The task of a writer is not an easy one, and yet we often take for granted the works of great authors, assuming that they never could have been any other way, or that what we read was the final work of the genius. Goethe, certainly, did not write his works in a vacuum, and his life had a very real impact on his writings. Like most of the works of Goethe, as with the works of most important authors, The Sorrows of Young Werther is drawn largely from personal experiences of Goethe. By looking at these and any other influences that may have gone into the final form taken by the book, it is possible not only to better understand the author, but also to appreciate the very real pressures on a writer and realize how they influence or relate to the messages being conveyed. Therefore, this paper will examine the task of the writer as viewed by Goethe through his construction of The Sorrows of Young Werther.
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Goethe faced many pressures from his father to abandon his literary pursuits in favor of more "practical" services to the community, though his father knew better than to directly oppose Goethe's writing. Finally making concessions to this pressure, Goethe went in 1772 to Wetzlar to practice law at the Imperial Chamber of Justice (Boyesen 32). Unfortunately for Goethe's father, Wetzlar would be the site of Goethe's inspiration for the work that would catapult him into fame.
From the very beginning of his stay at Wetzlar, Goethe's life bore many similarities to the Werther, a character that hadn't even entered his mind yet but who would go on to capture the minds of readers everywhere; Goethe felt the frustrations he would convey through Werther, he underwent the same struggles, and asked himself the same questions. Shortly after moving to Wetzlar, Goethe met a young woman named Lotte at a ball-a young woman who, like the Lotte of Werther, was engaged to be married to a cautious and impassive but nonetheless honorable man named (in this case) Kestner (Boyesen 33). The differences between this scenario and the one cast in Werther lie primarily in Goethe's more rational character. Many of Goethe's feelings, however, were the same, and he did even consider suicide at a point, though not deciding to follow through with it. And as with Werther, a crisis arose that forced Goethe to leave Wetzlar. While Boyesen, a chronicler of Goethe and life, seems at times to romanticize, he states that a likely reason for Goethe's sudden departure is that he suddenly realized that Lotte loved him (36).
The first spark of inspiration for the writing of Werther, however, came to Goethe one month after his departure from Wetzlar, in a letter from Kestner regarding a suicide. The suicide victim was a young man named Jerusalem who, like the soon-to-be-created Werther, fell in love with the wife of an official and, despairing, wrote a letter to Kestner asking for pistols for an alleged journey (Boyesen 41). This letter was literally reproduced by Goethe in the crafting of his tragedy. Unsurprisingly, Kestner originally objected to the story when Goethe sent him the manuscript; however, Kestner, being the rational and honorable man that he was, soon came to see the "poetic worth" of the story (Boyesen 42). However, despite having sent Kestner and Lotte the manuscript in order to gain their approval of the work's publication, Goethe went on with publication without having actually secured it. I believe that this demonstrates Goethe's ability to separate Goethe the person from Goethe the writer-an important distinction that prevents personal friendships from being confused with literary endeavors. On an even larger scale, this is exemplified by Goethe and Schiller's relationship (not yet in existence), which was a literary collaboration that allowed them to benefit from each other while still vehemently disagreeing on certain issues.1 Goethe was a great writer not only because he could write well and address important issues, but because he didn't let friendships or personal acquaintances get in the way of something he knew was for a greater good.
Having begun the writing of Werther in June of 1773, Werther finished the manuscript in May of 1774; by September, his publisher had printed the story and begun distributing it (Unseld 21). Despite the fact that the work was published anonymously, the public soon knew who Goethe was, and reacted accordingly. Never, it seemed, had a public reacted so quickly and enthusiastically to such a work of genius. In Goethe's own words,
The effect of this little book was great, nay, immense, and chiefly because it exactly hit the temper of the times. For just as it only requires a small match to blow up an immense mine, so the explosion which followed my publication was mighty because the youthful world had already undermined itself; and the shock was great, because everyone burst forth with all their extravagant demands, unsatisfied passions, and imaginary wrongs (Unseld 2).
It seems difficult to overstate the impact the book had on society, or for that matter, the impact Goethe himself had. As Goethe notes in the above passage, part of the power of his work was not that it was innovative (even though it was), but that it appealed to and aroused discontents that already existed at the time, and that still exist. As for being innovative, Goethe was that, too; his use of a single perspective, his concern more for feelings than for facts, and his general style all diverged from the standards of the time, distinguishing himself from the other authors of the time (Unseld 21). What's more, the success of Werther can be seen by noting how quickly pirated and translated versions of the story were produced throughout Europe; by 1781 there were twenty pirated versions and translations into French, English, Italian, and Russian (Unseld 24, 21). The immediate success hit upon by Goethe in reaching large numbers of people was without question something in which he prided himself, despite the fact that he would often take a stance of distancing himself from the public, both literally and figuratively. Whereas on one hand he appreciated the recognition he received, he must have on the other hand questioned whether or not the public truly understood the messages he had to give.
The creation of Werther itself yields numerous paradoxes of Goethe's character and ideas. Despite the fact that Werther was produced anonymously, Goethe cannot have expected to have been or remained unknown to his audiences, since some of the distribution (as well as his private readings) was among friends and colleagues. Given this certain familiarity, Goethe's willingness to divulge such private and personal information in the interests of addressing important questions of the time stands testament to his courage and character as an author, and returns to the separation of author and person. Another insight into the role of the author that Goethe clearly identifies is the author's payment for his work. While he is anxious, unsurprisingly, to put away debts and complains of low royalties (especially in the face of almost innumerable pirate copies), Goethe also makes the statement that "[m]y authorship has not yet put much fat into my soup and it will not and should not" (Unseld 25). Though he had what amounted to the strongest financial background of any great German writer, and therefore had the greatest bargaining power with publishers to make demands above and beyond what another author might be able to successfully make, he did not let this cloud his vision of what a writer's true purpose was. This to me seems to indicate significant character, and stand testament to the genius of Goethe.
This, however, was not to be the last of The Sorrows of Young Werther. Though later in his life Goethe would only return to works with great reluctance, he seemed to return to Werther at this time in his life without any coaxing. In 1782, he wrote to a friend of his simply stating that he had a strange idea" and requesting that she send him a copy of Werther (which, surprisingly, he did not have). During the process, he wrote to another friend, saying, "I have gone through Werther and will write it out again in manuscript, he is returning to his mother's womb and you shall see him after his rebirth" (Unseld 66). It became clear in other letters that Goethe's intention was primarily to rework Werther to pose the social questions even more powerfully without disturbing the essence of what had initially created the storm across Europe. The complete re-working of a piece, as anyone who writes can understand, was no simple task and was a significant demonstration of Goethe's dedication to his task.2
The completed second version of The Sorrows of Young Werther stands noticeably apart from its predecessor in a number of ways, some of them significant in what they add to the book and others simply anecdotal. Aside from the stylistic improvements and basic corrections of errors, Goethe made a number of changes to content that significantly affected the story. He shifted the focus of the story away from a viewing of Werther's encounter with "high society" as the primary conflict of the story, taking out a passage, and re-drafted Albert as more sympathetic and therefore more worthy of Lotte (Unseld 66). It is Goethe's intention with this that Albert "might be mistaken by the passionate youth but not by the reader" (Unseld 66). This statement, again, shows Goethe's problematic attitudes toward the public and his frustration with being well-known yet perhaps not well-understood. Like many issues, this one would continue to haunt Goethe for most of his life, all the more acute since any criticism of "the Germans" applied just as well to him.
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In conclusion, through The Sorrows of Young Werther, as through his other works, Goethe demonstrates his integrity and genius as a writer, reflecting the same struggles and problems addressed in his works. While such a glance is necessarily inadequate, covering only one of his works, it nonetheless helps the reader, I believe, to relate to the work not only as a thematic commentary, but as a living, breathing product of the author and the times. Such a view is necessary, in my opinion, to truly appreciate the themes as anything more than an intellectual argument.
Boyesen, Hjalmar. "Goethe and Schiller." New York: Charles Schribner's Sons, 1913.
Unseld, Siegfried. "Goethe and His Publishers." Trans. Kenneth Northcott. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1996.