Here’s Why I Am Obsessed With Young Werther (…And Why You Should Be, Too)

Who is young Werther, you ask? A great question. First things first, Werther is pronounced Vair-tuh (leave your caramel candy associations behind, my friends). It is pronounced this way because Werther is a German main character in German author Goethe’s (Ger-tuh) semi-autobiographical, epistolary novel. Alright, now that you’ve got the German pronouncements down (Vair-tuh and Ger-tuh 😉 ) let’s talk about where my obsession began.

It was the spring semester of my junior year of college and from the depths of my “Reason and Revolt” class (filled, as you may have guessed, with texts written by reasonable old men) comes The Sorrows of Young Werther. Werther was anything but reasonable. My professor, now friend, introduced the text with a lesson on seven themes of romantic literature, which seemed to usher in a new age: the age of revolt. Without further ado, here are the seven themes that were discussed:

1. originality- romantic writers charted their own course
2. a turn away from convention- modern methods went against the classical
3. inspiration is more highly upheld than learning
4. intuition is more highly upheld than rules
5. romantic literature has a tendency towards pantheism
6. the cult of genius becomes a thing- someone untaught is somehow able to produce a work of genius
7. a return to the Middle Ages

So here we are in the late 1700s, in a cultural atmosphere where authors, poets, artists, and so on are fed up with standard convention. They want something new, something blatantly different. They want CHANGE. And one of the many manifestations of this spirit of rebellion and experimentation came in the form of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther in 1774. And what a masterful manifestation it was.

So here we are in the late 1700s, in a cultural atmosphere where authors, poets, artists, and so on are fed up with standard convention. They want something new, something blatantly different. They want CHANGE.

I also believe that the impact a novel has on a person can be greatly amplified by the way it corresponds with whatever is going on in their own life. When I first read this, it was 2018 and I had just turned 21. I was becoming more and more awakened to the injustices of the world, becoming more aware of my frustrations with the safe, conservative Christian life that I had led for so long. I was inspired by the liberalism of Christ, the love he had for the unholy (aka every. single. person. even you, Karen). I was disheartened by the state of our discriminatory government, by the inability of all people (especially the young) to see past their own privilege enough to recognize a need to for change.

Then, into my hands came a book fueled with that same impassioned spirit, led by authentic and vulnerable (sometimes even irrational) motivations of the heart. I felt understood.

Then, into my hands came a book fueled with that same impassioned spirit, led by authentic and vulnerable (sometimes even irrational) motivations of the heart.

If you find yourself craving something authentic, something different, something raw and beautiful and messy, here is why this is the book for you:

1. Werther is not a hero. If you have any doubts about this, they will certainly be dispelled by the end of the book. (Warning: graphic content). One of the things that makes Werther such an amazing character is that he is just like any of the rest of us. He’s emotionally complex, and sensitive. He’s far from perfect and makes his fair share of mistakes (falling for unavailable women among them). He’s someone who, through personal and vulnerably written letters, we feel we can be authentic with, due in large part to how honest he is with us. The book is quite therapeutic in this way, because those worst bits of the human experience are no longer taboo, but put on display for us to acknowledge and think “I’m not the only one.”
2. Werther lives in the extremes of sturm and drang. AKA: Storm and Stress. There’s always some kind of emotional turmoil under the surface for Werther. At the end of the day, we are emotional beings, and those emotions greatly affect our daily choices. In a way, The Sorrows of Young Werther serves as a microcosm of the romantic cultural movement. Albert, the fiancé of Lotte (who is sought after by Werther) represents the conservative, safe, logical world of old. In juxtaposition to Albert is Werther, who represents the new world of introspection and soul-searching, in which emotion and passion are upheld over logic. Werther recognizes his emotional nature rather than stifling it. Children, for example, are elevated almost to a level of superiority for the first time through works of romantic literature. Their imaginative nature and ability to be swept up in fantastical realities corresponds with Werther’s own tendencies.
3. Werther is the result of Goethe writing about what he knows (art imitates life). Goethe certainly had a turbulent love life himself. Like Werther, he fell in love at a young age with a woman named Charlotte who was already engaged to be married. Nothing speaks quite so effectively as the words of someone who has experienced what they are writing about. Writers write best what they know. Apparently, the writing process was so vividly personal to Goethe that he wrote a letter to Johann Peter Eckermann 50 years after the book’s publication, saying, “That was a creation which I, like the pelican, fed with the blood of my own heart.”
4. Werther lives in the in-between. This is something that I think is perhaps best explained by Keats’s poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Keats describes an unchanging scene that has been painted on a vase. A young maiden and her lover are pictured leaning in for a kiss, but Keats reflects on the fact that this moment before desire is fulfilled is infinite for them. The two will never get old, they will never fall out of love or argue. They always be in the in-between in which thrill and potential thrive, but disappointment can never arise. Werther lives in the in-between in that Lotte can never be his, but will always be what he desires. This same pattern in seen with Petrarch and Laura, as well as Dante and Beatrice.

If this all sounds like something that you can connect with, let’s be friends. Here’s a link to the cheapest copy I could find, read it. It’s one for the restless, the change-makers, the passionate and easily swept up. We need some more of that in the world.

It’s one for the restless, the change-makers, the passionate and easily swept up.