The Sorrows of Young Werther

”The Sorrows of Young Werther,” originally written in 1774 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and considered the first great popular success of his career. It is a novel about a young man caught in a love triangle, a sentimental and psychological novel in letter form, influenced by Samuel Richardson, an eighteenth century English novelist famous for his epistolary novels. The letter-writing style is a natural genre for Goethe, whose writings are filled with biographical and autobiographical elements.

As mentioned before, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” is mostly made up of a series of letters that Werther, the title character, sends to his friend Wilhelm. In these letters, Werther shares his artistic endeavours and his philosophies on life. For example, Werther believes that feeling deep emotions is the best way to experience life. He also believes in being artsy and creating rather than being bogged down by an industrial job that he doesn’t want. In fact, Werther moves to a small town in the countryside (Wahlheim) in order to get away from modern city values and go back to what he believes is the simpler life in the country, where he makes friends with some of the locals.