The Sorrows of Young Werther

Synopsis

The Sorrows of Young Werther is written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German writer and politician, who attained fame of International celebrity at the age of 24, immediately after publication of this work. This autobiographical novel was instrumental in Romantic literary movement of German literature.
 
This novel is an epistolary and contains a young artist Werther’s series of letters sent to his friend. Werther is sent to Wahlheim, a fictional village, where he meets Lotte, a young beautiful girl who takes care of her siblings, after her mother’s death. Werther falls in love with Lotte, though he knows she is already engaged with Albert who is 11 years elder than her. Though their engagement causes pain to him, he is cultivating close relationships with them, and at one point he goes back to his home town. He returns after months, only to hurt himself with greater pain, as Lotte and Albert are married now.

Painful days passes for Werther, as his love cannot be accepted by Lotte now. He realizes that either he or Albert has to die to get rid of the painful moments of triangle love. Unwilling to hurt others he decides to take his own life and sending a letter to Albert asking 2 pistols. Lotte sends the pistols without knowing his intentions of suicide. He shoots himself and dies after 12 hours and his funeral was not attended by his beloved lotte or Albert.

Similar Bookshelves