Gallivanting about in Germany with Young Werther

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


You can tell why Johann Wolfgang von Goetheis famous when you read this particular book. It is SUCH a mixture of opposites! I am sure William Wordsworth must have taken a LOT of inspiration from our dear Mr Werther .



Which brings me to the review:



The Sorrows of Young Werther is a pretty depressing book and our Young Mr Werther has the tendency of becoming quite annoying with his persistent gloom over trivialities of life, with his constant crybaby attitude, his unceasing moans about the cherubic Charlotte, who is someone else's wife. He exaggerates his grief over small things like a pair of walnut trees which were chopped off by the vicar's wife, the sacking of a licentious servant who 'makes his mistress bad' in a fit of passion and other such things. In fact, sometimes, the reader feels extremely sympathetic towards poor Wilhelm, who, very much like the reader, is forced to listen to Werther's incessant bellyache over this and that!



Why then, you'd ask me, did I give it four on five?



Well because, it's poetic, well-written and the usual shit AND because this is the only book I've ever read which shows that a man has the capacity to feel the joys, sorrows and rebuffs of life just as deeply as a woman feels them. Just like a woman, a man, too, can attach himself to places, plants and groves. He, too, can lend a sympathetic ear to someone's sorrow without offering solutions. He,too, can love without expecting love in return. Goethe's objective here was not to show the machismo of a young man but to reveal his soul which is no different from the soul of a woman or any other human being. He shows that a man has as much of feelings and depth as a woman. It is the society that deems such men as 'effeminate' and so, men like Young Werther are forced to keep their feelings buried in some neglected corner of their hearts and often, they're not half as blessed for they don't even have friends like Wilhelm to bare their souls to. For the portrayal of a man as a human being and not as some sort of strong, courageous, hardhearted epitome of masculinity, this book gets a four on five because it talks of Young Werther as he is and not as he should be!



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