Why is Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" considered a Romantic work?
Why is Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther considered a ‘Romantic’ work? What were the main tenets of Romanticism?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s (1749 – 1832) seminal novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, written in the unique form of a correspondence between two friends, has come to be regarded as one of the defining texts of the Romantic period and is well known for its seemingly condoning undertones of suicide and its protagonist’s temperamental, highly emotional, and capricious tendencies. Moreover, the transcendence of Nature and its positive effects on the human psyche are explored throughout the novel. However, if we are to understand the reasons as to why J.W. Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther is considered a Romantic work, we must first investigate what it is that defines a particular piece of literature as being one written in a Romantic style. Hence, the purpose of this essay will be to investigate the historical origins of Romanticism and identify its main tenets. The Sorrows of Young Werther will then be analysed and placed within its context of 18th century German Romanticism and the question of why it is a Romantic work will be answered.
The roots of German Romanticism can be traced back to an experimental literary movement entitled the ‘Sturm und Drang’ or ‘Storm and Stress’ which placed value in the subjective emotions of individuals and repudiated the dominant ideals of Enlightenment; a period of thinking which stressed that all things knowable could be deduced through reason or understood through empirical methods. This proto-Romantic movement occurred during a period in time when Germany was ‘divided into a numberless variety of large and small states, differing from each other in religion, government, opinions’1 and it is thus easy to understand why the members of the Sturm und Drang movement ‘followed him (Rousseau) in the rejection of the modern “policed state” and modern civilisation’2 and instead sought compensation ‘in an
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s (1749 – 1832) seminal novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, written in the unique form of a correspondence between two friends, has come to be regarded as one of the defining texts of the Romantic period and is well known for its seemingly condoning undertones of suicide and its protagonist’s temperamental, highly emotional, and capricious tendencies. Moreover, the transcendence of Nature and its positive effects on the human psyche are explored throughout the novel. However, if we are to understand the reasons as to why J.W. Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther is considered a Romantic work, we must first investigate what it is that defines a particular piece of literature as being one written in a Romantic style. Hence, the purpose of this essay will be to investigate the historical origins of Romanticism and identify its main tenets. The Sorrows of Young Werther will then be analysed and placed within its context of 18th century German Romanticism and the question of why it is a Romantic work will be answered.
The roots of German Romanticism can be traced back to an experimental literary movement entitled the ‘Sturm und Drang’ or ‘Storm and Stress’ which placed value in the subjective emotions of individuals and repudiated the dominant ideals of Enlightenment; a period of thinking which stressed that all things knowable could be deduced through reason or understood through empirical methods. This proto-Romantic movement occurred during a period in time when Germany was ‘divided into a numberless variety of large and small states, differing from each other in religion, government, opinions’1 and it is thus easy to understand why the members of the Sturm und Drang movement ‘followed him (Rousseau) in the rejection of the modern “policed state” and modern civilisation’2 and instead sought compensation ‘in an
Bibliography: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. (Trans. David Constantine), The Sorrows of Young Werther (United States: Oxford University Press, 2012) (Switzerland: UNESCO, 1949) Pascal, Roy, The German Sturm und Drang, (United Kingdom: Manchester University Press, 1953) Riesbeck, Johann Kasper, (Trans (1787) in Larry Vaughan, The Historical Constellation of the Sturm und Drang (USA: Peter Lang Publishing, 1985) Sagarra, Eda, An Introduction to Nineteenth Century Germany (United Kingdom: Longman Group Ltd., 1980) Saul, Nicholas, Philosophy and Germany Literature 1700-1990 (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2002) Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein (United Kingdom: Penguin Group, 2006) Vaughan, Larry, The Historical Constellation of the Sturm und Drang (USA: Peter Lang Publishing, 1985) Wolf, Norbert, (Trans