Moscow State University them. M.V. Lomonosov
© 2006 "SUMMARY FOR JURFAKS"
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Faculty of Journalism.
Genre features of Goethe's novel "The Sufferings of Young Werther".
Lecturer: Vannikova N.I.
Abstract of a 2nd year student
Moscow 2004
One of major works Goethe is an epistolary novel "The Sufferings of Young Werther" (1774) - one of outstanding works German and European sentimentalism. According to Engels, Goethe accomplished one of the greatest critical feats by writing Werther, which can by no means be called a mere sentimental romance novel. The main thing in it is "emotional pantheism", the desire of the hero to realize at least in his "heart" a natural state. The impossibility of achieving it logically leads to a denouement - the untimely death of Werther.
The form of the novel in letters became an artistic discovery of the 18th century, it made it possible to show a person not only in the course of events and adventures, but also in the complex process of his feelings and experiences, in his relation to the outside world. All letters in the novel belong to one person - Werther; before us is a novel-diary, a novel-confession, and we perceive all the events that take place through the eyes of this hero. Just brief introduction, the passage "From the Publisher to the Reader" and the ending are objectified - they are written on behalf of the author.
The reason for the creation of the novel was Goethe's love for Charlotte Buff. He met her in June 1772 while serving at the Imperial Court in Wetzlar. Goethe had good friendly relations with Charlotte's fiancé, who also served in Wetzlar, Kestner, and when he realized that his feelings for Lotte were disturbing the peace of his friends, he retired. "I leave you happy, but I do not leave your hearts," he wrote to Charlotte. Approximately the same words we see in Werther's farewell letter.
Goethe himself left his beloved, but did not die, but the prototype of the suicidal lover is also taken from real events. Another Wetzlar official, Goethe's acquaintance in Jeruzalem, found himself in similar circumstances, falling in love with married woman, but not finding a way out, committed suicide. It is interesting to note that, sympathizing with Jerusalem, he first of all writes with indignation about the people around him who drove him to suicide: “Unfortunate! But these devils, these vile people who do not know how to enjoy anything but the scum of vanity, who have erected idols of sensuality in their hearts, who worship idols, hinder good undertakings, in no way knowing measures and sapping our strength! They are to blame for this misfortune, our misfortune. They would go to hell, their brother!
Thus, we see that the content of the novel goes beyond the autobiographical framework; this work cannot be considered only as a reflection of the spiritual "Wetzlar drama". The meaning of Goethe's characters and generalizations is much deeper and wider. The novel goes back to a certain tradition (from Richardson to Rousseau), being at the same time a new artistic phenomenon of the era. In it, feeling is organically merged with character.
It is also important to note that tragedy is not only a story of unsatisfied love; in the center of the novel is a philosophically meaningful theme: man and the world, personality and society. This is what gave rise to Thomas Mann to attribute The Sufferings of Young Werther to those books that predicted and prepared French Revolution. Yes, and Goethe himself said that the Werther was "stuffed with explosives." Possessing a powerful rebellious charge, he could not but evoke a response in the country, which was preparing for a revolution.
The love described by Goethe can be said in the words of Stendhal:
«<…>Love in the style of Werther<…>this is new life goal to which everything obeys, which changes the appearance of all things. Love-passion majestically transforms all nature in the eyes of man, which seems to be something unprecedentedly new, created only yesterday.
So, Goethe, defining the genre of his work, calls it a novel himself. "The novel is big shape epic genre literature. His most common features: image of a person in complex forms life process, multilinearity of the plot, covering the fate of the series actors, polyphony, hence the large volume compared to other genres. It is clear, of course, that these features characterize the main trends in the development of the novel and manifest themselves in extremely diverse ways. Goethe's "Werther" meets these few requirements. Here is the image of the feelings of the sufferer young man, And love triangle, and intrigue, and, as mentioned above, raised a sharp social theme- human and society. Thus, there is also a multi-layered (the theme of love, the theme of a suffering person in society) plot. Both themes are constantly intertwined with each other, but the nature of their development and artistic generalizations is different. In the first case, motivations acquire predominantly psychological character, in the second - mainly social, everyday. The whole novel is belittled by love, and love itself is the cause of "the suffering of young Werther." In the disclosure of the second topic, an episode is indicative in which Count von K. invited the hero to dinner, and just on that day noble gentlemen and ladies gathered at his place. Werther did not think that "there is no place for subordinates." They tried not to notice his presence, acquaintances answered laconically, “the women whispered among themselves at the other end of the hall”, “then the men began to whisper too.” As a result, at the request of the guests, the count was forced to tell Werther that society was dissatisfied with his presence, i.e. basically just asked him to leave.
IN modern literary criticism"Werther" is often interpreted as a "sentimental-romantic" novel, as a phenomenon of pre-romanticism. It seems that, despite the fact that "Werther" paves the way for a romantic (in particular, confessional) novel, the integrity of his poetic system is determined by enlightenment aesthetics. This is a controversial and dynamic work, in which ideas about the harmony and disharmony of the world coexist, sentimentalism in unity with the sturmer ideal, enlightenment poetics and its emerging crisis.
"Werther" is called "a novel in letters", but these records belong to the pen of one person - Werther, he tells the story from his own face. Werther writes to his good old friend Wilhelm (“You have long known my habit of settling down somewhere, finding shelter in a secluded corner and settling there, content with little. I have chosen such a place here too”), to whom he tells everything he feels. Interestingly, it is implied that Wilhelm gives him some advice, answers, expresses his opinions, we see this, respectively, in Werther's notes:
“You ask if you can send me my books. Dear friend, for God's sake, deliver me from them!"
"Farewell, you will like the letter for its purely narrative character."
“Why am I not writing to you, you ask, and you are also reputed to be a scientist. I could guess for myself that I am quite healthy and even ... in a word, I made an acquaintance that vividly touched my heart.
“I by no means decided to obey you and go with the envoy to ***. I don’t really feel like having bosses over me, but here we all still know that he is a trashy person. You write that my mother would like to put me on the case.
“Since you are very concerned that I do not give up drawing, I preferred to sidestep this issue than to confess to you how little I have done lately.”
“I thank you, Wilhelm, for your heartfelt participation, for your kind advice, and I ask only one thing - do not worry.”
But back to the characterization of the genre. It would be more correct to call the novel a "lyrical diary", an inspired "monologue". And it matters. It was to letters of an intimate nature that Werther could entrust his most frank thoughts and feelings:
“Her lips have never been so captivating, it seemed that, opening slightly, they eagerly absorb the sweet sounds of the instrument, and only the most tender echo flies from these pure lips. Oh, how can you express it! I did not resist; bowing down, I swore an oath: “I will never dare to kiss you, lips overshadowed by spirits!” And yet… you understand, there is definitely some line in front of me… I need to step over it… to taste bliss… and then, after the fall, to atone for sin! Complete, is it a sin?
Werther quotes his thoughts and ideas, not only describes the events of life, he also compares his emotions with the emotions of book characters:
“Sometimes I say to myself: “Your fate is unparalleled!” - and call others lucky. No one has ever endured such torment! Then I will begin to read the poet of antiquity, and it seems to me that I look into my own heart. How I suffer! Ah, have people been so unhappy before me?”
So, "The Suffering of Young Werther" is a sentimental diary-confession of a man in love. It is interesting to note that if sentimental romance emotionality is a special mental warehouse, subtlety of feelings, vulnerability, complex moral standards, which are determined by the natural essence of a person, then in a confessional novel emotionality becomes a lyrical prism of perception of the world, a way of knowing reality. It seems to me that in Werther's notes we see the features of both the first and the second, observing the very development of feelings, the spiritual torment of the hero through his own eyes, formulating it in his own words. Such a combination, change ... just with the help of this, a new content and originality of thinking is realized ("... form is nothing but the transition of content into form").
In this context, it is important to consider the structure of "Werther". The novel has a linear composition, the author is separated from the hero, other characters are important for describing the hero's life. In Werther, the notes, the publisher's comments, constantly intrude into the text: at the beginning, middle and end. Moreover, at the beginning, we are presented with the image of the author-adviser - he makes it clear that he found this story, because it will be interesting to the reader and useful especially for the "poor fellow who fell into the same temptation." In the chapter “From the Publisher to the Reader,” the publisher notes that “concerning the characters of the characters, opinions differ and assessments are different.” If Albert and friends condemn Werther, then in the tone of the publisher condemnation and compassion are inseparable, and in the confession itself, Werther is completely aestheticized. Thus, it is important to note that there are no already open moralizing tendencies, no explicit judgment. This allows us to talk about the first steps towards a new relationship between the author and the hero, which will be embodied in romantic poetics.
Werther, a young man from a poor family, educated, prone to painting and poetry, settles in a small town to be alone.
He enjoys the contemplation of nature, communicates with ordinary people, reads his beloved Homer, draws. At a country youth ball, he meets Charlotte S. and falls head over heels in love with her. Lotta, as the closest acquaintances call the girl, is the eldest daughter of the princely amtsman, there are nine children in their family. Mother died, and Charlotte, despite her youth, managed to replace her with her brothers and sisters. She is attractive not only outwardly, the girl earns respect for herself by the independence of her thoughts. After the first day of acquaintance, Werther and Lotta have a common taste, they found a common language extremely easily.
Since that time, the young man spends a lot of time every day in the house of the amtsman, located at a considerable distance from the city (an hour on foot). Together with Lotta, they visit a sick pastor, take care of a sick lady in the city. Every minute near her brings Werther pleasure and happiness. However, the young man's love is doomed to suffer from the very beginning, because Lotta has a fiancé, Albert, who is temporarily absent due to the fact that he hopes to get a promising position.
Albert arrives, and although he treats Werther favorably and delicately hides the manifestation of his feelings for Lottie, the young man in love expresses jealousy towards him. Albert is restrained, reasonable, he considers Werther a mediocre person and forgives him for his restless behavior. It is extremely difficult for Werther to endure the presence of a third person when meeting with Lotta. His mood changes instantly - from unbridled joy to an incomprehensible amount.
Once, in order to temporarily distract himself, Werther is going to ride into the mountains and asks Albert to give him pistols on the road. Albert agrees, but warns that they are loaded. Werther takes one pistol and puts it on his forehead. This, at first glance, a joke develops into a serious dispute between young people over a person, his passions and thoughts. Werther tells the story of a girl who was left by her beloved and she threw herself into the river, because without him life has lost all meaning for her. Albert considers this act "nonsense", he condemns a person who, carried away by passions, loses the opportunity to reason. Werther, on the contrary, is oppressed by excessive prudence.
For his birthday, Werther receives a bundle from Albert: it contains a bow from Lotta's dress, in which he saw her for the first time. The young man is suffering. Werther understands that he needs to get down to business, to leave, but he keeps postponing the time of separation. On the eve of his departure, he visits Lottie. They go to their favorite gazebo in the garden. Werther does not say anything about separation, but the girl, as if feeling it, begins a conversation about death and what will happen after it. She remembers her mother, the last minutes before parting with her. Excited by her story, Werther, however, finds the strength to leave Lotta.
The young man leaves for another city, he gets a job as an official with messengers. The latter is extremely demanding, pedantic and limited. However, Werther made friends with Count von K. and tries to escape from his loneliness in conversations with him. In this town, as it turns out, very great importance had prejudices about their religious affiliation, and the young man was pointed out from time to time to his origin.
Werther meets the girl B., vaguely reminds him of the incomparable Charlotte. With her, he often communicates about his former life, including telling her about Lotta. The surrounding society oppresses Werther, and his relationship with the envoy is doomed to failure. The case ends with the envoy complaining about him to the minister, who, like a delicate person, writes a letter to the young man, in which he tries to direct his crazy ideas in a way where they can find their right application.
Werther temporarily agrees with his position, but soon there is a "trouble" that forces him to leave the service and the city. He was on a visit to Count von K., lingered, at that time guests began to appear. In the same town, it was not customary for a person of low birth to appear among the noble society. Werther did not immediately understand what was happening, besides, when he saw the familiar girl B., he began to talk to her. Only when everyone began to look askance at him, and his interlocutor could hardly keep up the conversation, the count, having called the young man, delicately asked him to leave. Werther hastily left. The next day, the whole city was talking that Count von K. had driven the young men out of his house. Not wanting to wait to be asked to leave the service, the young man submitted his resignation and left.
First, Werther goes to his native places, where he feels an influx unforgettable memories childhood, then accepts the invitation of the prince and goes to his possessions, but even here he feels awkward. Finally, unable to bear the separation any longer, he returns to the city where Charlotte lives. During this time, she became Albert's wife. Young people are happy. The appearance of Werther brings discord in their family life.
One day, while walking around the outskirts of the town, Werther meets a crazy Heinrich, who is picking a bouquet for his beloved. Later, he learns that Heinrich was a scribe for Lotta's father, fell in love with a girl, and love drove him crazy. Werther feels that the image of Lotta haunts him and he does not have enough strength to end the suffering. At this, the young man's letters break off, and about his future fate we'll find out from the publisher.
Love for Lotta makes Werther unbearable for others. On the other hand, in the soul of a young man, the decision to leave the world has more and more strength, because he is not able to simply leave his beloved. One day, he sees Lotta taking presents on Christmas Eve. She turns to him with a request to come to them next time not earlier than Christmas Eve. For Werther, this means that he is deprived of the last joy in life.
Returning home, Werther puts his affairs in order, writes Farewell letter his beloved, sends a servant with a note to Albert for pistols. Exactly at midnight, a shot is heard in Werther's room. In the morning, the servant finds a young man, still breathing, on the floor, the doctor comes, but it's too late. Albert and Lotta are having a hard time with Werther's death. They bury him not far from the city, in the place that he himself chose for himself.
Werther's personality is extremely contradictory, his consciousness is split, he is in constant conflict with others, and with himself. Werther, like the young Goethe himself and his friends, represent that generation of rebellious youth, huge creative possibilities and whose vital requirements led to its irreconcilable conflict with the then social order. The fate of Werther is a kind of hyperbole: all the contradictions are sharpened in it to the last step, and this is what leads to death. Werther appears in the novel as a man of extraordinary talent. He is a good painter, poet, endowed with a subtle and multifaceted sense of nature. However, precisely because Werther is a "natural person" (as the enlighteners interpreted this image), he sometimes puts forward too high demands on his environment and society. Werther, with growing disgust from time to time, looks around him at the "struggle of insignificant ambitious people", experiences "longing and sadness in the company of people disgusting to him." He is oppressed by the state of obstacles, at every step he sees how aristocracy degenerates and turns into empty space. Werther feels best in the company of ordinary people and children. He has extensive knowledge, even tries to make a career, but then stops these attempts. Gradually, all human life begins to seem to him a well-known cycle.
Love therefore seems to be the only consolation for Werther, because it does not give in mechanically in due course. Love for Werther is the triumph of living life, living nature over dead conventions.
Closely following the controversy that the novel caused, as well as learning about the wave of suicides after the publication of his book, Goethe decided to publish in 1784 new edition, where he removed everything that, in his opinion, prevented the correct perception of the work, and also placed a preface in which he urged not to succumb to temptation, to draw strength from suffering to deal with overwhelming circumstances.
"A little prudent afterword", believing that he, like himself, condemns the cowardice of the hero.
However, in this work, Goethe quite consciously focused on the "ordinary" person from the burgher environment, for whom the heroism of existence did not at all consist in the fight against social circumstances or in protecting class honor, or in fulfilling one's civic duty. It consisted solely in the struggle for its intrinsic value and uniqueness, in the defense of peace own feelings as the sole and most important property of the individual. The inability to realize their feelings for the hero is equivalent to the inability to continue to live.
The main conflict in the novel unfolds between the hero, who is incapable of any moral compromise either with himself or with society and the environment, where only etiquette and conventionality reign. Such is the world of Lotta and the entire bureaucratic environment.
Goethe established in his novel the type of the so-called "sentimentalist hero", hallmark which is the realization of one's dissimilarity with other people and the impossibility of realizing one's noble spiritual impulses in society, one's uniqueness, which, on the contrary, becomes an obstacle to happiness.
Summing up, let's pay attention to the fact that the novel is sentimental ("feeling is higher than reason"), socio-psychological (the fate of the individual depends on social characteristics society).
Goethe's novel enjoyed fame not only among the writer's contemporaries, but also remained popular throughout the 19th century. Napoleon, according to his own testimony, re-read the novel seven times. The novel strengthened the cult of "seraphic" friendship, when young people imitated the elegant trusting relationship of Lotti - Werther - Albert. Together, the influence of the novel explained the wave of suicides of young men during the 70s. Given the above, the immortal significance of the novel lies in the fact that the author managed to put before culture XVIII, XIX and XX centuries. the problem of the value of the spiritual uniqueness of a person in a society of standardized relations that is still relevant to this day.
On September 25, 1774, Mrs. Kestner, who lived with her husband in Hannover, received a parcel from Frankfurt, and in it was the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. After reading it, the husband of the lady immediately saw in the work a libel on his intimate relationship with his wife, and in Alberta - his own portrait, where he appeared as a miserable mediocrity. But after some time, Kestner wrote a letter to Goethe, in which he did not blame the writer: this reconciled the former friends. Charlotte was content to be Goethe's inspiration.
A lot of time will pass, and Goethe, already married to Christina Vulpius, will meet Charlotte, a sick old woman who has long been left without a husband. It will take place in Weimar 1816. Occupying high position in society, he will look at the world through the eyes of a great Olympian, he will host ex-lover important enough, yet joyful.
When the woman goes, he will not be able to resist and say: “There is still a lot left of that Lotta in her, but it’s shaking her head .. And I loved her so madly, and through her I ran in despair in Werther’s costume! It’s incomprehensible ... Incomprehensible! "
In his early novel"The Suffering of Young Werther" (see summary), which appeared in 1774. However, the sentimentalism in it, as has been pointed out more than once, is not purely German, but a synthesis of a trend common to England, France, and Germany, which Goethe independently experienced. Therefore, with all the variety of sources - both book and personal experiences and observations of immediate life (the story of the young man of Jerusalem who committed suicide), - the work turned out to be not only completely original, but at the same time typical of the pan-European literature of that era.
Goethe. The suffering of young Werther. Radio show
Werther's disease is a disease that an entire generation suffered from, infected with an excess of sensitivity, a preponderance of the life of the heart over all other properties of a person's spiritual life. Goethe managed to bring this state of mind to its extreme expression and make a tragic outcome internally necessary, according to the mental data of the character portrayed. He merged his individuality, generalizing the mood experienced by himself, with the individuality of another person, from whom he took sharper features, and created a generalized type, presenting also the first exemplary novel from the German modern life response to contemporary reality.
And it seems not accidental that, at first glance, so paradoxical, Napoleon's admiration for the sensitive Werther, which cannot be explained only by the dilettantism of a practical politician and warrior, the celebrity of creation, or the sensitivity of a genius to everything that is brilliant. Napoleon, the son of the revolution and its consummator, carried a book with him on all campaigns, studied it deeply and subtly understood (which is proved by Goethe's recorded conversation with the emperor in 1805) - is it not because under the shell of sentimental psychology depicted in the novel, under nebulae of world sorrow, lurked a spark of his native rebellious fire - the seed of a true spiritual rebellion, which was destined to break out in a world fire?
Napoleon himself did not have to experience what Werther experienced in order to understand the consanguinity of his antipode and, oddly enough, his forerunner. The era of Werther posed the question of "to be or not to be" for the individual; and those who did not commit suicide, like the unfortunate Werther and the model with which he was written off - the dreamy young Jerusalem who loved to walk by the moon, had to either lay down their arms before life, or crave the destruction of its given forms. The robber Karl Moor was to be reincarnated, with the loss of all dreaminess and most of the abstractly noble feelings, in the condottiere Buonaparte.
The novel about Werther caused imitations of his hero in the increase in "romantic suicides" of young people. This seemed to Goethe himself an involuntary, but still criminal incitement. The horrified poet had to hastily beat the retreat and, above all, to come to his senses himself, to seek for himself order, harmony, measure and limit.
We know lyric poem Goethe's "Winter Journey to the Harz", whose symbolism would be impenetrable if the poet himself had not explained to us the origin of this ode: it is an attempt (in November 1777) to save a certain young man who fell ill with Werther's disease. We see from this symbolism how complex and spontaneous the psychology of that time was. "Who's out there? the poet asks. – His path is lost in the bushes, the thickets close behind him, the grass rises, the desert swallows him up... Whose power will heal the pain of the one for whom the balm turns into poison, who drank hatred of people from the excess of love? Formerly despised, now despised himself, misanthrope himself, he secretly feeds on own pride but selfishness will not satisfy his hunger. If there is on your psalter, Father of love, a single sound that is intelligible to his ears, revive his heart! Open your clouded eyes and let him see the thousand springs that flow beside him in the desert.
With gratitude and humility, Goethe contrasts the despair of the mentally ill with his own inner happiness, the deep golden peace of the spirit, which finds itself on the path of the deep affirmation of being in God and the world, in itself, living, and in everything that is alive; but in God all things are alive, for He is not god of the dead but alive.
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Brief retelling:
"The Suffering of Young Werther" is an epistolary novel, which takes place in one of the small German towns in late XVIII V. The novel consists of two parts - these are letters from Werther himself and additions to them under the heading "From the publisher to the reader." Werther's letters are addressed to his friend Wilhelm, in which the author seeks not so much to describe the events of life as to convey his feelings that the world around him causes.
Werther, a young man from a poor family, educated, prone to painting and poetry, settles in a small town to be alone. He enjoys nature, communicates with ordinary people, reads his beloved Homer, draws. At a country youth ball, he meets Charlotte S. and falls head over heels in love with her. Lotta, this is the name of the girl close friends - the eldest daughter of the princely amtman, in total there are nine children in their family. Their mother died, and Charlotte, despite her youth, managed to replace her with her brothers and sisters. She is not only outwardly attractive, but also has independence of judgment. Already on the first day of their acquaintance, Werther and Lotta reveal a coincidence of tastes, they easily understand each other.
Since that time, the young man spends daily most time at Amtman's house, which is an hour's walk from the city. Together with Lotta, he visits a sick pastor, goes to look after a sick lady in the city. Every minute spent near her gives Werther pleasure. But the love of the young man from the very beginning is doomed to suffering, because Lotta has a fiancé, Albert, who went to get a solid position.
Albert arrives, and although he treats Werther kindly and delicately hides the manifestations of his feelings for Lotte, the young man in love is jealous of her for him. Albert is restrained, reasonable, he considers Werther an outstanding person and forgives him for his restless disposition. Werther, on the other hand, finds it hard to have a third person during meetings with Charlotte, he falls into either unbridled merriment or gloomy moods.
One day, to get a little distraction, Werther is going to ride into the mountains and asks Albert to lend him pistols on the road. Albert agrees, but warns that they are not loaded. Werther takes one pistol and puts it to his forehead. This harmless joke turns into a serious dispute between young people about a man, his passions and reason. Werther tells a story about a girl who was abandoned by her lover and threw herself into the river, because without him life has lost all meaning for her. Albert considers this act "stupid", he condemns a person who, carried away by passions, loses the ability to reason. Werther, on the other hand, is disgusted by excessive rationality.
For his birthday, Werther receives a bundle from Albert: it contains a bow from Lotta's dress, in which he saw her for the first time. The young man suffers, he understands that he needs to get down to business, to leave, but he keeps postponing the moment of parting. On the eve of his departure, he comes to Lotte. They go to their favorite gazebo in the garden. Werther says nothing about the upcoming separation, but the girl, as if anticipating it, starts talking about death and what will follow it. She remembers her mother, the last minutes before parting with her. Werther, excited by her story, nevertheless finds the strength to leave Lotta.
The young man leaves for another city, he becomes an official with the envoy. The envoy is picky, pedantic and stupid, but Werther made friends with Count von K. and tries to brighten up his loneliness in conversations with him. In this town, as it turns out, class prejudices are very strong, and the young man is constantly pointed out to his origin.
Werther meets the girl B., who remotely reminds him of the incomparable Charlotte. He often talks to her about his former life, including telling her about Lotte. The surrounding society annoys Werther, and his relationship with the envoy is getting worse. The case ends with the envoy complaining about him to the minister, who, like a delicate person, writes a letter to the young man, in which he reprimands him for being too touchy and tries to direct his extravagant ideas in the direction where they will find their true application.
Werther comes to terms with his position for a while, but then a "trouble" occurs that forces him to leave the service and the city. He was on a visit to Count von K., stayed up too long, at which time guests began to arrive. In the town, however, it was not accepted that in noble society a low-class man appeared. Werther did not immediately realize what was happening, besides, when he saw the familiar girl B., he started talking to her, and only when everyone began to look askance at him, and his interlocutor could hardly keep up the conversation, the young man hurriedly left. The next day, gossip spread throughout the city that Count von K. kicked Werther out of his house. Not wanting to wait to be asked to leave the service, the young man submits his resignation and leaves.
First, Werther goes to his native places and indulges in sweet childhood memories, then he accepts the prince's invitation and goes to his domain, but here he feels out of place. Finally, unable to bear the separation any longer, he returns to the city where Charlotte lives. During this time, she became Albert's wife. Young people are happy. The appearance of Werther brings discord into their family life. Lotta sympathizes with the young man in love, but she is unable to see his torment. Werther, on the other hand, rushes about, he often dreams of falling asleep and never waking up again, or he wants to commit a sin, and then atone for it.
One day, while walking around the outskirts of the town, Werther meets a crazy Heinrich, who is picking a bouquet of flowers for his beloved. Later, he learns that Heinrich was a scribe for Lotta's father, fell in love with a girl, and love drove him crazy. Werther feels that the image of Lotta haunts him and he does not have enough strength to end the suffering. This is where the young man's letters end, and we will learn about his future fate from the publisher.
Love for Lotte makes Werther unbearable for others. On the other hand, the decision to leave the world gradually strengthens in the soul of a young man, because he is not able to simply leave his beloved. One day, he finds Lotta sorting out gifts for her relatives on the eve of Christmas. She turns to him with a request to come to them next time not earlier than Christmas Eve. For Werther, this means that he is deprived of the last joy in life. Nevertheless, the next day he nevertheless goes to Charlotte, together they read an excerpt from Werther's translation of Ossian's songs. In a fit of vague feelings, the young man loses control of himself and approaches Lotte, for which she asks him to leave her.
Returning home, Werther puts his affairs in order, writes a farewell letter to his beloved, sends a servant with a note to Albert for pistols. Exactly at midnight, a shot is heard in Werther's room. In the morning, the servant finds a young man, still breathing, on the floor, the doctor comes, but it's too late. Albert and Lotta are having a hard time with Werther's death. They bury him not far from the city, in the place that he chose for himself.
The work is written in popular for the 18th century epistolary genre, in which Rousseau, Richardson have already managed to distinguish themselves. Rousseau also chose this genre in order to trace internal changes, the struggle of passions, thoughts, feelings in a person, because constant letters, as it were, are a kind of diary, moreover, addressed not to oneself, but to another person, and then more detailed and clear. Goethe tried to reflect the experiences, “sufferings” of a young man, under a stream of feelings, strong jealousy, love, who decides to die, but this is not perceived by the main character as an escape, but as a protest, liberation from the chains of passions and torment (in a conversation with a reasonable and sober-minded Albert, who calls suicide a weakness - it's easier to die than endure torment, Werther says: "If the people, groaning under the unbearable yoke of a tyrant, finally rebel and break their chains, will you really call them weak?"). In his letters, Werther is reflected in his own definitions himself, but the publisher's calmer and "condensed" tone, describing last days Werther, no less vividly allow to reflect the character and vivid experiences of the hero, because with the motivation of his actions and inner world The reader already has time to get acquainted with the hero from Werther's letters. And thanks to this it becomes easier perception Werther's behavior even after he stops writing "diary letters". At the end of the novel, the hero's letters are already addressed to himself - this reflects the growing feeling of loneliness, the feeling of a vicious circle, which ends in a tragic denouement - suicide.
The novel was written in 1774 under the impression of the earlier suicide of a man known to Goethe - a young official who could not bear his humiliated position, unhappy love, committed suicide, and was found on the table open book"Emilia Galotti" (the same detail is also mentioned when describing the circumstances of Werther's death).
Throughout the novel, the vision of the hero's world changes - from an idyllic perception, full of optimism and joy, from reading the heroic and bright Homer, the hero, gradually losing his beloved, whose friendly feelings are not enough for him, then realizing his low position, when his presence at a secular meeting turns out to be to the unpleasant guests of Count von K., - plunges into a gloomy abyss of passions and suffering, he begins to read and translate the "foggy Ossian" (he reads his own translation of the passage of Ossian (made by Goethe) together with his beloved, but unable to reciprocate Lotta). At the same moment of spiritual tension and excitement, Lotta and Werther simultaneously recall Klopstock's ode. By means of his art, Goethe made it so that the story of Werther's love and torment merges with the life of all nature. Although it is clear from the dates of the letters that two years pass from the meeting with Lotta) to the death of the hero, Goethe compressed the time of action: the meeting with Lotta takes place in the spring, the happiest time of Werther's love is summer, the most painful for him begins in the fall, Lotta's last dying letter he posted December 21st. So the fate of Werther reflects the flourishing and dying that occur in nature, just as it was with mythical heroes.
The character of Werther is contrasted with the character of the groom, and later the husband of Lotta - the pragmatist Albert, cold, calm, sober look which does not coincide with the views of Werther and causes controversy between them. However, both characters respect each other, and Werther's suicide strikes Albert, because even on the night when Werther asks Charlotte for pistols, Albert assures his wife that this cannot happen.
One of the interpretations of Werther's act is "a protest of an outstanding, restless nature against the squalor of German reality."
Introduction
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Goethe Johann Wolfgang von) (1749-1832) - brilliant German poet, prose writer, playwright, philosopher, naturalist and statesman.
Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt am Main. 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 the craving for reading and try all the genres and styles of the Enlightenment. Therefore, by the age of 19, when a serious illness forced him to interrupt his studies, he had already mastered the techniques of versification and dramaturgy and was the author of a fairly significant number of works, most of which he subsequently destroyed.
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 Enlightenment theorists. In Strasbourg, Goethe met with J.G. Herder, the leading critic and ideologue of the Sturm und Drang movement, overflowing with plans to create in Germany a great and original literature. Herder's enthusiastic attitude to Shakespeare, Ossian, monuments of ancient English poetry, T. Percy and folk poetry of all nations opened up new horizons for a young poet whose talent was just beginning to unfold. 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 Rendezvous and Parting, May Song and With a Painted Ribbon; 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: love for a girl already engaged to another is part of Goethe's own life experience.
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 Minister of State. But most of all he benefited from his long daily contact with Charlotte von Stein.
The emotionalism 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 become completely ordinary people. The free stanzas of his poems are calm and serene in content and rhythm, but little by little the form becomes harsher, in particular, Goethe prefers the octaves and elegiac couplets of the great trinity - Catullus, Tibullus and Propertia.
Over the next eight years, he made a second trip to Venice, Rome, 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 Ora's new journal, and after that he lived mainly in Weimar. The daily communication of poets, the discussion of plans, the joint work on such ideas as the satirical Xenia (1796) and the ballads of 1797, were an excellent creative stimulus for Goethe. He completed the Wilhelm Meister Years (1795-1796), continued to work on Faust and wrote a number of new works, including Alexis and Dora, Aminth and Hermann and Dorothea, an idyllic poem about the life of a small German town against the backdrop of the French Revolution.
When Schiller died in 1805, thrones and empires trembled - Napoleon was reshaping Europe. During this period he wrote sonnets to Minna Herzlieb, the novel Elective Affinity (1809) and an autobiography. 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, Orphic first verbs (1817), as well as in Conversations with I.P. Ackerman published in last decade the life of the poet, when he finished Wilhelm Meister and Faust. Goethe died in Weimar on March 22, 1832.
The history of the creation of the novel The Suffering of Young Werther
The tragic soil that nourished The Sorrows of Young Werther was Wetzlar, the seat of the imperial court, where Goethe arrived in May 1772 at the request of his father, who dreamed of a brilliant legal career for his son. Having signed up as a practicing lawyer at the imperial court, Goethe did not look into the building of the court chamber. Instead, he visited the house of the amtman (that is, the manager of the vast economy of the Teutonic Order), where he was attracted by an ardent feeling for Charlotte, eldest daughter the host, the bride of the secretary of the Hanoverian embassy, Johann Christian Kesgner, with whom Goethe maintained friendly relations.
September of the same 1772
