The letters of which Die Leiden des jungen Werther(s) mostly consists are addressed to his best friend called Wilhelm. They represent an unmistakable The letters of which Die Leiden des jungen Werther(s) mostly consists are addressed to his best friend called Wilhelm. They represent an unmistakable cry for help, yet Wilhelm doesn't interfere. Instead it's the reader who will first feel the urge to tell his young subject to pull himself together, to provide nuggets of wisdom about how in years he will look back on this time and realize that he overreacted in youthful spirit. Then the plot thickens, and it's painful to see him seized by the "sickness" that leads him unto his death.
Even though I feel older and wiser now than I was when I've first read this novel, it resonated with me even more strongly. The prose with which Werther describes his love—his insurmountable desire to meet with Lotte whenever possible, his unshakable belief that they are soulmates, the heated twinges that seared through him when their feet meet under the table, the unbearable thought that she is promised to someone else—is incredibly rich and intense.
At the same time, his social environment at court doesn't give him the recognition he longs for. In fact, he embarrasses himself and people start gossiping about him. He seems disoriented about what he wants in life, unable to commit to anything. When it comes to others, he is very understanding—in case of the man who murdered the woman he loved maybe too understanding—and "simpler" individuals he places on a pedestal. Tragically, with himself he is not as generous.
His interactions with the children are sweet (O the pain when one lad admits to him that they wrote him something for Christmas, at which point Werther won't be alive anymore), but if there was one relationship that I liked in particular it was the twisted friendship with Albert, Lotte's betrothed and later husband. As it turns out when he finally arrives, he is the nicest person and Werther cannot but love him. In their opinions (on the sickness unto death, among other things) they don't see eye to eye, but their conversations are deeply stimulating, to the protagonist as well as to the reader.
I guess their falling-out was inevitable. Because of the way it's written, with an anonymous editor narrating part of the events and letters now written to Lotte too, the climax is even more captivating in its tragedy. Although it's not difficult to share their sentiments, it's painful to read how Lotte and Albert vehemently cut their ties to Werther. Lotte's insistence that he should stay away from them at least until Christmas, his open indications that he will be dead when Lotte will read the letter he is currently writing, the incident where the boy arrives to borrow the gun from Albert, or the ceremony before his suicide all add to the drama.
He was not able to wait, and in his premature reunion with Lotte he is not met with open arms. There is something rather disquieting about this scene, and the more so when Werther tries to kiss her. I have to admit, the moral of the Ossian tale, "The Songs of Selma", escaped me, though I thought they were quite exciting to read. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't strangely moved when he writes to her that he will be waiting for her in the after-life.
It goes without saying that Die Leiden des jungen Werther(s) is a work of intense beauty and powerful emotions. As with many poems, it can move the reader even if you find yourself unsure about the exact meaning of their words (well, this is how it was for me). The language may have changed, but human nature remained very much the same in the 250 years since this novel was published.