Sorrows Of Young Werther
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WERTHER AND SELF DECEPTION
Romanticism was deeply interested in creating art and literature of suffering, pain and self-pity. With poets pining for a love long gone and dead and authors falling for unavailable people, it appears that romantics in literature were primarily concerned with self-injury and delusion. In Goethes novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, we find another romantic character fulfilling his tragic destiny by falling victim to extreme self-deception.
Werthers story may appear simple and even trite to some- a young man falls in love with a woman he can never be with and deludes himself into believing that she loves him too only to be severely disappointed in the end. When nothing is left to look forward to, Werther kills himself. Durkheim describes this type of suicide as egoistic suicide where a person kills himself to make other people feel sorry. “Egoistic suicide,” Durkheim writes, “results from mans no longer finding a basis for existence in life” (258). But on closer analysis, this story is anything but simple. It is a psychologically complex tale that fully unearths the extreme internal mental conflict that a person in such a situation would undergo. Many claim that this story is autobiographical in nature but that is beyond the scope of our present discussion.
Romantic literature was on the one hand concerned with tragedy and on the other it also dwelled on sympathy. It was the aim of most romantic writers and poets to engage in development of characters that would attract sympathy and pity. However in this novel, while it may be sympathy, pity or self-injury that served as one of the motivating forces behind creation of the character of Werther, it also appears that psychological exploration of the mental state of a person caught in this unfortunate situation was the main aim. Werthers character is seriously delusional. He deceives himself regularly making himself believe that Lotte, the woman he had fallen in love with, was also in love with him. He appears to study her every move, her every eye contact and then goes on to decode it in his own way that further aids in self-deception. Werther keeps finding different reasons for making himself believe that Lotte loved him or he was an inimitable being with a rather unique fate. For example he uses Lottes sympathetic attitude towards him as justification for engaging in deeper self-pity, delusion and self-injury. It was as if he took pride in his suffering and wanted to die in order to attract attention to his unfortunate state. “She knows how I suffer. Today her eyes looked deep into my heart.” Then tells himself: “Sometimes I tell myself my fate is unique. Consider all other men fortunate, I tell myself; no one has ever suffered like you. Then I read a poet of ancient times, and it is as though I were looking deep into my own heart. I have to suffer much. Oh, has any human heart before me ever been so wretched?” (95)
Romanticism also had a serious interest in attracting in portraying genius going to waste due to unfortunate circumstances-mostly unrequited love. In this case as well we see Werther taking pride in his talents and then agonizing over the fact that they were withering away. He also began contemplating suicide even before the end was in sight which reminds us of the Romantic lunatic streak that was found appealing in young heroes of that time. In a letter to his correspondent, William, Werther writes: “It is a tragedy. My creative powers have been reduced to restless indolence.” (64) He also expresses “sweet feeling of freedom” arising from the knowledge that he could leave the prison of body anytime he liked. (29)
It appeared that even before he had met Lotte, Werther was mentally preparing for his death through unnatural means. In his delusional quest to consider himself unique and then prove it, he had only used Lotte as an excuse. When it is clear that Lotte is not interested in him, Werther still keeps on deceiving himself by decoding her words and actions. In one scene, after his frustrated explosion, Lotte sternly tells him off: “I was, please, to think of myself,” Werther then tries to decode her words as “Angel! For you I have to live!” (48). At the very first perceived sign of her interest, Werther declares: “[She] loves me.and how precious I have become to myself, how I–I can say this to you, who have understanding for such emotions–how I worship at my own altar since I know that she loves me!” (50-51).
Romantics viewed genius as some kind of tragedy in itself. For some odd reasons greater intellectual power was seen as a magnet for chaos and suffering. Werther seems to understand this better than anyone else around him and thus predicts and almost expects a tragic ending for himself. Werther becomes fatalistic in his views since he subscribes to romantic views on