Falling into Insanity

Falling into Insanity

As readers of great novels, we are continuously examining and explaining the actions and thoughts of characters. Are we the only ones? Or do the characters actually analyze their own thoughts and actions as we do? In Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, the protagonist, Werther, tells the story of his love for Lotte and the ensuing hardships through letters to his friend and confidante, Wilhelm. Through various situations and excerpts from his letters, we see Werther simply gliding through life, not pondering the motivations for his thoughts and actions, or even questioning his own state-of-mind; the effects of this lack of self-awareness negatively affect him and eventually lead him to commit suicide.

Throughout the novel, Werther never ponders the thoughts and motivations that cause him to first fall madly in love with Lotte, then become obsessed, and finally to commit suicide because he cannot be with her. He never really asks himself why he allows himself to spend so much time with her, why all aspects of his previous life no longer interest him, or why he cannot even hold a job. Near the start of his love obsession with Lotte, he believes that he must “spend every hour of the day with her…in order to prove to her at every moment that he is wholly devoted to her” (Goethe, 14-15). He doesn’t pay any attention to the fact that she is already engaged to another man; Werther simply cannot fathom that he would not try to make her fall as deeply in love with him as he is with her. It’s almost as if he knows he is going overboard with his affections for her, but he doesn’t care. Werther believes his love for Lotte knows no limits, and he never even thinks about the social restrictions on woo...

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...e suffering and eventual death.

Throughout his short time with Lotte, Werther falls more and more deeply in love with her, and consequently, falls further into madness. He never analyzes his own motivations for continuing allowing his love for Lotte to grow and he never examines the extent that it has affected his sanity. Werther finally goes completely insane after Lotte tells him he no longer can see her as often. He commits suicide, the ultimate manic sacrifice, as he realizes he cannot have Lotte. As readers, we constantly analyze character’s acts. By not pondering the motivations for his thoughts and actions, or even questioning his own sanity, Werther is deeply affected by his love in a negative fashion, eventually ending in his own suicide.

Works Cited

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. The Sorrows of Young Werther. New York City: Vintage Books, 1990.