Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) - the greatest poet and universal genius of German literature, statesman, thinker and naturalist.
He called his work "fragments of a huge confession." His autobiographical works, incl. Poetry and Truth (Dichtung und Wahrheit), which tells the story of the poet's childhood and youth up to 1775; Travel to Italy (Italienische Reise), an account of a trip to Italy in 1786–1788; The French campaign of 1792 (Die Campagne in Frankreich 1792) and the Siege of Mainz in 1793 (Die Belagerung von Mainz, 1793), as well as the Annals and Diaries (Annalen and Tag- und Jahreshefte), covering the period from 1790 to 1822, were all published in firm belief that it is impossible to appreciate poetry without first understanding its author.
Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt am Main. “My father went harsh / way of life, physique; / In mother - the temper is always alive / And the attraction to tales ”(translated by D. Nedovich), - he wrote in one of his later poems. Goethe's first experiments in poetry belong to the age of eight. Not too strict home schooling under the supervision of his father, and then three years of student freemen at the University of Leipzig left him enough time to satisfy his craving for reading and try all the genres and styles of the Enlightenment, so that by the age of 19, when a serious illness forced him to interrupt his studies , he already mastered the techniques of versification and dramaturgy and was the author of a fairly significant number of works, most of which he later destroyed. The poetic collection Annette (Das Buch Annette, 1767), dedicated to Anna Katharina Schonkopf, the daughter of the owner of the Leipzig tavern, where Goethe used to dine, and the pastoral comedy The Caprices of a Lover (Die Laune des Verliebten, 1767) were specially preserved.
In Strasbourg, where in 1770-1771 Goethe completed his legal education, and for the next four years in Frankfurt he was the leader of a literary revolt against the principles established by J.H. Gottsched (1700-1766) and the theorists of the Enlightenment.
In Strasbourg, Goethe met J. G. Herder (1744–1803), the leading critic and ideologist of the Sturm und Drang movement, overflowing with plans to create great and original literature in Germany. Herder's enthusiastic attitude towards Shakespeare, Ossian, T. Percy's Monuments of Old English Poetry and folk poetry of all nations opened new horizons for the young poet, whose talent was just beginning to unfold. He wrote Goetz von Berlichingen (Götz von Berlichingen) and, using Shakespeare's "lessons", began work on Egmont (Egmont) and Faust (Faust); helped Herder collect German folk songs and composed many poems in the manner of a folk song. Goethe shared Herder's conviction that true poetry should come from the heart and be the fruit of the poet's own life experience, and not rewrite old patterns. This conviction became his main creative principle for the rest of his life. During this period, the ardent happiness that filled him with love for Friederike Brion, the daughter of the Sesenheim pastor, was embodied in the vivid imagery and sincere tenderness of such poems as Date and Parting (Willkommen und Abschied), May Song (Mailied) and With a Painted Ribbon (Mit einem bemalten Band); reproaches of conscience after parting with her were reflected in the scenes of abandonment and loneliness in Faust, Goetz, Clavigo and in a number of poems. Werther's sentimental passion for Lotte and his tragic dilemma: the love of a girl already engaged to another is part of Goethe's own life experience. Poems to Lily Schönemann, a young beauty from Frankfurt society, tell the story of his fleeting infatuation.
Eleven years at the Weimar court (1775-1786), where he was a friend and adviser to the young Duke Charles August, radically changed the life of the poet. Goethe was at the very center of court society - a tireless inventor and organizer of balls, masquerades, practical jokes, amateur performances, hunts and picnics, a trustee of parks, architectural monuments and museums. He became a member of the ducal Privy Council, and later a minister of state; he was in charge of laying roads, recruiting, public finances, public works, mining projects, etc. and spent many years studying geology, mineralogy, botany, and comparative anatomy. But most of all he benefited from his long daily contact with Charlotte von Stein. The emotionality and revolutionary iconoclasm of the Sturm und Drang period are a thing of the past; now the ideals of Goethe in life and art are restraint and self-control, poise, harmony and classical perfection of form. Instead of great geniuses, his heroes are quite ordinary people. The free stanzas of his poems are calm and serene in content and rhythm, but little by little the form becomes tougher, in particular Goethe prefers the octaves and elegiac couplets of the great "troika" - Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.
Goethe's numerous official duties seriously impeded the completion of the major works he had begun - Wilhelm Meister, Egmont, Iphigenie and Tasso. Taking a year and a half vacation, he travels to Italy, where he sculpts, makes more than a thousand landscape sketches, reads ancient poets and the history of ancient art by I. I. Winkelman (1717–1768).
Upon his return to Weimar (1789), Goethe did not immediately switch to a "sedentary" way of life. Over the next six years, he made a second trip to Venice, accompanied the Duke of Weimar on his trip to Breslau (Wroclaw), participated in the military campaign against Napoleon. In June 1794, he established friendly relations with F. Schiller, who asked for help in publishing a new magazine, Ory, and after that he lived mainly in Weimar. Daily communication of poets, discussion of plans, joint work on such ideas as the satirical Xenia (Xenien, 1796) and the ballads of 1797, were an excellent creative stimulus for Goethe. The works that lay in his desk were published, incl. Roman Elegies (Römische Elegien), the fruit of nostalgia for Rome and love for Christiane Vulpius, who became Goethe's wife in 1806. He completed the years of study of Wilhelm Meister (Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, 1795-1796), continued to work on Faust and wrote a number of new works, incl. Alexis and Dora (Alexis und Dora), Amyntas (Amyntas) and Hermann and Dorothea (Hermann und Dorothea), an idyllic poem from the life of a small German town against the backdrop of the French Revolution. As for prose, Goethe then wrote a collection of short stories, Conversations of German Emigrants (Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten), which also included the inimitable Tale (Das Märchen).
When Schiller died in 1805, thrones and empires trembled as Napoleon reshaped Europe. During this period he wrote sonnets to Minna Herzlieb, the novel Electoral Affinity (Die Wahlverwandtschaften, 1809) and an autobiography. At the age of 65, wearing an oriental Hatem mask, he created the West-East Diwan (West-östlicher Diwan), a collection of love lyrics. The Zuleika of this cycle, Marianne von Willemer, was herself a poetess, and her poems organically entered the Divan. Parables, deep observations and wise thoughts about human life, morality, nature, art, poetry, science and religion illuminate the verses of the West-Eastern divan. The same qualities are manifested in Conversations in prose and in verse (Sprüche in Prosa, Sprüche in Reimen), Orphic first verbs (Urworte. Orhisch, 1817), as well as in Conversations with I.P. Eckerman, published in the last decade of the poet's life, when he graduated from Wilhelm Meister and Faust.
Goethe died in Weimar on March 22, 1832.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
MAIN WORKS
Götz von Berlichingen with an iron hand (Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand, 1773), inspired by the historical chronicles of Shakespeare, gives a vivid realistic picture of Germany in the 16th century, drawing a conflict between the old imperial order, represented by its chivalry and peasantry, and new forces, the conflict of princes and cities that are destined to define modern life. The play by Clavigo (1774) is based on an episode from the memoirs of P.O.K. Beaumarchais; in contrast to Götsu, this is a compositionally simple modern tragedy from the life of the middle class, raised by Goethe to the level of a problematic play, where each character is right in his own way. The Hero of Egmont (Egmont, 1788) is a Dutch stadtholder (viceroy) of the time of Philip II, who was executed by the Spaniards during the struggle of the Netherlands for liberation from the Spanish yoke. Freedom is the main theme of the tragedy. The use of an orchestra accompanying the allegorical vision of the goddess Liberty in the last act caused sharp criticism at the time, but later Schiller also resorted to this technique - this was the first step towards Wagnerian musical dramas, Beethoven's overture to Egmont continued this tradition. Iphigenia in Tauris (Iphigenie auf Tauris, 1787) is a truly beautiful hymn to Goethe's woman. In contrast to Iphigenia Euripides, a cunning intriguer, Goethe's heroine, having set herself the lofty goal of removing the family curse, achieves this goal by refusing blood feud, does not change herself under any circumstances and lives a pure, sinless life, confident that the gods approve of her philanthropy . Torquato Tasso (Torquato Tasso, 1790) - stunning to the core and, with all the restrictions imposed by the loftiness of poetic language and classical form, a realistic and convincing tragedy of a genius threatened by madness. The novel Electoral Affinity (Die Wahlverwandtschaften, 1809) examines the problems of divorce in detail and without prejudice.
Published in 1774, the sentimental psychological novel in the letters The Suffering of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) brought the author worldwide fame. The first part contains more or less exact circumstances of Goethe's unhappy love for Charlotte (Lotta) Buff, the bride of his friend GK Kestner, in the summer of 1772 in Wetzlar. The second part is based on the unlucky fate of KV Yeruzalem, the Brunswick plenipotentiary secretary: despised by the aristocratic society of the Judicial Chamber, harassed by his superiors and in love with his colleague's wife, he committed suicide in October 1772. The crystallization of these materials and characters, however, took place under the influence of a painful incident that happened to Goethe in February 1774 in the house of Maximilian's jealous husband Brentano.
The unprecedented success of the novel cannot be attributed only to the unsurpassed skill with which Goethe clothed an ordinary love story in epistolary form. Here is the credo of a whole generation that rebelled against the primitive optimistic rationalism of the fathers, who saw the action of speculative laws in the wondrous abundance of nature, in its mysterious Creator - a kind of watchmaker, in the events of life - a set of moral prescriptions, and in the roundabout paths of losses and gains - the torrent path to happiness attainable by rational behavior. In spite of all this, Werther proclaimed the right of the heart.
Wilhelm Meister is the main character in Goethe's dilogy Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre. By genre, this is a novel of education (Bildungsroman), revealing the organic spiritual development of the hero as life experience accumulates. The first edition of the novel - Wilhelm Meister's theatrical vocation (Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung, written in 1777-1786) - was discovered in Switzerland in 1910 and was published in 1911. The novel is remarkable for its realistic description of the acting life, the life of burghers and aristocrats, and is truly unique in German, French and English playwrights, in particular Shakespeare. Wilhelm Meister's years of study (1795–1796) were inspired by Schiller's friendly participation; six books of the Theatrical Vocation were included in the first four books of the new edition, but were revised from a more mature position of the author. According to the new plan, Meister was to be led into a more universal, humanistic conception of life, which could only be achieved by associating with aristocrats. The theater undoubtedly retains its educational value, but only as a detour in the direction of the ideal, and not as an end in itself. Years of wandering, written in the last years of his life (publ. 1829), again demonstrate the changes in philosophy and manner of writing, which is typical for Goethe, who always tried to keep pace with changing times. The Industrial Revolution, much more important in its consequences than the fleeting French Revolution, confirmed how radically times have changed since the Years of Learning were completed. It is noteworthy that at the end of his European travels, Wilhelm emigrated with his family and a group of friends to America, where they intended to create a democratic brotherhood of workers.
Faust is the central figure of many legends, found more than once in the history of literature. It took Goethe more than 60 years to complete the processing of the legend according to the master plan drawn up in 1770. The first part did not appear until 1808. The second part - with the exception of the magnificent tragedy of Helena in act III, begun in 1800 and published in 1827 - mainly the work of the last years of the writer's life (1827–1831); completed shortly before Goethe's death and published in 1833.
The two great antagonists of the mystery tragedy are God and the devil, and the soul of Faust is only the field of their battle, which will certainly end in the defeat of the devil. This concept explains the contradictions in Faust's character, his passive contemplation and active will, selflessness and selfishness, humility and audacity - the author skillfully reveals the dualism of his nature at all stages of the hero's life.
The tragedy can be divided into five acts of unequal size, in accordance with the five periods of the life of Dr. Faust. In act I, which ends with an agreement with the devil, Faust the metaphysician tries to resolve the conflict between two souls - contemplative and active, which symbolize respectively the Macrocosm and the Spirit of the Earth. Act II, the tragedy of Gretchen, which concludes the first part, reveals Faust as a sensualist in conflict with spirituality. Part two, which takes Faust into the free world, to higher and purer spheres of activity, is allegorical through and through, it is like a dream play, where time and space do not matter, and the characters become signs of eternal ideas. The first three acts of the second part form a single whole and together form act III. In them, Faust appears as an artist, first at the court of the Emperor, then in classical Greece, where he unites with Helen of Troy, a symbol of harmonious classical form. The conflict in this aesthetic realm is between the pure artist, who makes art for art's sake, and the eudemonist, who seeks personal pleasure and glory in art. The culmination of Helena's tragedy is her marriage to Faust, in which the synthesis of classics and romanticism finds expression, which both Goethe himself and his beloved student J. G. Byron were looking for. Goethe paid poetic tribute to Byron, endowing him with the features of Euphorion, the offspring of this symbolic marriage. In Act IV, which ends with Faust's death, he is presented as a military leader, engineer, colonist, business man, and empire builder. He is at the pinnacle of his earthly accomplishments, but internal discord still torments him, because he is unable to achieve human happiness without destroying human life, nor is he able to create a paradise on earth with abundance and work for all without resorting to bad means. The devil, always present, is in fact necessary. This act ends with one of the most impressive episodes created by Goethe's poetic fantasy - Faust's meeting with Care. She announces his near death, but he arrogantly ignores her, remaining a masterful and imprudent titan until his last breath. The last act, the ascension and transfiguration of Faust, where Goethe freely used the symbols of Catholic heaven, completes the mystery with a majestic finale, with the prayer of saints and angels for the salvation of Faust's soul by the grace of a good God.
Faust's influence on German and world literature is enormous. Nothing compares to Faust in poetic beauty, and in terms of the integrity of the composition, only Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe - philosopher, thinker, naturalist, educator and, most importantly, the great and brilliant German poet was born in Frankfurt am Main on August 28, 1749. His parents were wealthy and respectable people: his father was an imperial adviser, a lawyer, his mother was a noblewoman, the daughter of a Frankfurt elder.
Already in childhood, Johann began to show amazing abilities for science. Already at the age of seven he knew several languages, in addition, at this age he began to write his first poems and compose plays. A talented child read a lot and tried to replenish his knowledge base as much as possible.
In 1765, Goethe became a student at the University of Leipzig, where he was supposed to study law. Finding himself free from parental care and moralizing, Goethe boldly breaks into the literary life of the city, and in 1767 he writes a collection of poems - "Annette", whose works are full of lyrics and convey his experiences of first love.
Studying at the university was interrupted by a serious illness, due to which Goethe leaves home for a year and a half. The father was against the literary activities of his son and insisted on continuing his studies at the university, as a result of which, in 1770, John moved to Strasbourg. In addition to jurisprudence, Goethe studies chemistry, medicine, philology, while continuing to be fond of literature.
After meeting and getting to know the critic and thinker Gottfried Herder, Goethe radically changes his worldview, and he becomes an active member of the Sturm und Drang literary group, whose members opposed conventions and feudal orders.
The period of graduation from the university accounts for the creation of the first historical drama - "Getz von Berlichingen", the main character of which enters the fight against feudal orders.
In 1772, Goethe moved to the city of Wetzlar to practice law. It is in this city that the poet experiences the pangs of unrequited love for his friend's fiancee Charlotte Buff. Goethe depicted his deep feelings and torments in his work “The Sufferings of Young Werther” - this novel made the poet famous.
In 1775, Goethe, at the invitation of Duke Karl August, moved to the city of Weimar, where he became a manager. Occupying the position of privy councilor and performing a wide variety of duties, Goethe soon becomes a minister in the government. A successful public service did not interfere with his literary activities. During this period, he works on the dramas "Egmont" and "Iphigenia in Tauris", begins to work on "Faust", writes poetry and ballads. He also does not neglect the study of physics, botany and the natural sciences. In 1784, Goethe discovered the human premaxillary bone, and in 1790, the treatise "Experience in the Metamorphosis of Plants" was published.
When Goethe was almost sixty years old, he married Christiane Vulpius, his lover and mother of his children, in a civil marriage, despite the fact that she was a commoner, and this provoked public outcry.
Goethe's work is also influenced by his collaboration with Friedrich Schiller. Following his advice, the writer resumes work on Faust, and in 1808 the first part of this tragedy is published. The end of work on Faust falls on 1831.
The brilliant writer passed away on March 22, 1832, leaving his brilliant legacy in the form of many poems, ballads, plays, novels, scientific works in the field of anatomy, geology, mineralogy, and physics.
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German poet, writer and playwright, founder of modern German literature. He was at the head of the romantic literary movement "Storm and Drang". Author of the biographical novel The Sufferings of Young Werther (1774). The pinnacle of Goethe's work is the tragedy Faust (1808-1832). A visit to Italy (1786-1788) inspired him to create the classic dramas Iphigenia in Tauris (1787), Torquato Tasso (1790). First Minister of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar (1775-1785). Author of the autobiographical book "Poetry and Truth" (ed. 1811-1833), "Years of Wilhelm Meister's Teaching" (1795-1796), "Years of Wilhelm Meister's Wanderings" (1821-1829), a collection of lyric poems "West-Eastern Divan" ( 1814-1819), etc.
Goethe was known as the greatest admirer of women in the history of literature, he had many mistresses.
Kind, handsome, brilliant ... In addition, he himself is very amorous. And therefore the sun of German poetry, wherever fate brought it, always appeared in the company of a pretty girlfriend. The woman was his ideal, a guiding star, an element. And this star shone for him from his youth until the end of his life.
Gretchen is considered the first love of the poet. However, some biographers and commentators argue that it was just a figment of a young imagination. She haunted Goethe in his youth, accompanied his dreams in adulthood, served as his muse in his old age, embodied in the end in the form of the charming Faustian Gretchen, the best and most attractive of Goethe's heroines. However, the poet's mother remembered Gretchen as her son's first love, and in Goethe's autobiography he described his love in detail...
One day, young Wolfgang met a company of cheerful young people. They obtained money for revelry in very unusual ways: they forged bills, found orders for poems for the poet for various special occasions: weddings, funerals, etc.
At one of these parties, Goethe met a charming blonde named Gretchen. She was older than him by a year or a year and a half and, generously accepting the worship of the young poet, nevertheless did not allow him any liberties.
At one feast, a cheerful company stayed up past midnight. Goethe, fearing the wrath of his father, decided not to return home, and stayed with friends. They spent time in conversation until sleep overcame one after the other. Gretchen also fell asleep, resting her pretty head on the shoulder of her boyfriend, who sat proudly and happily, trying not to move. In the morning, Gretchen was already more affectionate with the poet and even gently shook his hand. It seemed that nothing would prevent the rapprochement of young people, when suddenly the police found out about the tricks of a cheerful company. An inquiry began and interrogations followed.
Gretchen stated that she really met Goethe, and not without pleasure, but she always looked at him as a child, and treated him like a sister to her brother. Wolfgang was offended to the core. At fifteen, he considered himself a real man, and not a boy who was looked down upon! Goethe wept, became angry, indignant, and, of course, "teared out of his heart the woman" who so cruelly ridiculed his sincere feelings!
But how fleeting are the passions of youth! If Wolfgang Goethe had been told at the time of his first love that he would soon forget his charming Gretchen and give his warm heart to another girl, just as beautiful, but even closer in spirit, he would have been indignant. Nevertheless, two years later, when Goethe was already studying in Leipzig, this is exactly what happened.
In the house of the innkeeper Schenkopf, a company of young people gathered at the table d'hôte, among whom was Goethe. The owner and hostess, very nice people, sat right there, and their charming daughter busied herself in the kitchen and served wine to the guests. This was Anna-Katerina, or simply Ketchen, whom Goethe in his early collections called either Ankhen or Annette.
The appearance of a 19-year-old girl can be judged from the letter of Gorn, one of Goethe's friends. “Imagine a girl,” he wrote, “of good stature, but not very tall, with a round, pleasant, though not particularly beautiful face, with easy, sweet, charming manners. There is a lot of simplicity in her and not a drop of coquetry. Moreover, she is smart, although she did not receive a good upbringing, he loves her very much and loves her with the pure love of an honest man, although he knows that she can never be his wife. Kathen did not remain indifferent to the feelings of the young poet and reciprocated.
And suddenly Wolfgang began to be furiously jealous of the girl, and completely unfounded. In the end, Kathen got tired of the suspicions that offended her dignity, and she left Goethe and never returned to him. The poet tried to regain her favor, but without success. Only after the breakup, Goethe realized how much he loved this girl.
Strong mental anguish forced him to seek oblivion in wine and revelry, which he thoroughly undermined his health. To restore his strength, Goethe went home to Frankfurt, but the image of a charming girl haunted him there too. Two years after the break, he learned that Kätchen was getting married, moreover, to his good friend, Dr. Kanne, the future Vice-Mayor of Leipzig. The shock was so great that the poet opened pulmonary bleeding. Wolfgang wrote touching letters to his beloved, in which he promised to go away and forget her forever, warned that she should not answer him. But in a noble impulse of self-sacrifice, regret for the lost happiness awakened in his soul, and the pen brought out sad, sincere lines: “You are my happiness! You are the only woman I could not call a friend, because this word is too weak compared to the one what I feel".
The fruit of Goethe's love for Kathen was the pastoral "Whims of a Lover". In her heroes, who spend their time in incessant quarrels, Goethe and Kathe are easily recognizable. The plots for his works often served as events from his own life. The great poet once said: "All my works are only fragments of the great confession of my life."
When Goethe recovered, he was sent to Strasbourg to study law. Strasbourg was a gay city, and Goethe soon forgot about Käthe. There was a lot of dancing in this city, even in the open air, and Goethe could not help but succumb to the general enthusiasm. He began taking lessons from a local dancing master, who had two daughters, Lucinda and Emilia. After the very first lesson, it turned out that Goethe fell in love with Emilia, and Lucinda fell in love with Goethe.
Alas, Emilia loved another, so Goethe did not have to count on reciprocity.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Meanwhile, Lucinda, like a true Frenchwoman, did not hide her feelings and often reproached Goethe for neglecting her heart. One day she turned to a fortune teller. The cards showed that the girl did not enjoy the favor of the person to whom she was not indifferent. Lucinda turned pale, and the fortune-teller, guessing what was the matter, spoke of some letter, but the girl interrupted her with the words: "I have not received any letter, and if it is true that I love, then it is also true that I deserve reciprocity." She ran away in tears. Goethe and Emilia rushed after her, but the girl locked herself up, and no requests could force her to open the doors.
Emilia invited Goethe to stop dancing lessons and frankly confessed to him that she loved another and was connected with him by a word. Emilia also said that Goethe would act nobly if he left their house, since she, too, began to have sympathy for him, and this could have bad consequences. Obedient to bitter necessity, Goethe withdrew.
Among the numerous novels experienced by the great poet, his relationship with the daughter of the Sosenheim pastor Brion, Friederika, deserves special attention.
The twenty-year-old Goethe was four years older than the kind, poetic Friederike. He came to Sosenheim by chance and experienced a feeling of surprise mixed with admiration when, in the modest house of the Sosenheim pastor, little Friderika appeared before him, beaming with chaste beauty. She was in a short skirt and a black apron, her eyes were shining, her slightly upturned nose seemed to ask what kind of stranger he was, who had come from a noisy city to their quiet village, where everything was peaceful and simple, where people live the way their ancestors lived. And the stranger answered her. But what an answer! Passion flowed from his lips, inspiration sparkled in his eyes. The girl fixed her eyes on his beautiful face, she greedily caught his every word, tried to remember every gesture. Still, after all, the great Goethe spoke to her!
On the very first day he fell passionately in love, and his heart beat uneasily at the thought that she might already have loved, perhaps even betrothed. Fortunately, Fryderyka, like a spring flower, was just beginning to live and rushed to meet the one who would be the first to stretch out his hand to her ...
The next day, young people walked together. How many words were said in those minutes! Then they listened to the pastor's sermon in the church. And then, during the day, when the voices of their friends rang in the air, how greedily was the touch of their lips, during the game, but heated by the inner flame! A secret kiss, a real one... And the next day, the departure to Frankfurt. He left almost as a groom, although there was no engagement, because only two days had passed between Goethe's first meeting with his beloved and the highest moment of his love delight!
The history of European literature owes a lot to the poor country girl who inspired a strong feeling in one of her greatest representatives. For Goethe, after meeting with Friederike, the world sparkled with new colors. The significance of this was all the more great because, since the sad story with Katchen, he had almost parted with his muse. After meeting with Friderika, he woke up with a craving for creativity.
Unfortunately, the end of the affair with Friederika did not bear much resemblance to its beginning. Goethe did not marry her, although in fact he was already considered her fiancé. The daughter of a poor pastor could not marry the son of an eminent Frankfurt citizen who would never consent to such a marriage. And Goethe himself understood this when the pastor's family arrived in Strasbourg. If in the village Friederike seemed like a forest flower or a nymph, then in the city where she would have to live, having married Goethe, she looked like a simple peasant woman.
He continued to love her, missed her, but clearly realized that separation was inevitable. Friederike remained faithful to Goethe until the last days of her life. Despite numerous proposals, she never married. "Who was loved by Goethe," Frederick once said to her sister, "cannot love anyone else."
After parting with her and wanting to drown out the heavy feelings in his soul, Goethe tried to find solace in his work, wrote many works, including the sensational "Getz von Berlichingen", which immediately placed its author at the head of the direction known in the history of literature under the name "storm and onslaught". ". Then he sketched out the plan of "Prometheus" and "Faust", which immortalized his name. In order to forget the image of his beloved girl, he delved into the study of antiquity, which was also reflected in his works.
From May to September 1772, Goethe practiced as a lawyer at the Imperial Court of Justice in Wetzlar. Wolfgang immediately became known as a philosopher and conquered everyone with his sharp mind. Beautiful girls were looking for his acquaintances. In Wetzlar, the 23-year-old poet met Charlotte Buff, the daughter of the manager of the estates of the German Order of Knights. The girl was engaged to Christian Kestner, who served in the Imperial Court of Justice as the plenipotentiary secretary of the embassy of the city of Hanover.
Without Goethe's unhappy love for Charlotte Buff (he called her Lotta), one of the poet's most famous works, The Sorrows of Young Werther, would not have been created. Goethe fell in love with 19-year-old Charlotte at first sight, for her gentle beauty and cheerful character could not help but attract the poet.
In The Suffering of Young Werther, the scene of the meeting with Lotta is vividly described, a scene subsequently immortalized on the canvas by Kaulbach. “After passing through the courtyard to a beautiful building and climbing up the stairs, I opened the door, my eyes met the most delightful sight I have ever seen. In the first room, six children from eleven to two years of age were spinning around a beautiful, medium-sized girl dressed in a simple white dress with pink bows on the chest and sleeves. She held black bread and cut portions to the little ones around her, according to the age and appetite of everyone, and served with such affability! " It was a picture in the spirit of that sentimental time, and Goethe met Lotta in 1772.
A sad time began in Goethe's life. Consumed by the desire to get closer to the charming daughter of the adviser Buff, the poet at the same time understood that he must either destroy someone else's happiness, or suppress a flared feeling in himself. But the second way meant suicide.
Surprisingly, the poet did not hide his feelings for her from the groom, and the groom himself encouraged their meetings, confident that Goethe was too honest, and Lotta was too noble for the base role of lovers. And Goethe decided to leave the city. He did not say goodbye to his beloved and her fiancé, instead he sent them a note with passionate outpourings, sighs and tears, and almost immediately decided to describe his mental anguish.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The fruit of his experiences became "The Suffering of Young Werther" ...
Lily's name is familiar to anyone who has read Goethe's famous elegy "Park Lily". Anna-Elisabeth Schönemann was the bride of Goethe and almost became his wife. The poet dedicated several poems to her: "Longing", "Bliss of sadness", "Autumn", "Lily", "New love, new life", "Belinda", "The golden heart that he wore on his chest"...
Rich, cheerful, frivolous, always living in luxury, surrounded by secular dandies, constantly revolving in high society, the girl was the complete opposite of the great poet. Even the closest friends and buddies did not allow the thought of marriage between them.
Goethe met Elisabeth Schönemann at the end of 1774 at her parents' house in Frankfurt. Sixteen-year-old Lily sat at the piano and played a sonata. When she finished, Goethe introduced himself to her. “We looked at each other,” he wrote in his autobiography, “and, I don’t want to lie, it seemed to me that I felt an attractive force of the most pleasant quality.” For the ardent Goethe, one meeting was enough to immediately write a poem and pour out his feelings.
Lily quickly tied Goethe to her, and he was really happy when she honored him with a caress.
The coquettish Lily liked the handsome poet. She enthusiastically told him about her life, complained about its emptiness, said that she only wanted to test her power over Goethe, but she herself was caught in the net. The young people explained themselves, and the matter would probably have ended in marriage, if not for the difference in social status between the families. Knowing her father's fastidiousness in this matter, Cornelia, Goethe's sister, strongly opposed this marriage. Others also objected. But Goethe did not listen.
A certain damsel Delph undertook the difficult task of arranging the matter. Once she told the lovers that the parents agreed, and ordered to shake hands with each other. Goethe approached Lily, and she slowly but firmly raised hers and placed it in his hand, after which both "with a deep sigh" threw themselves into each other's arms. Then the engagement took place. But the marriage still fell apart. Goethe's trip to Switzerland also played a role, during which Lily's entourage tried to assure her of the coldness of her fiancé. In the end, the young people had to leave. Goethe took the breakup hard. He stood under her window for hours, wrapped in a cloak, and returned pleased when he happened to see her shadow in the windows.
Subsequently, Lily married a Strasbourg banker, and Goethe, leaving for Italy, wrote in his notebook: “Lily, goodbye! For the second time, Lily! Parting for the first time, I still hoped to unite our fate. Now it’s decided: we must play our parts apart. I'm not afraid for myself or for you. It all seems so confusing. Goodbye."
With 33-year-old Charlotte von Stein, Goethe met in 1775 and loved her for fourteen years, despite the fact that she was married to the chief equestrian of the Weimar court, and she was surrounded by seven children. True, she was very educated, tactful, intelligent, but ... the poet was only 26 years old! Probably, the fact that Goethe was alone in small, cheerful Weimar, where he found himself after his native Frankfurt and where the new duties of a courtier weighed heavily on him, played a role here.
Wolfgang described his feelings for Charlotte in the famous Iphigenia. Some biographers of Goethe believe that his love for Charlotte was platonic. They exchanged passionate confessions, wrote fiery letters to each other during separation, but never went beyond what was permitted, although Charlotte's husband was at home only once a week. At the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that when Goethe became close to Christiane Vulpius, his future wife, Charlotte, burning with anger and demanding back her letters, burned them, and stopped all relations with Goethe. The seriousness of their relationship is also evidenced by the drama composed by Charlotte, where Goethe is depicted in an unattractive way. The poet is presented in it as the most stupid braggart, a rude cynic, conceited to the point of ridiculousness, a perfidious hypocrite, a godless traitor...
In the summer of 1788, Goethe, the Duke's Privy Councilor, returned to Weimar after a year and a half in Italy. Charlotte von Stein pointedly avoided him. After all, he left for Italy without saying a word to her, and for a long time did not report his whereabouts. And when he decided to tell her the "beautiful secrets" of his erotic adventures with a Roman widow, she, with her stiffness, did not find anything sublime in his stories. He became overly "sensual," she wrote in one of her letters.
It is not difficult to imagine that after the very first days in Weimar, Goethe felt lonely, he sorely lacked the artistic treasures of Italy and its free life. He had to be content with a camp bed in a garden house in the Ilm Park, and the Roman widow, whom he called Faustina, no longer delighted his lonely nights.
Goethe was at the zenith of his glory. He was the best friend of the Duke of Weimar, who personally granted him the title of nobility and, in addition, almost all the highest positions and awards of the tiny state. Goethe was associated with the giants of thought of his time. He was thirty nine years old. Do not count his novels with noble and educated European ladies. He was on his way to Olympus, the national hero of Weimar.
Christiana Vulpius, a small, unremarkable flower girl of twenty-three, had a modest income, she helped her mother support her younger children after her father abandoned the family. She was not educated, spoke with a strong Thuringian accent, read with great difficulty, and wrote even worse. But she was fresh, with soft skin, a clear look and ruddy cheeks, unruly chestnut curls fell on her forehead. She had a cheerful disposition, and she willingly laughed, joked and recklessly built her eyes. She worked as a flower girl in a factory in Weimar, where she made artificial flowers from silk shreds, which then adorned the hats and necklines of beautiful Weimar ladies.
A giant of the spirit and an uneducated flower girl - can you imagine more dissimilar people?
So the two met in the Palace Park in Weimar. And it is no coincidence: Christiane had been standing there for a long time, waiting for him. She had an unusual business with him, it concerned not her personally, but her brother, and therefore the whole family. In her hand she held a letter written by her brother asking for help. The brother calculated correctly: the request would have an effect if it was passed to the poet by a pretty sister.
Christiana's brother, August Christian Vulpius, entered the history of literature thanks to the meeting of his sister with Goethe in the Weimar Palace Park on that June day in 1788.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If Goethe had helped him, he would have created a masterpiece, the most vivid novel from the life of robbers - a novel about the noble Rinaldo Rinaldini. His dream came true: after meeting in the Palace Park with his sister, Goethe showed him favor. Of course, it was not the obscure Vulpius and not his literary masterpiece, completed or just conceived, that interested Goethe. The spoiled ladies' man was smitten by a girl.
Everything suggests that Christiana became Goethe's beloved on the same day, for both annually celebrated on July 12 the anniversary of their union. Some stanzas in the "Roman Elegy" are undoubtedly dedicated to Christians: "My dear, do you repent that you gave up so soon? Do not repent: with a bold thought, believe me, I will not belittle you," - this is how the third elegy begins.
Soon, Christiana left her job and moved in with Goethe, becoming his secret mistress, whose existence he hid in every possible way.
The guest room in Goethe's house was always ready to receive Fritz von Stein, the youngest son of the poet's old friend Charlotte von Stein. The boy often lived for a long time with the lonely Goethe, even after the break between his mother and the poet. And now Fritz was telling his mother about a new girl who had appeared in Goethe's house. Charlotte took the news, of course, painfully. After so many years of love, spiritual fellowship on an equal footing, she felt deeply offended, being rejected for the sake of an uneducated, unworthy young flower girl.
The news quickly spread throughout the city. People gossiped, indignant at the immorality of the poet. Almost the highest being was revered in Goethe, and the rumor did not condemn his connection with Mrs. von Stein, who was his equal in everything. Now they saw in him a vicious seducer who only knew what to indulge his whims. In July 1790, he wrote: "I got married, but without a solemn ceremony." This is precisely what seemed indecent to Weimar society. Friend Schiller, when he was in the house on the Frauenplan, simply did not notice Christiane. In 1800, when Goethe's work was experiencing some decline, Schiller was sure that this was a consequence of his life together with Christiana.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more unequal couple. An irrational beginning was present in their relationship from their acquaintance: Goethe fell in love instantly. But it happened to him so many times in his life! More recently, in the history of literature, the poet's work was divided into periods associated with the names of the women who inspired him: Lotta, Friederike, Marianne, Lily, Charlotte ... However, much less often they wrote about Christian in this sense. Perhaps because their relationship was very long, lasting over thirty years, until her death in 1818. Partly because it is hardly possible to talk about direct "inspiration" here, which, for example, Lotta Buff had on the appearance of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" or Frederic Brion - on memories of his youth in the novel "Poetry and Truth. From My Life" .
First of all, "Roman Elegies", and even, perhaps, a few poems written for the occasion. That's probably all.
She was just the person he needed so much: a simple, cheerful, laughing, free nature, so contrasting with his isolation, high demands on the ideal, intellectual exercises, refined communication in secular salons, with the prim atmosphere of the court. Apparently, Goethe liked how cheerfully his "child of nature", his "little eroticon" chatted.
She remained his mistress for seventeen years before he decided to legalize their relationship with a modest civil marriage in 1806 under the French occupation authorities. Even when she became the mother of his son Augustus, who was born in the Christmas week of 1789, he did not think about marriage. But even before the birth of a son for a stubborn bachelor, she actually created a family, which included her half-sister, an old aunt and a brother - the one who wrote about Rinaldo Rinaldini. The family would have been larger: Christiana gave birth to four more children, but two died at birth, two were stillborn. Over the unequal union, it was as if fate itself had spread its black wings, because August, who lived to adulthood, was a physically weak and mentally unstable person.
In a word, their family life did not look like an idyll, they had to go through a lot of dramas, which, of course, could not but leave their mark on the character of the most cheerful of the flower girls.
So Christiana was the opposite of a poet. For her, there were no difficult problems, she laughed, joked and spoiled him. She was the embodiment of sensual warmth and feminine immediacy, as Goethe wrote in his Roman Elegies. She was "ein Lieb mit alien seinen Prachten" ("flesh in all its splendor"). Here we are talking about purely physical, sensual love, which Christiana evoked in him. Without her, he would not have created such a complete picture of love. After all, love is not only an all-consuming passion of the soul, but also a "little eroticon", as Goethe himself beautifully wrote about it. Perhaps she personified love in the poet's life.
The Duke of Württemberg was sympathetic to the situation - who does not have a lover. Karl August willingly agreed to become the godfather of the poet's son, Augustus; the child was probably named after a high patron. Christiana, of course, was not present at her son's christening. Even Goethe could not allow such a meeting - the duke with his beloved.
Augustus was five years old when his grandmother, who lived in Frankfurt, finally found out about the existence of a grandson. Christiane was nowhere shown with Goethe. On the contrary, she enjoyed spending time with people of her circle, among whom were many artists from the small Weimar court theater. Over the years, she grew stout, weighed down, and at the end of her life she turned into a swollen fat woman.
In 1806, Goethe finally decided to legalize his relationship with Christiana. On October 19, they officially got married. And this time everything went modestly: they got married in the sacristy of the church of St. James.
The very next day after the marriage, Frau von Goethe appeared in the salon of Johanna Schopenhauer, the mother of the famous philosopher, who had just been widowed and decided to settle in Weimar. The reasoning of this lady boiled down to something like this: since Goethe gave Christians his name, then she, Mrs. Schopenhauer, would treat her to a cup of tea.
The doors of many houses opened to the newly minted Privy Councilor. However, the triumphal procession through the magnificent salons did not work out.
After her "exaltation" Christiana did not live long. Terribly plump, fell in love with solitude. In Weimar there was disrespectful talk of the "fat half of Goethe."
Her end was hard. She suffered from uremia, went for treatment, but from the water of the Egerland spring she only swelled exorbitantly. Goethe did not show much interest in her. Always afraid of illness and death, so that in his presence it was impossible even to talk about these sad things, he turned away from her suffering. Like many hypochondriacs, he closed himself in his own ailments. She died alone, he did not hold her hand in the last moments.
In his diary, he wrote very briefly: "My wife died. The last, terrible struggle of her body. She died at lunchtime. There is emptiness and terrible silence in me and around." But immediately after these words, he continued: "The solemn entry of Princess Ida and Prince Bernhard. Court adviser Meyer-Reimer. In the evening, a fabulous illumination in the city. My wife is taken to the morgue at night. I am in bed all day."
In the fate of Goethe there were women before Christiana Vulpius and after her. Women who inspired him, influenced the development of his poetic gift. But relationships with most of them flashed by short episodes in his life. He hurried on all the time.
The only woman he lingered next to was Christiana, although he left her for a long time. No one else had given him such simple, unassuming love. Through this love he may have known peace, for it was permanence itself, while he is all movement.
However, marriage did not save Goethe from the arrows of Cupid. He continued to love and be loved.
Bettina. A strange person, later the wife of the science fiction writer Arnim, according to Lewis, was more a demon than a woman. Young, passionate, eccentric, whimsical, fell in love with the poet in absentia, and began to fill him with letters full of delight. Then she suddenly came to Weimar, threw herself into the arms of the poet and, as she herself tells, at the first meeting she fell asleep on his chest. After that, she pursues him with love, vows, jealousy, despite the fact that the subject of her passion was already fifty-eight. And Goethe came to life again, involuntarily succumbing to her charm. But soon Bettina's extravagant antics, her violent passion began to tire Goethe. The break was inevitable.
Then, on the life path of the 60-year-old poet, there appeared a young, passionately loving Minna Herzlieb, the adopted daughter of the bookseller Froman, a girl who fell in love with the old poet with all her heart and inspired him to a number of sonnets and the novel "Affinity of Souls", which describes his feelings for his beloved . The passion of Minna and Goethe instilled great fear in their friends, and they tried to avoid serious consequences by sending the girl to a boarding school, which really turned out to be a lifesaver.
Five years later, that is, when the poet was sixty-five, he met the charming wife of the banker Willemer, Marianne, and both immediately fell in love with each other with such passion that, now, after many years, reading Goethe's outpourings and the same answers of his girlfriend , you completely forget the difference in the years of lovers. It seems that before us are two completely young creatures, only knowing the all-consuming passion and hurrying to enjoy a hitherto unknown feeling.
The lovers parted, but until the death of the poet - for 17 years - they corresponded. A month before his death, Goethe returned her letters to Marianne and her poem "To the West Wind".
And, finally, the last love of Goethe. At seventy-five, he, as a young man, fell in love with 18-year-old Ulrika Levetsov. Ulrika fell in love with the poet with a sincere, passionate love that did not dry up in her soul until her death.
Ulrika died in 1898, leaving behind the memory of a brilliant man who almost became her husband. She never married, because she did not meet a man who could take the place in her heart that belonged to Goethe. He was old, but still slender and fit, there was not a single wrinkle on his forehead, and his eyes sparkled with a dazzling brilliance of beauty and strength ...
So why did women love him so much? Undoubtedly, he was smart, but intelligence is not always an argument for a woman's heart; he was handsome, but beauty is not always attractive either. Perhaps the best explanation was given by Heinrich Heine: "In Goethe we find in its entirety that harmony of appearance and spirit, which is seen in all extraordinary people. His appearance was as significant as the words of his creations; his image was full of harmony, clear , noble, and it was possible to study Greek art on it, as on ancient sculpture.This proud camp never bent in the Christian humility of a worm: these eyes did not look sinfully fearfully, piously or with unctuous tenderness: they were calm, like those of some they are deities. A firm and bold look in general is a sign of the gods. Napoleon's eyes also possessed this property; therefore I am sure that he was a god. Goethe's look remained the same divine in old age as it was in youth. Time covered his head with snow, but he could not bend it. He still carried it proudly and high, and when he spoke, he seemed to grow, and when he stretched out his arms, it seemed as if he could show the stars their path in the sky. expressed selfish inclinations; but this feature is inherent in the eternal gods, and it is precisely the father of the gods - the great Jupiter, with whom I have already compared Goethe. In fact, when I was with him in Weimar, then, standing in front of him, I involuntarily looked to the side, whether there was an eagle with lightning near him. I almost spoke to him in Greek, but noticing that he understood German, I told him in German that the plums on the road from Jena to Weimar were delicious. During the long winter nights I thought so often how much sublime and profound I would convey to Goethe when I saw him. And when, finally, I saw him, I told him that Saxon plums are very tasty. And Goethe smiled. He smiled with the same lips with which he had once kissed Leda, Europe, Danae, Semele ... Fryderyka, Lily, Lotta, Ulrika - weren't these the same Semele, Europe, Leda, Danae?
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Johann Wolfgang Goethe is a German writer, playwright and poet who entered the history of world literature. The works of this author are immortal and are of a philosophical nature. The creator of the famous "Faust" was a kind and mysterious person, versed in the sciences and advocacy.
The German genius of classical literature was born on August 28, 1749 in Germany, in the prosperous trading city of Frankfurt am Main. The talented boy spent his childhood in a quiet and comfortable house near the Oleniy ravine, which in the future will become the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Museum.
The writer's parents had a noble position: Kaspar Goethe was a lawyer and imperial adviser, and Katarina Elisabeth Goethe was the daughter of the supreme city judge Johann Wolfgang Textor. It is worth saying that Kaspar's wife is 21 years younger than him, the girl was married to a lawyer at a young age, and initially she did not have love feelings for him.
Caspar Goethe lived in prosperity and did not deny himself or his family anything, thanks to the inheritance received from Friedrich Georg, who was his father. The writer's grandfather earned a huge fortune on his own, going from a tailor to an owner of a tavern. Johann's father was an intelligent man with a strong disposition, but with a limited outlook and a strict character.
The head of the family did not work, as the money received was enough for a lifetime. Instead of painstaking work, Kaspar traveled a lot, he especially liked Italy and the culture of Rome. He also collected a home library, which the young future author of Faust diligently studied. About two thousand books accumulated on Friedrich's bookshelves - a whole literary fortune.
At the age of six, little Johann begins to take an interest in the religious question. After the earthquake in Lisbon, the boy wonders if there is a God. If he exists, then why did he take away innocent virtuous people who died during a natural disaster? Johann had a sister, Cornelia, with whom his brother maintained warm relations. In addition to a boy and a girl, Katarina gave birth to four more children, but they died in infancy.
The writer's mother is the exact opposite of her husband: Katarina was a cheerful and smiling woman who tried to look at all aspects of life from an optimistic side. Because of the provocative nature of Katharina, little Johann loved her more than his father, but the boy also developed a friendship with Friedrich, despite frequent quarrels and the quick-tempered nature of Goethe the Elder.
Katarina did not receive a secondary education, which was not uncommon for women in these times, but the Goethe family's hearth keeper also loved to read and was fond of theater. Little Johann was very fond of fairy tales that his mother read to him at night: Katharina herself composed them. True, the woman acted cunningly: the future writer told her grandmother about her experiences, and she, in turn, passed on the “secret” of the grandson of his mother. Thus, Katarina understood what to tell her son in the next story.
The future German literary figure Johann Goethe grew up in a cozy environment full of love and understanding. Although the boy's parents were wealthy, Goethe was not a spoiled child and from an early age became addicted to literature, got acquainted with the Metamorphoses and the Iliad. When the boy was 4 years old, he received a luxurious gift from his grandmother - a small dollhouse. Little Goethe loved to play with a toy theater and came up with miniature scenes. Johann begins writing poetry at the age of ten. Since then, the future great writer calls himself a poet.
From 1756 to 1758, the young Goethe went to high school, and then transferred to home schooling. Friedrich did not spare money for the education of his children, so only the best private teachers worked with Johann and Cornelia. The boy studied foreign languages, natural sciences and was fond of drawing. In addition, home schooling included equestrianism, fencing, dancing, as well as playing the piano and cello.
French, Greek, English, Latin, etc. help the young Goethe write a novel in verse about brothers and sisters who send letters to each other in different languages. The boy writes his first work out of boredom, as he is tired of doing homework.
In the autumn of 1765, Goethe entered the University of Leipzig, which is considered one of the best in Germany. Friedrich wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, so he sent the teenager to the Faculty of Law. However, Johann is reluctant to attend classes in law, preferring philosophy, natural science and literature. Goethe liked to listen to the lectures of the German poet and philosopher Christian Gellert, and also in his student years at drawing lessons he met Johann Winckelmann, whom he considers his mentor.
While in "Little Paris", Goethe lived on Neumarkt Street, in a house called "Fireball". Young Goethe was a sociable student, in his environment there were many classmates with whom the future writer arranged friendly meetings, and also visited the theater, played the piano and played cards. Johann Goethe was dressed "to the point". But initially the student arrived in the city in the "simple outfit of a provincial" and caused ridicule.
Caring Friedrich, who did not spare money for Johann's entertainment and clothes, sent 100 guilders to the student every month, which was a good fortune in those days.
Despite his intelligence and diligence in his studies, Goethe fails to graduate from high school. Due to the exacerbation of tuberculosis in the summer of 1768, the young man had to return to his native city. Due to the fact that Johann returned to Frankfurt without a diploma, disagreements begin between father and son.
Literature
After his arrival from Leipzig, Goethe fell ill for a long time and stayed at home. While on sick leave, the young man writes his first work - the comedy Die Mitschuldigen ("Partners")
In 1770, Goethe, hoping to get a law degree, went to the city of Strasbourg: in a new place, the future writer began to be interested in chemistry, medicine, and also philology. There he meets the German writer and theologian Johann Herder, who had a positive influence on the young man.
In the new city, the young Goethe forms himself as a poet and belongs to the Sturm und Drang movement. This is practically the same as sentimentalism in Europe: the classical figures of reason are being replaced by admirers of emotional feelings.
In Strasbourg, Goethe falls in love with Friederike Brion, and the young poet dedicates lyrical poems to her: “The Steppe Rose”, “May Song”, etc. After a while, Goethe writes to Brion that his feelings for the girl have cooled.
In 1773, Goethe wrote a play about a Swabian knight, Goetz von Berlichingen with an Iron Hand, which brought popularity to the young writer on the Sturm und Drang manifesto.
In 1772, at the insistence of his father, Goethe went to Wetzlar to practice as a lawyer. In an old town, a young man falls passionately in love with Charlotte Buff after meeting her at a dance party. The poet was captivated by the beauty of a charming girl. After spending the evening surrounded by Goethe, Charlotte does not reciprocate the young Johann, which causes the writer to become depressed.
But it is worth paying tribute to this fleeting meeting, because thanks to it, in 1774, Goethe gave birth to the brilliant work The Suffering of Young Werther, where Charlotte was the prototype of Lotta. The novel in letters tells about a young man who fell in love unrequitedly and committed suicide. Such a plot denouement was inspired by Goethe by his friend Karl Wilhelm Jeruzalem, who in 1772 shot himself in his apartment because of feelings for a married woman.
Johann Goethe's novel The Suffering of Young Werther The novel about Werther's unrequited love gained popularity and brought fame to Goethe, but a war of suicides on the basis of unrequited love took place in Germany: young Germans took Goethe's work too close to their hearts. Therefore, in some cities, the book of Johann was even banned.
"Faust"
On the bookshelves of the Goethe family library was a book about Johann Georg Faust. This man, who lived in the 15th and 16th centuries, was a mysterious person who was interested in many poets of subsequent times. And, of course, interest in the mystical warlock did not bypass Goethe, who loved to study occult science and alchemy.
Poems by Johann Goethe "Faust" Over the poem "Faust" Johann Goethe worked most of his life since the age of 20. This work is ingenious in structure and content, and also reflects the literary views of the poet, which have changed over the years of writing.
For the first time, an excerpt from Faust was published in 1808, and a whole book, consisting of fragments, was published in 1832.
Goethe's tragedy has been translated into many languages of the world and is still considered a heritage of culture. Translation into Russian was carried out by Anatoly Mamontov, Alexander Strugovshchikov and others. But the most famous Russification of the work belongs to.
The quotation of the evil spirit from the poem is an epigraph to the novel The Master and Margarita:
“I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good,” said Mephistopheles, whom the Russian writer makes the prototype of Woland in his book.
Another popular mystical work by Johann Goethe is the ballad The King of the Forest, written in 1782. The plot tells of a supernatural being who killed a child: Goethe draws an analogy with the boy's illness. Was the hero of the "Forest King" delirious, or did he meet with an evil king?
Illustration for Johann Goethe's poem "Faust" This ballad has become a recognizable work of Goethe, it can easily be attributed to the folk epic. Also, poems in the future are reflected in literature and music: he writes the novel "Pale Fire", and the German band Rammstein performs the song "Dalai Lama".
Personal life
Goethe was a charming and kind person who managed to master any knowledge. Due to his interest in art and literature, Goethe developed character from childhood by reading the immortal classics.
Despite his sociability, Johann Wolfgang was known as a mysterious person, some historians believe that part of the character of Heinrich Faust from Goethe's work was inherent in the author of the poem.
Even in the photographic portraits of Johann Goethe, a certain mysticism can be traced, his brown eyes seem to keep some secret, which he himself knew.
Goethe was popular with women, and there is not enough book to describe the love affairs of the German classic. And only Christiane Vulpius made the poet fall in love with herself for thirty whole years.
Christiane was not a beauty, like the first love of the writer Charlotte, but she captivated Goethe with her simplicity and sincerity. They met by chance on the street, the girl gave the future chosen one a letter. The poor peasant woman charmed Johann Wolfgang so much that he immediately invited the young girl to settle in his estate. Most of the poet's mistresses considered it an insult to the choice of the writer, who preferred the "simple". Goethe and Christina had five children, although the German classic has children from other women.
In his spare time, Goethe cultivated violets and collected minerals.
Death
In the spring of 1832, Goethe caught a cold while walking in an open carriage, and the disease dramatically worsened the health of the 82-year-old writer. On March 22, the great poet died due to cardiac arrest. The last words of the author of Faust:
"Please close the window."
Quotes
- "Humanity could achieve incredible success if it were more sober"
- “Faith is a rainbow bridge between heaven and earth, to the delight of everyone, but of the wanderers, each one sees it differently, depending on the place where he is”
- "Whoever does not believe in a future life is dead to this one too..."
- “God is everything if we stand high; if we stand low, he is the complement of our wretchedness"
- “A fool who has fallen in love is much more stupid: / And he will give the sun, and the moon, and the stars / For fireworks - for beauty to have fun!”
Bibliography
- "The Suffering of Young Werther" (1774);
- "Iphigenia in Tauris" (1787);
- "Roman Elegies" (1788);
- "Torquato Tasso" (1790);
- "Metamorphosis of Plants" (1790);
- "The Years of the Teaching of Wilhelm Meister" (1796);
- "Faust" (1808-1831);
- "Marienbad Elegy";
- "Magical flute";
- "Teaching about color";
- "Materials for the history of the doctrine of color";
- "West-Eastern Divan" (1819);
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