Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

German

Major Professor

Stefanie Ohnesorg

Committee Members

David Lee, Carolyn R. Hodges

Abstract

This thesis discusses how Werther’s death in Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werther should be understood. The central question is how Goethe portrays the correlation between Werther’s love and his death. Love is presented in the novel as a process eventually leading to the loss of the ability to live; Werther’s end is seen as a necessary consequence of the process. Werther himself describes the paradox that is to be explained by this thesis: „Mu[ss] denn das so sein, daß das, was des Menschen Glückseligkeit macht, wieder die Quelle seines Elendes würde?" (51) In this passage Goethe points to a love that is simultaneously depicted as Werther’s greatest happiness and the cause of his death. Love is so central to Werther’s perception that everything else gradually becomes unimportant until Werther finally loses every connection with reality. Thus, through his love, the heights of fulfillment and the self-destruction are joined.

Werther’s language shows the necessity of these outcomes as well. Werther’s gradual loss of language has been interpreted as a very significant process. On the one hand, it shows a dimension of love that is apparently not expressible. On the other hand, the rejection of speech can be seen as a disaffirmation of the conventions that are expressed within the language. Werther’s increasing love corresponds to a process in which Werther becomes more and more silent. Simultaneously with the meaning of words, the relevance of the world becomes insignificant. Therefore, Werther’s use of the language expresses both the greatness of love and the his loss of self.

In contrast to the plot, in which Werther ends his life with a pistol shot, the results of this analysis require us to call this end „death" as opposed to „suicide." This thesis argues that Werther’s end can be interpreted as a necessary consequence of his love and can thus be depicted as a Liebestod.

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