Werther 1
Werther, Book 2
1. Ossian (James Macpherson 1760): Colma (p. 97):
Why might this appeal to Werther?
"It is night, I am alone and forsaken on the stormy hills. The wind moans in the mountains, the river howls
from the rocks. I have no hut for shelter from the rain, I am forsaken on the stormy hill.
"Moon, step forth from your clouds. Appear, stars of the night. Oh, let some radiance lead me to where
my love lies resting from the labour of the hunt, his bow unstrung beside him and his hounds snuffling
round. But I must sit alone on rocks above the swollen river. The river roars, the storm-wind roars, but I
do not hear the voice of my beloved."
2. Ossian's effect on Werther and Lotte (pp. 102f.):
Note the Editor's impact.
They felt their own wretchedness in the fates of these noble persons, felt it together and their tears united
them. Werther's lips and eyes were on Lotte's arm, they burned, a cold shudder went through her, she
wished to move away. . . .
Her senses were confused, she squeezed his hands, pressed them to her heart, bowed sorrowfully over
him, and their cheeks touched, burning. The world was lost to them. He clasped her in his arms, pressed
her to his heart, and overwhelmed her trembling and stammering lips with a rage of kisses.—"Werther!"
she cried, her voice choked, averting her face, "Werther!"—and with a weak hand she pushed his breast
from hers.—"Werther!" she cried in the determined tones of a noble sentiment.—He did not resist, he let
her out of his arms and threw himself down before her in a frenzy. She got hastily to her feet and in
fearful confusion, shaken between anger and love, she said: "That is the last time, Werther! You will not
see me again."
3. Werther asks to borrow Albert's pistols (pp. 107f.):
Do you think Albert and Lotte know that Werther is going to kill himself?
Werther's servant appeared, to her utmost consternation. He handed Albert the note [from Werther].
Albert turned calmly to Lotte and said: "Give him the pistols." Then, addressing the youth, he said, "I wish
him a safe journey."—That struck her like a thunderbolt, she rose very unsteadily to her feet, not knowing
what she was doing. Slowly she went to the wall, trembling took down the guns, dusted them, and
hesitated and would have hesitated longer had not Albert with a questioning look urged her on.
4. Werther prepares to die (p. 110):
What are Werther's intentions? Why the clothes, the wine, the open play?
"Here, Lotte, without a shudder I take up the cold and fearful cup1 from which I am to drink intoxicating
death. You handed it to me and I am not afraid. All, all! This then is the fulfilment of all my life's hopes and
desires. So cold, so frozenly to knock at the brazen gates of death.
If only I could have had the happiness of dying for you, Lotte, of sacrificing myself for you. I would die
bravely, I would die joyfully, if I could give your life its peace and its delight again. But alas, it is given to
only a few of the noblest to spill their blood for their loved ones and to quicken by their death new life for
their friends a hundredfold.
Lotte, I want to be buried in these clothes."
———
1
See Matthew 26:42; John 18:11. [Cf. Plato, Phaedo 117a–118a; Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet V.3]
2 ACC: Reichert
5. Werther's death (p. 111):
What are Goethe's intentions? Why the drawn-out death scene, the graphic detail? Why is Albert
dismayed? What public outcry?
Next morning at six the servant went in with a light. He found his master on the floor, the pistol, blood.
He shouted, he grasped him—no answer, there was only the rattle in his throat. . . .
When the doctor reached the unfortunate man he found him on the floor beyond saving, the pulse still
beating, his limbs all lamed. He had shot himself through the head above the right eye, blowing his brains
out. They opened a vein in his arm, the blood flowed, he was still drawing breath.
It could be deduced from the blood on the back of the chair that he had carried out the act sitting at his
desk, then slid down and rolled in convulsions around the chair. He lay on his back, towards the window,
all the strength gone out of him, fully clothed, with his boots on, in the blue frock-coat and buff-yellow
waistcoat.
The house, the neighbourhood, the town were in a commotion. Albert came in. They had laid Werther
on the bed, his forehead bound up, his face already like that of a dead man, he made no movement. There
was still a terrible rattling in his lungs, now weaker, now stronger. They awaited his end.
Of the wine he had only drunk one glass. Emilia Galotti2 lay open on the desk.
Dispense me from saying anything of Albert's dismay and Lotte's desolation. . . .
The presence of the Land Steward [at Werther's funeral] and the measures he took hushed up any public
outcry. At night towards eleven he had him buried in the place he had chosen for himself ["by the
wayside"]. The old man followed the coffin with his sons, Albert could not do it. They feared for Lotte's
life. Working-men carried him. No priest attended.
———
2
Emilia Galotti is a "bourgeois tragedy" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–81), first performed and published in
1772. A copy did indeed lie open on Jerusalem's desk [Jerusalem was the young man who provided the model for
Werther]. Emilia, virtuous and middle-class, gets her father to kill her, to save her from being debauched by the
Prince. Lessing's play encouraged a more socially critical theater, and for Werther, as for Jerusalem, it served as a
pointer towards the social grounds of their suicides.
6. Goethe on Werther in his Autobiography (1811):
"Just as I felt relieved and lighthearted because I had succeeded in transforming reality into poetry, my
friends were confusing themselves by believing that they had to turn poetry into reality, enact the novel
and shoot themselves!
". . . the explosion Werther caused was so far-reaching because the young people of that era had already
undermined themselves; and the shock was so great because everyone could now burst forth with his
own exaggerated demands, unsatisfied passions, and imaginary sufferings."