The Sorrows of Young Werther
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- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years ago
Herr Schmidt resumed the subject. "You call ill humour a crime," he remarked, "but I think you use too strong a term." "Not at all," I replied, "if that deserves the name which is so pernicious to ourselves and our neighbours. Is it not enough that we want the power to make one another happy, must we deprive each other of the pleasure which we can all make for ourselves? Show me the man who has the courage to hide his ill-humour, who bears the whole burden himself, without disturbing the peace of those around him. No: ill-humour arises from an inward consciousness of our own want of merit, from a discontent which ever accompanies that envy which foolish vanity engenders. We see people happy, whom we have not made so, and cannot endure the sightGoethe undertakes a bit of heavy-handed foreshadowing here. It’s quite easy for Werther to criticize Mr. Schmidt’s jealousy while traversing the countryside with another man’s wife. But the same sullen disposition that Werther critiques here will come to characterize him in the near future, as Albert returns and Lotte focuses her attention on him. Perhaps not surprisingly, Werther never returns to his philosophical thoughts on Mr. Schmidt; although, he will remember his debate
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoWe should deal with children as God deals with us, we are happiest under the influence of innocent delusions.
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoAnd when the last fatal malady seizes the being whose untimely grave you have prepared, when she lies languid and exhausted before you, her dim eyes raised to heaven, and the damp of death upon her pallid brow, there you stand at her bedside like a condemned criminal, with the bitter feeling that your whole fortune could not save her; and the agonising thought wrings you, that all your efforts are powerless to impart even a moment's strength to the departing soul, or quicken her with a transitory consolation.
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoShow me the man who has the courage to hide his ill-humour, who bears the whole burden himself, without disturbing the peace of those around him. No: ill-humour arises from an inward consciousness of our own want of merit, from a discontent which ever accompanies that envy which foolish vanity engenders. We see people happy, whom we have not made so, and cannot endure the sight.
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoDistance, my friend, is like futurity. A dim vastness is spread before our souls: the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as those of our vision; and we desire earnestly to surrender up our whole being, that it may be filled with the complete and perfect bliss of one glorious emotion. But alas! when we have attained our object, when the distant there becomes the present here, all is changed: we are as poor and circumscribed as ever, and our souls still languish for unattainable happiness.
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoI left her asking permission to visit her in the course of the day. She consented, and I went, and, since that time, sun, moon, and stars may pursue their course: I know not whether it is day or night; the whole world is nothing to me.
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoDivine Klopstock! why didst thou not see thy apotheosis in those eyes? And thy name so often profaned, would that I never heard it repeated!
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoI assure you, my dear friend, when my thoughts are all in tumult, the sight of such a creature as this tranquillises my disturbed mind. She moves in a happy thoughtlessness within the confined circle of her existence; she supplies her wants from day to day; and, when she sees the leaves fall, they raise no other idea in her mind than that winter is approaching.
Werther establishes a pattern here that he’ll continue throughout the novel of infantilizing the poor. This perceived equivalence between children and the poor strengthens the already established one between the lower class and emotion, since children are largely incapable of logic and intellectualism.
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoI sat down upon a plough opposite, and sketched with great delight this little picture of brotherly tenderness. I added the neighbouring hedge, the barn-door, and some broken cart-wheels, just as they happened to lie; and I found in about an hour that I had made a very correct and interesting drawing, without putting in the slightest thing of my own. This confirmed me in my resolution of adhering, for the future, entirely to nature. She alone is inexhaustible, and capable of forming the greatest masters. Much may be alleged in favour of rules, as much may be likewise advanced in favour of the laws of society: an artist formed upon them will never produce anything absolutely bad or disgusting; as a man who observes the laws, and obeys decorum, can never be an absolutely intolerable neighbour, nor a decided villain: but yet, say what you will of rules, they destroy the genuine feeling of nature, as well as its true expression.
Werther seems clearly to advocate for art as a product of emotion here. Yet, art is one of the first things abandoned by Werther as he steps from his former life of intellectualism and into the emotional life of the lower class. In Wahlheim he hopes to find a space where the highbrow leanings of his artwork can coexist with nature. That he feels the beauty of Wahlheim cultivating greatness within him is a testament to Werther’s youth. It’s a trope of young artists to believe that they, and they alone, are being groomed for some great destiny by some unknown force.
- grishma nathwanihas quoted2 years agoI mean now to try and see her as soon as I can: or perhaps, on second thoughts, I had better not; it is better I should behold her through the eyes of her lover. To my sight, perhaps, she would not appear as she now stands before me; and why should I destroy so sweet a picture?
