidt for his gloomy moods, Werther works up such a passion against bad humor that he ironically sends himself into a choleric fury. He writes, "How Lotte scolded me on the way home for my too warm sympathy with everything, saying it would be my ruin and that I should spare myself! O angel, for your sake I must live!" Once again, he ends his description of rapturous joy with a hint of suicide.

Like so many people who lack stability in their own lives, Werther cherishes Lotte's grounded sensibility. He is hugely invested in her maternal role, seeing her as an ideal, nourishing woman. Throughout Western literature, there has been an obsession with the impossible ideal of the virgin mother. Lotte's unique circumstances-being the oldest child in her family, temperamentally suited to child-rearing, and having a mother who died and left her in charge-allow this ancient fantasy of the virgin mother to be fulfilled. Lotte is a virgin mother, at once pure and sensual. She, like the Virgin Mary, plays an intercessional role in her community; the dying Frau M., for example, wants Lotte by her side while she dies.

Of course, Werther's role in Lotte's family is that of an outsider. He observes and participates in their daily functions, but he doesn't belong to them, and they - much as he may want them to - don't belong to him. Indeed, in the July 6 letter, Werther enthusiastically kisses Lotte's youngest sister, trying to express his love for her candor, and she bursts out screaming. Lotte placates her with a quasi-baptismal ritual. Werther can admire Lotte's skill with the children and can theorize about the blessedness of children and the wonder of Lotte's motherliness, but he cannot give a child a hug without scaring her half to death. Similarly, Werther stumbles over his own boots while dancing with Lotte, demonstrating his painful lack of poise. Later, in his letter of July 26 (one of the few letters not addressed to Wilhelm), Werther writes to Lotte, "No more sand in the notes you write me. I took today's too quickly to my lips, and something gritted between my teeth." Werther, the nature lover, gets sand in his teeth. For someone so passionately attached to the natural world, physical reality seems to confound Werther at every possible opportunity.

In this section, there are plenty of indications that things will not continue so happily for Werther. Perhaps the most telling moment in this second section of letters occurs when Werther tries to draw Lotte's portrait, but soon gives up and settles for her silhouette. Of course this conforms to Werther's aesthetic theory - that beauty is best captured in its natural, "artless" energy - but it also hints at the arrival of Albert, who will claim Lotte as his wife. Werther will indeed have to settle for her shadow.

Summary

Lotte's fiancé Albert arrives (he has been attending business following the death of his father and also applying for an official position) and Werther determines to leave. Werther likes Albert; he just cannot stand to see him "in possession of so much perfection." Werther reports that he esteems Albert for his "composure," contrasting with his own "inner restlessness," and indicates that Albert also admires him.

Werther's determination to leave is short lived, and without explanation we find that he is remaining in Wahlheim, visiting with Albert and Lotte together almost every night. Albert tells Werther of the virtue of Lotte's deceased mother, whose place she has filled perfectly, and they cultivate a friendship of their own, complementary to Werther's bond with Lotte. Albert provides Werther with a well-matched debate partner; on the occasion of borrowing Albert's hunting pistols, they argue about suicide, with Werther contending that suicide can be an act of absolute freedom and Albert arguing that no one capable of a larger view of life can be excused for committing suicide.

Confronted with the constant spectacle of Lotte and Albert's happiness, yet at the same time drawn to Lotte, her family, and even to Albert, Werther descends into misery. We learn through Werther's responses that Wilhelm is attempting to convince Werther to apply for the position at the Legation under Count C in order to escape an impossible situation. Meanwhile, the friendship between Lotte, Albert and Werther grows stronger; for his birthday, Albert gives Werther one of the pink ribbons Lotte was wearing when they first met and Lotte gives Werther a duodecimo copy of Homer.

Unable to resolve his love for Lotte with mere friendship, Werther applies for the position at the Legation and leave the company of Lotte and Albert. During his last visit with Lotte and Albert, while Albert and she are unaware that he is to leave so soon, they have an intense conversation about Lotte's deceased mother. At the end of this talk, Lotte says farewell as though they will meet again the next day. Werther collapses in grief with the knowledge that he cannot stand to be near the one he loves any longer.

Analysis

Werther's initial response to Albert's arrival is to leave-and it would have been wise for him to do so, in retrospect-but, without any explanation other than his "inner restlessness," he stays. For a brief month, Albert, Lotte and he achieve something of a balance: the love triangle works, because each member in it respects the others. Albert is a very good man - too sensible perhaps for Werther's taste, but a good friend nonetheless. He speaks, in a way, for Wilhelm (and, it will come to be clear, for the sensibility of the editor), and might be a great friend to Werther were it not for Lotte.

Some of the major themes of the novel gain clarity and force in this section. Werther's self-knowledge, for instance, begins to take on a tragic sheen. He writes of his impossible love for Lotte, "How clearly I have seen my condition, yet how childishly I have acted. How clearly I still see it, and yet show no sign of improvement." In this distinction between self-knowledge and self-satisfaction, Werther articulates his romantic disposition. Enlightenment thinkers might be inclined to equate self-knowledge with self-realization. Descartes' cogito, ergo sum places the onus of ego squarely on the thinker, implying that reason is the realm of the self. Ben Franklin, in his Autobiography, implies that acting virtuously is simply a matter of recognizing the right from the wrong in a given choice and choosing the right. Werther, in contrast, says that no matter how well he knows what he should do (for instance, "I should leave now that Albert has arrived"), his heart will ultimately steer his course, for better or worse. Werther recognizes the contradictions in his being, but rather than seeing them as problematic, sees them as definitional. This tendency is pure Romanticism.

Werther's inability to acknowledge his inherent contradictions lie at the root of his discontent. The passing references to suicide in earlier sections become central during this month, as Werther describes suicide as an example of an act in which reason has failed to satisfy the self, and passion must therefore take over. Of course, in his debate with Albert, Werther is speaking on a very personal level. He is quite comfortable with his suicidal tendencies. In speaking in defense of suicide he is not upholding an abstract cause, but is rather defending himself. Werther's right to suicide is, in many ways, the basis of his own being. He reserves the right to end his own life if he should ever need to. In this opinion, Werther draws from the ancient Romans; Pliny the Elder, for instance, in his Natural History, states that the ability to free oneself from the miseries of existence is what separates man from animal.

Now, however, is not Werther's time to kill himself, however unhappy he may be. He takes his leave from Albert and Lotte in what we might call a remarkably unselfish way. He reaches his limit, and simply leaves. Lotte's rumination at the end of Book One about her beloved mother and her expressed conviction that they will meet again in the next world is especially poignant given that (unbeknownst to her) Werther will never see her again. Her hope speaks for him, that in the next world they might at last be together. In this world, it is impossible.

Summary

A month and ten days have passed since Werther left Walheim when we next hear from him. It is unclear how he has spent his last month, but as of October 20 he has arrived at his place of official employment.

Werther begins his official tenure with hesitant optimism: he pledges to bear the tests of his new life as well as he can. On the plus side, Werther gets along splendidly with Count C.; on the minus, he is intensely annoyed by his immediate superior, the envoy. The envoy is a fact-happy and fussy man - Werther's opposite in spirit. On top of this natural enmity, the envoy becomes jealous of Count C.'s liking for Werther.

Another source of annoyance for Werther is the strict social code of his new town of employment. The aristocracy in the region meticulously cultivates its superiority, holding on to social privilege at all costs. Werther makes the acquaintance of Fräulein von B., a "charming creature" of aristocratic birth, whom he finds to be of sympathetic mind; his visits with Fräulein von B. are tarnished, however, by the presence of the young woman's old aunt, who is an intractable snob.

This local obsession with etiquette, manners and social niceties wears quickly on Werther. He feels as though his spirit is abandoning him. A week of stormy weather provides Werther with some respite, prompting him to write to Lotte about the miseries of his official position, as well as about his friendship with Fräulein von B. For the most part, however, Werther becomes increasingly impatient with the people and the customs that he must tolerate as part of his job.

Meanwhile, Werther's difficulties with the envoy increase. The envoy complains about his passionate methods to the Court Minister, who reproves Werther but then writes him a kind and understanding letter. On top of this, Werther learns in a letter from Albert that Lotte and he have been married. They have kept the wedding a secret from him, for which Werther thanks them.

While reeling from the news of Lotte and Albert's marriage, a further misfortune prompts Werther to resign from his post. Count C. invites Werther to dine on an evening when the local aristocracy is used to gathering at the Count's home. After dinner, the Count and Werther converse together as the aristocracy slowly begins to assemble. Werther does not take any notice, and before he knows it, almost all of the nobility have arrived. They all - even Fräulein von B. - act coldly toward him, and Werther realizes that something is amiss; however, he does not leave until Count C. himself asks him to.

The next day, there are local rumors about how the arrogant Werther was "snubbed." Werther is thoroughly humiliated by this gossip. He approaches Fräulein von B. and asks her why she treated him so coldly at the party; she tearfully replies that she was told to act that way by her aristocratic friends, and furthermore, that her aunt has lectured her against seeing him. This is the last straw for Werther, who sends in his resignation to the Court. He thus abandons his promising start in law and, he says, dooms his mother to disappointment in her son. Meanwhile, he has a plan for the next leg of his journey: Prince -, who likes Werther very much, has offered him lodging on his estates, and Werther has accepted the offer.

Analysis

The beginning of Book Two is, in many ways, a mirror image of Book One. Their settings are opposite: Book One is set in a rural region where Werther is the social equal or superior to all he meets; Book Two begins amongst the aristocracy, where Werther suddenly finds himself the low man on the totem pole. Werther himself has not fundamentally changed between the two books; he is still passionate, impulsive, and inwardly restless. He despises the meticulousness of the envoy with the same spirit that mocked the learning of V. or the practicality of Albert. Werther is still Werther, although his circumstances have changed - in some ways, perhaps, for the better, as he is no longer constantly reminded of his impossible situation with Albert and Lotte. Overall, however, it is clear that Werther cannot survive in the official environment of these letters.

Werther takes the job at court to escape from the irresolvable emotional triangle he has found himself in with Lotte and Albert, and from the looks of his letters, Werther makes a noble attempt at moving on. He writes one letter to Lotte, while holed up in a rustic inn during a winter storm, and one letter to Albert after hearing of their marriage. Aside from these brief attempts at correspondence, he makes no mention of his erstwhile friends. However, Werther's happiness is still defined in terms of Lotte - he makes his new friend, Fräulein von B., "pay homage" to her memory. He has escaped from his rustic, poetic, turbulent existence with Albert and Lotte into a nearly opposite existence among the cultured and the noble, but in so doing he has also escaped any chance of true happiness, however problematic such happiness may have been. He writes to Lotte that a reminder of her was his "first happy moment in a long time."

This unsuccessful attempt to find happiness away from Wahlheim is mirrored by an attempt to see whether his natural proclivity toward passion and sentiment is reconcilable with a respectable career. Whereas Werther seems doomed to long for Wahlheim, this second question is more ambiguous. He finds a great deal of success at the Court, winning the favor of the influential Count C. as well as the quieter admiration of the Court Minister. However, no matter how vociferously Werther commits himself to "hard work," it seems that he cannot abide a situation in which his intelligence and heart must take a backseat to questions of convention and class. Moreover, Werther is not one to compromise, and the world of law is built on compromise. He finds his spirit stifled by this atmosphere - a feeling that he often expresses, and which we can also observe in the infrequency of his letters during his time under the Minister. Werther has been sapped of passion, and thus the receptacles of his passion, his letters, have suffered as well.

The question of class is preeminent in these letters. Compare Werther's letter of May 15, 1771, where he writes of the lower classes, "I know quite well that we are not and cannot ever be equal," with his letter of December 24, 1771, when he writes, "I know...how necessary class distinctions are, and how many advantages I myself gain from them; but they should not stand in my way just when I might enjoy some little pleasure, some gleam of joy on this earth." In the first case, Werther somewhat patronizingly stands on his privilege, while in the second he learns the limits of that privilege. In Book One, Werther's class status works for him; in Book Two, however, it works against him, and it is his "snubbing" by the upper classes that ostensibly drives him away.

A word about Werther's resignation: W.H. Auden, who is of the opinion that Werther is an egocentric monster, and that Goethe intended us to see him that way, cites Werther's resignation as the preeminent example of his selfishness. He writes,

If a man thinks the social conventions of his time and place to be silly or wrong, there are two courses of behavior that will earn him an outsider's respect. Either he may keep his opinions to himself and observe the conventions with detached amusement, or he may deliberately break them for the pleasure of the shock he causes...Werther, by staying on [at the party] when it is clear that his presence is unwelcome, defies the company, but his precious ego is hurt by their reactions, and he resigns from his post, returns to Lotte and disaster for all.

It is certainly true that Werther's behavior at the party seems inconsistent with his subsequent indignation - and perhaps we want to agree with Auden that Werther is a demanding and fiercely egocentric young man. There is, however, a tragic, subtle upshot to Werther's restless actions: Werther knows himself incredibly well; he knows his own follies and foibles; but this self-knowledge never helps him. His passions rule his actions, whatever he may think. If Werther's actions seem inconsistent and lunatic, so be it, but remember that no one knows this better than Werther himself.

Summary

After Werther's resignation from the court is accepted, he travels to his place of birth en route to the Prince's estates. He writes of his joy at seeing the old landmarks of his childhood, and his disdain at seeing new additions to the landscape. Once settled with the Prince, Werther claims at first that things are going well, but very quickly grows tired of conversing with his host. He admits that he "only want[s] to be closer to Lotte once more," though he is chilled by the thought of her marriage to Albert, and makes plans to relocate back to Wahlheim.

On his way back to Wahlheim, Werther meets two of his past acquaintances. First, he meets the mother of Hans and Philip, who tells him tragic news: Hans has died, and her husband has returned from Switzerland without receiving any money. Further along, Werther runs into the country lad who loved his widow employer. Tragedy has struck in this quarter as well: the country lad, unable to stand his love any longer, made overtures to the widow, who resisted him. The country lad was inclined to rape her in his madness, when the widow's brother showed up and drove him out of the house. Now, the lad says, his place has been filled by another worker, and he is filled with intense jealousy.

Once settled again in Wahlheim, Werther tries to reestablish his friendship with Lotte, though he is more and more dangerously drawn to her. His lack of physical contact with Lotte becomes an obsession. Lotte, who is still fond and trusting of Werther, ambiguously abets his growing madness. For instance, she has a small bird who kisses Werther's mouth and then her own. Meanwhile, Wahlheim, too, is not the rustic paradise Werther once took it for. The new pastor's wife, in her disregard for nature, has cut down the local walnut trees; Werther is incensed by this loss.

Befitting Werther's increasingly turbulent spirit, Homer has been replaced in his esteem by Ossian, the legendary poet of Scotland. Werther's thoughts are constantly occupied by death and suicide - even more so than before. Complementing these thoughts of death are frequent thoughts of sex. He desires Lotte as he never has before, and feels himself drifting into madness. Ossian and religion are his only consolations - and religion becomes an increasingly ambiguous, incomprehensible force in Werther's life.

A chance meeting represents all of Werther's fear and despair: while taking a walk in the winter weather, he comes across Heinrich, a man "in a shabby green coat" who is acting strangely. Werther discovers that the man is searching for wildflowers because "he has promised his sweetheart a nosegay." Heinrich carries on about a past time when he was well-off, and curses his current existence. This madman's mother comes along and tells Werther that this idealized past Heinrich talks about is in fact the time he spent in the asylum, "when he did not know himself." Werther is tossed into despair by this thought. To top all, Albert later tells Werther that Heinrich was once an employee of Lotte's father, and had developed an impossible passion for her. When he confessed his love, he was dismissed from his job and went insane.

Haunted beyond reason by his need for Lotte, Werther reaches new depths of suffering. He feels his fate linked to the other unfortunates in this section - Heinrich and the country lad with a passion for the widow - and even wishes for Albert's death when he is not wishing for his own. The editor takes up Werther's story while he flounders in the depths of desolation.

Analysis

One of the most titillating threads in Werther is the largely unexplained relationship between Werther and his mother - a relationship that doesn't receive much ink in the novel but which nonetheless informs a great deal of its action. This section begins with the most direct references to their relationship. In one letter, Werther writes that he "wont need the money from [his] mother, for which [he] asked her the other day" - implying that Werther remains financially dependent upon his mother. In the next letter, Werther writes about visiting the place of his birth, saying, "I plan to enter the town by the same gate through which my mother drove out with me when she left the dear familiar place after the death of my father to shut herself in the unbearable town where she now lives."

What should we make of this? First - and most obviously - Goethe reveals that Werther is on uneasy ground with his mother, and by extension his family as a whole. He depends on his mother financially, and yet he does not write her letters directly, instead relying on Wilhelm as a go-between. This uneasy relationship seems to stem from his mother's decision, following the death of his father, to move to whatever "unbearable town" Werther refers to. This unhappy experience with his own family seems to account for a great deal of Werther's instability. Though Lotte and her family are not mentioned in these specific letters, it makes sense that one who lost both his father and moved away from his rural birthplace at a young age would cling to Wahlheim as a sort of idyllic replacement. Werther is perhaps redirecting the love he denies to his mother to Lotte, whom he sees as a perfect motherly being. This becomes further complicated, of course, as Lotte becomes increasingly sexualized, which we also see happening in this section.

This sexualizing of Lotte is one of the major developments in the latter half of Werther. In the letter of September 12, Lotte and Werther undergo a strange courtship ritual when Lotte passes Werther a bird that has just pecked at her lips. She says, "'He shall kiss you too'...handing the bird over to me. The tiny beak made its way from her lips to mine, and the pecking touch was like a breath - a foretaste of the pleasures of love." This flirtation is odd, to be sure, but is captures Lotte and Werther's growing relationship: their connection, from the beginning, has been based on a romantic affinity with Nature - it is the only medium through which Lotte and Werther are allowed to share their love. The bird, as a representative of nature, symbolizes this connection. Furthermore, in Germanic folktale traditions, the bird is often depicted as a go-between in human courtships, a tradition that still resonates in more contemporary literature. On yet another level, birds have been used as phallic symbols since ancient Roman times. There are several famous poems by Catullus (accessible in the "related links" section of this analysis) that use birds in this manner, and Werther, learned man that he is, certainly knows his Catullus. The bird, of course, is just one instance of an intense, burgeoning need in Werther to consummate his love with Lotte (see, for example, the letter of November 22). This unsatisfied physical need, as much as anything, is what ultimately drives him to suicide.

Once Werther returns to Wahlheim, his miserable trajectory not only complicates his relationship with Lotte and Albert, but also contaminates the lives of the local peasants he once eulogized, and even the very landscape. Both young Hans and the country lad have met misfortune head-on; the loss of the walnut trees expresses the fall from grace of Wahlheim as a whole. In addition, Werther meets Heinrich, a ghoulish foreshadowing of the madness that Lotte's can inspire in a man. Werther seems most threatened by Heinrich's feeling that he was happiest when in an asylum, for Werther is obsessed with subjective knowledge; for him, it would be worse than death to be alive and ignorant, like Heinrich.

Werther's suffering eventually becomes so pronounced that language itself is insufficient to express it. From the beginning of the novel, Werther has been playfully fascinated with the limitations of expressive language; he remarks regularly that trite and tired phrases cannot capture the beauty of sentiment. See, for instance, his argument with Albert in the letter of August 12, or his letter of May 30, in which he describes the country lad's love for the widow. However, as the novel builds to its tragic end, prosaic language is not merely inadequate for Werther: he begins to feel that the only way of expressing himself is through terse, opaque epigrams (see the letters of June 16 and October 10). In the last days of his life, Werther loses the ability to express himself with words, and can only use dashes that seem loaded with the inexpressible burden of his sorrow. Werther's inability to put into language his growing misery is why the need for an editor becomes so obvious in the last section of the novel.

Summary

In the final section of the novel the editor steps in, informing us that he has taken great pains to discover the full history of Werther's final months both from documents and interviews. In the editor's narrative, Albert grows increasingly wary of Werther's visits. He begins to leave the room when Werther comes by, worried that this triangle is not being seen charitably by propriety. Werther does not take this hint, instead resenting Albert's conventionality; his conviction that Lotte would have been happier with him grows stronger. Lotte, caught in the middle, tries not to offend either her husband or her good friend, but begins to tire of Werther's intrusions.

While on a walk with Lotte, Werther hears that the country lad with whom he identifies has murdered his replacement in the widow's service. Werther attempts to plead for the country lad before the bailiff, explaining his motives; of course, the bailiff doesn't listen. During Werther's agony over this case, he writes a letter to Wilhelm stating that torrential rains, seemingly expressive of his turbulent soul, have flooded Wahlheim. Meanwhile, Werther grows more obsessed with Lotte: in a letter written on December 14, he states that, unable to control himself, he held her in his arms and covered her with kisses.

The editor writes that this concurrence of misfortune is what makes Werther decide to take his own life; he bides his time in doing so, however, until he can fully accept his decision and execute it with a calm hand. Lotte has also reached a determination of her own: she cannot continue to see Werther so frequently, given Albert's tacit disapproval. Three days before Christmas, when Werther visits her at night, Lotte tells him not to visit again until Christmas Eve; she tries to convince him to accept a new, conventional friendship with her, adding (with unimpeachable insight) that "it is only the impossibility of possessing [her] that attracts [Werther] so much." Werther, hopelessly distraught, retreats.

He begins to write a long suicide note addressed to Lotte, in which he determines that either he, Albert, or she must die, and he is resolved that it shall be himself. After beginning his letter, then settling his affairs, Werther - against Lotte's wishes - pays his beloved a final visit. When she hears him ask for her, Lotte tries to invite some of her friends over so she won't be alone with him (Albert is away on business), but the friends cannot come. Lotte and Werther find themselves in an incredibly uncomfortable situation, which Lotte tries to diffuse first by playing the clavichord, then by having Werther read from his translation of Ossian. This excerpt is very long. The Ossian sends Lotte and Werther into hysterics as "they [feel] their own misery in the fate of the noble Gaels." Unable to restrain himself, Werther forces a kiss between he and Lotte; furious, she orders him out of her house, never to see her again.

When at his home once again, after having taken a late-night hike in the pouring rain to relieve his spirit, Werther writes to Lotte, requesting Albert's hunting pistols. Albert, meanwhile, has returned, and assents to lending Werther the pistols. Lotte passes them to Werther's servant with her own hands. When Werther receives the pistols, delighted that Lotte has apparently implied approval of his suicidal intentions, he spends the rest of the evening going through his papers, burning some and preserving others. He addresses the final section to his suicide letter to Lotte, noting his wishes for burial and saying that his soul is at peace with his decision. Just after the stroke of midnight, he shoots himself in the head.

The shot does not immediately kill him. The next morning, Werther is found - the death-rattle in his throat - with his brain laid bare. The doctor tries to save him, but in vain. Lotte, Albert and her family attend his final hours. The novel closes: "That night around eleven the bailiff had Werther buried at the place he himself had chosen. The old man and his sons followed the body to the grave; Albert was unable to. Lotte's life was in danger. Workmen carried the coffin. No clergyman attended."

Analysis

There is plenty to unpack in this final section - every action is so loaded with meaning. We can examine Werther's suicide, during which his soul indeed seems to have finally found peace, as the normally excessive Werther requires only "one glass of wine" before pulling the trigger (reminding us of the letter of November 8, in which Lotte implores him not to drink "the whole bottle"). We can discuss about how appropriate it is that Albert is away "on business" when Werther pays his last visit to Lotte, proving to some extent Werther's point that Albert cares more about his office than his wife. We can mull over the reading of Ossian, which most critics agree is terribly inappropriate for a climactic scene, especially given its length and its opacity, but which we can see as a clear expression of the zeitgeist. Sturm und Drang relies on the knowingness of its initiates, of whom Lotte and Werther are two examples. Such authentic Romantics would not need context for Ossian - in fact they would scoff at those who do - and so Goethe doesn't provide any. His translation of Ossian is in this light an audacious gesture, like a stretch of feedback and free jazz at an avant garde rock show, intended to separate the true Romantics from the pretenders who don't get it. But what is most telling in the last section of Werther, perhaps, is the use of the editor.

Who is this editor? Who would take so much trouble to document, with "exact facts," the final days and hours of Werther's life? There have been many suggestions as to the identity of this editor, maybe the most creative being that it is Werther himself narrating from beyond the grave (and who but Werther would be so interested in himself?). The fact remains, however, that Goethe deliberately left the identity of the editor vague and impossible to determine.

What is more important about the editor is that he represents, to some degree at least, a refutation of Werther's philosophy. He is an organizer, a gatherer of facts, and a scientist of suffering, so to speak. The editor emphasizes the role that deliberation, not spontaneity (Werther's argument), plays into the forging of art. In his respectful attentiveness to Werther's motives and character, married to his gentle and implicit refutation of Werther's theory of art, the editor provides a model for the ideal reader of Werther: someone who appreciates the tumult and enthusiasm that Werther represents without letting that appreciation snowball into emulation. It seems to be the sensible voice of Goethe himself, who has lived through the turmoil that Werther experienced, but who comes to embrace some aspects of Enlightenment order, and represents an embedded critique of his own zealous creation. What a pity that the readers of the late eighteenth century took this book to be an unabashed endorsement of Werther's lifestyle, even to the point of copying his fate. (Needless to say, the irony is apparent: the "non-conformists" conforming to the fate of their hero, wearing his blue and yellow garb and scented, perhaps, with the popular perfume, Eau de Werther...)

At the final accounting, it is hard to say whether Werther is to be despised, or to be pitied for his fate, as the editor's note at the beginning of the novel implores us. Werther himself knows, especially in these final letters, that he seems doomed to bring unhappiness to those he loves most, but this self-knowledge cannot wholly vindicate the pain he brings both to Albert and Lotte's otherwise happy marriage; the novel ends, after all, with uncertainty as to whether or not Lotte will survive the shock of Werther's death. If he truly cared for Lotte - and if he were really as calm in his decision as he claims - shouldn't he have chosen a different location for the deed, sparing her the immediate sight of his dead body? Even his calmness is carefully staged: the single glass of wine, the open copy of Lessing.

It is worth noting, in the end, that Werther leaves the world in an utterly inelegant manner. His final Romantic gesture ends unromantically, with his messy, dying corpse. Goethe's style in this final section is anything but Romantic: he uses spare, short sentences, utterly factual and unsentimental. Of course the ending is moving - especially the last sentences, in which the themes of class (the workmen carry his coffin) and religion (he is denied a religious burial) are so concisely touched upon - but it is ambiguous as to whether or not it offers an endorsement of Werther's dire decision.

• Biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• About The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Glossary of Terms
• Short Summary
• Full Summary and Analysis
• Summary and Analysis of Book One: Letters of May 4-May 30
• Summary and Analysis of Book One: Letters of June 16-July 26
• Summary and Analysis of Book One: Letters of June 30-September 10
• Summary and Analysis of Book Two: Letters of October 20-March 24
• Summary and Analysis of Book Two: Letters of April 19-December 6
• Summary and Analysis of The Editor to the Reader
• Related Links on The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Suggested Essay Questions
• Sturm und Drang
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources
• Purchase The Sorrows of Young Werther and Other Works
• Test Yourself! Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! Quiz 2
• Test Yourself! Quiz 3
• Test Yourself! Quiz 4
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