Werther meets Heinrich one day while Heinrich is foolishly attempting to gather wildflowers for his “sweetheart” in the winter. Coming upon Werther and Heinrich, the Old Woman on the Path informs Werther that Heinrich has spent the last several months in an asylum. Despite his eccentricity, Heinrich is a pleasant man. Towards the end of the novel, Werther claims that it was unrequited love for Lotte that drove Heinrich to madness, but he offers no source for this claim.
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Heinrich Character Timeline in The Sorrows of Young Werther
The timeline below shows where the character Heinrich appears in The Sorrows of Young Werther. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book Two: November 8-December 6, 1772
In late November, Werther stumbles upon Heinrich, a man searching for wildflowers to give to his sweetheart. Werther reminds him that the...
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Book Two: Editorial Interlude
Shortly after the episode with Heinrich, a lack of correspondence from Werther forces the editor to interject into the story. The...
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