The Literary Impact of Johann Goethe's

The literary impact of Johann Goethe's 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther cannot be underestimated. It was the second Gothic novel, appearing a decade after the first: Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. Following this, The Old English Baron was published in 1778, and The Mysteries of Udolpho came in 1794. In 1796, The Monk was released, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein followed in 1818. In this latter work, the unloved monster finds a worn copy of The Sorrows of Young Werther and likens himself to the protagonist. Thus, a link to the horror genre was created.

The Romantic Age of Literature

The Sorrows of Young Werther played a crucial role in ushering in the romantic age of literature. However, Goethe nearly extinguished this movement before it could fully bloom. The novel served as the foundation for the German Sturm und Drang (storm and urge) literary style, characterized by reckless characters tossed about on the seas of love. It is, perhaps, the second Gothic novel, although Werther himself does not embody the Gothic aesthetic.

The Tragic Love Story

Poor, poor young Werther suffers from unrequited love for Charlotte, who shows him only a modicum of interest. She desires to be more friends than lovers. Have you experienced that before? Charlotte is, after all, betrothed and later married to a self-absorbed man named Albert. He hardly pays any attention to Werther, who keeps lingering around their home.

In stark contrast to his personality, Werther dresses in bright colors, resembling a canary that alights on Charlotte's shoulder in the novel. He wears a blue suit jacket and a yellow vest, reminiscent of Oscar Wilde a century later. His flamboyant outfit sparked a fashion trend during the late eighteenth century, leading to the first wave of ancillary marketing ever experienced by a novel.

Consider the Eau de Werther cologne and the China teapots adorned with portraits of the fictional Werther. The image shown here is copyrighted by the Victoria and Albert Museum and dates back to 1789, two years after the revised edition of The Sorrows of Young Werther was printed. The literary fever surrounding the novel persisted for 15 years after its original publication. In Germany, where it was first released, approximately 20 editions were already in print. Plays, operas, and satirical works soon followed, along with tragic copycat suicides that led to the book being banned in some German villages. The term "furor Wertherinus" was coined to describe the suicidal passions of young men and women scorned.

Parallels to Goethe's Life

Most of the novel is written in epistolary form. Goethe cleverly allows the reader to see only Werther's letters, not those of Wilhelm, to whom he is writing. The Sorrows of Young Werther is rich with parallels to Goethe's own life. The story is set in the fictional village of Walheim, where "the reader need not take the trouble to look for the place." However, finding the real village was easy. At the age of 19, Goethe met Charlotte Buff at a small dance in the German village of Wetzlar. He fell in love with her that evening, but, just like in the novel, Charlotte was engaged to another.

The Forbidden Act

Two years before the novel's publication, Goethe's friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem ended his life after falling in love with a married woman. In that moment, the plan for Werther was conceived.

Consider this magazine excerpt from the early nineteenth century (Eight Historical Dissertations on Suicide, pg 117, 1859):

Let us, by way of specifying only a very few well-authenticated prominent instances, think of Captain Arenswald who shot himself Sept. 19, 1781, and had been fond of reading this novel during the latter part of his life; 1) of Miss von Lassberg, one of Goethe's friends at the court of Weimar, who was found Jan. 17, 1778 drowned in the lime, with a copy of Werther's Leiden in her pocket; 2) of Gunderode who stabbed herself at Winkel on the Rhine from an unhappy attachment to an already married Heidelberg Professor, the learned and amiable Creuzer, and who used to read Werther together with her friend, the well-known Bettina von Arnim, and speak much about suicide. 3) — Aye, Mme. de Stael was not far wrong when she asserted that it had "caused more suicides than the most beautiful woman," 4) nor does Goethe himself (in his Autobiography) deny that this aesthetical masterpiece of his proved a daemoniac charm which wrought deadly ruin unto many. Therefore, we cannot but pronounce it, in a moral point of view, a great error; for no book can be veritably of good which proves a sort of impulse and guide for the many unto self-destruction; — and what we may justly complain of is this: that Goethe, as far as we can learn, never regretted this its influence, never penned aught to counteract it, never, if I may here employ serious language, like a man and a Christian repented of it! IIL Ugo Fosoolo's le ultime lettere di Jacopo Orjtis (1802).

Goethe stated, "Suicide is an event of human nature which, whatever may be said and done with respect to it, demands the sympathy of every man, and in every epoch must be discussed anew." My Life: Poetry and Truth

Rating & Recommendation

I recommend The Sorrows of Young Werther for its profound impact on literature. It was wholly cathartic for Goethe, leaving him feeling as though he had made “a general confession, again happy and free and justified for a new life.”

In conclusion, I offer sage advice for our poor foppish Werther: Man up, young Werther! If the woman fails to reciprocate your love, forget her and move on as quickly as possible. You are sure to find your true love at another time.

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