The Sorrows of Young Werther

20. Feb, 2006 1 Comment

August 30

Unhappy man! Aren’t you a fool? Aren’t you deceiving yourself? What sense is there in this raging endless passion? I no longer have prayers except to her; no other form appears to my imagination except hers, and I see everything in the world about me only in relation to her. And this brings me many a happy hour — until I must tear myself away from her again. Oh Wilhelm! The things my heart often urges me to do! — When I have been sitting with her for two or three hours and have feasted on her figure, her manner, the divine expression of her thoughts, and then gradually my senses become tense, a darkness appears before my eyes, I can scarcely hear anything, my throat is constricted as though by the hand of an assassin, and my heart beats wildly trying to relieve my oppressed senses, but only increasing their confusion–Wilhelm, often I don’t know whether I really exist. And at times — when melancholy does not get the upper hand and Lotte permits me the wretched comfort of shedding my tears of anguish on her hand — I must leave her, I must get outside and roam far through the fields; I then find my pleasure in climbing a steep mountain, cutting a path through an untrodden forest, through hedges which tear me, through thorns which rend me. Then I feel a little better. A little . . . Oh, Wilhelm! The solitary dwelling of a cell, the hair shirt, and belt of thorns are the comforts for which my soul yearns. Goodbye; I see no end to this misery but the grave.

November 26

Sometimes I tell myself: Your fate is unique; consider other men fortunate — no one has ever been tormented like this. Then I read some poet of ancient times and I feel as if I were looking into my own heart. I have so much to endure! Ah, have men before me ever been so wretched?

From The Sufferings of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Translated by Harry Steinhauer, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, 1970. Posted for Romanticism: Revolt of the Spirit. See Bartleby for more.

Romantic Literature No simple label can describe the Romantic Age, for if...

18th c, German, Prose, Romantic

1774, goethe, werther

René

Romantic Literature

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Romantic Literature | The Humanities Index - 13. Dec, 2008
[...] literary movement, Romanticism was at its most emotional and sentimental. It was Goethe’s Werther who exemplifies one common romantic pose — the sensitive, self-pitying young man who [...]

Author Info

This post was written by Gerald Lucas who has written 84 posts on The Humanities Index.

Dr. Gerald Lucas received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of South Florida and joined the faculty of Macon State College in the Fall of 2002. His research and teaching interests include new media, computer-assisted pedagogy, online virtual environments, twentieth-century American and British literature and theory, and the epic genre. Dr. Lucas’ current work focuses on digital expression and online pedagogies in the humanities.