The Sorrows of Young Werther

by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Book 1: May 4-13, 1771 Quotes

Poor Leonore! And yet I was innocent. Was it my fault that, while I was taking pleasure and amusement in the wilful charms of her sister, a passion was growing in that poor heart?

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Wilhelm, Leonore
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

Dear friend! do I need to tell you that you who have so often endured seeing me pass from sorrow to excessive joy, from sweet melancholy to destructive passion? And I am treating my poor heart like an ailing child; every whim is granted.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Wilhelm
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1: May 15-22, 1771 Quotes

I well know we are not equal, nor can be; but…he who supposes he must keep his distance from what they call the rabble, to preserve the respect due to him, is as much to blame as a coward who hides from his enemy for fear of being beaten.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Wilhelm
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1: May 26-30, 1771 Quotes

You ask why the torrent of genius so rarely pours forth, so rarely floods and thunders and overwhelms your astonished soul?—Because, dear friends, on either bank dwell the cool, respectable gentlemen…

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Wilhelm
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

I shall now try to see her too as soon as possible, or rather, on second thoughts, I shall avoid doing so. It is better for me to see her with the eyes of her lover; perhaps she would not appear to my own eyes as she does now, and why should I ruin the beautiful image I have?

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Wilhelm, Farmer Lad, Widow
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1: Jun 16, 1771 Quotes

When I was younger there was nothing I loved better than novels. God knows how good it felt to be able to sit in some corner on a Sunday and share with my whole heart in Miss Jenny's happiness and sorrows. Nor do I deny that that kind of writing still has its charms for me. But since I so rarely come by a book, it has to be one that is quite to my taste. And I like that author best who shows me my own world, conditions such as I live in myself and a story that can engage my interest and heart as much as my own domestic life does.

Related Characters: Lotte (Charlotte S.) (speaker), Werther
Related Symbols: Books
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:

I was one of the most afraid myself, and in pretending to be brave, to stiffen the others' courage, I found my own courage

Related Characters: Lotte (Charlotte S.) (speaker), Werther
Related Symbols: Storms
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1: Jun 19-Jul 6, 1771 Quotes

It is good that my heart can feel the simple and innocent pleasure a man knows when the cabbage he eats at table is one he grew himself; the pleasure he takes not only in eating the cabbage but in remembering all those good days, the fine morning he planted it, the mellow evenings he watered it and the delight he felt in its daily growth.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Wilhelm
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

We don't know who planted that one. Some say it was one vicar and some say another. But the younger one over there is as old as my wife, fifty years old come October. Her father planted it in the morning and that same evening she was born.

Related Characters: Vicar of S. (speaker), Werther, Lotte (Charlotte S.)
Related Symbols: Trees
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1: Jul 8-19, 1771 Quotes

My dear fellow, that is the uncertainty I am left in; and my consolation is that perhaps she did turn to look at me! Perhaps!

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.)
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

No, I am not deceiving myself! …Yes, I can feel—and I know I may trust my own heart in this—Oh, dare I utter the words, those words that contain all heaven for me?—I can feel that she loves me!

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.), Wilhelm
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1: Jul 19-Aug 12, 1771 Quotes

I have started on a portrait of Lotte three times, and three times I have failed disgracefully; which depresses me all the more since I could take a very good likeness not so long ago. So then I cut a silhouette profile of her, and that will have to do.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.)
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:

I grind my teeth and mock my own misery…I go rambling in the woods, and if my walk takes me to Lotte's and I find Albert sitting in the summerhouse with her in the greenery, and I cannot bear it any more.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.), Albert
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:

True, it is wrong to steal: but if a man goes thieving to save himself and his family from starvation, are we to pity him or punish him? Who will first cast a stone if a husband sacrifices his unfaithful wife and her worthless seducer in the heat of his righteous wrath? or if a girl abandons herself for one joyful hour to the irresistible pleasures of love?

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Albert
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1: Oct 20, 1771-Feb 20, 1772 Quotes

And this glittering misery, the tedium of these awful people cooped up together here! and their greed for rank, and the way they are forever watchful and alert for gain or precedence: the most wretched and abominable of passions, quite nakedly displayed.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Wilhelm
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:

But I was meaning to tell you of Miss von B. She has a great soul, which gazes straight at one from her blue eyes. Her rank is a burden and satisfies none of the wishes of her heart. She is longing to put all this brouhaha behind her, and we spend many an hour imagining country scenes of unadulterated bliss…

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.), Miss von B.
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:

Oh, it would drive me insane if she could forget—Albert, the very thought is hell.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.), Albert
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2: Jun 11-Nov 3, 1772 Quotes

It cost me a wrench but in the end I decided not to wear the simple blue frock-coat I had on when I first danced with Lotte any more; it had become quite unpresentable. Still, I have had a new one made, exactly like the other, down to the collar and lapels, and the very same buff waistcoat and breeches as well.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.)
Page Number: 92
Explanation and Analysis:

I have so much, and my feelings for her absorb it all; I have so much, and without her it is all nothing.

Related Characters: Werther (speaker), Lotte (Charlotte S.)
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2: Dec 20-21, 1772 Quotes

All of these reflections prompted a profound realization, albeit one which she was not consciously aware of, that her secret heart's desire was to keep him for herself, yet at the same time she reminded herself that she could not and might not keep him; her pure and beautiful nature, which at other times was so lighthearted and readily found a way out of predicaments, sensed the oppressive power of melancholy, banishing the prospect of happiness. Her heart was heavy, and her vision was clouded by sadness.

Related Characters: Editor (speaker), Werther, Lotte (Charlotte S.)
Page Number: 119
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.