The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang. Analysis of Werthers Suicide
Werther’s Suicide
Werther is infatuated with Charlotte who is an engaged woman who will be married. He constantly wants to see her all the time. It becomes an obvious obsession and it starts to make Werther insane. Werther says, “How her image haunts me! Walking or asleep, she fills my entire soul!” (Goethe 157). This displays his mental state concerning Charlotte. His life revolves around her, but he doesn’t completely realize that he cannot have her. All of what is going on ultimately brings Werther to take his own life. Werther’s suicide was not justified because of suicide being wrong no matter what and the suicide was not prevented.
Werther committed suicide because he finally realized that he could not have Charlotte and that Charlotte did not want him. He resulted in killing himself. Suicide is wrong all of the time. It does not fix any problems but only makes them worse. Werther did not pick the right choice for dealing with this situation. He could have looked for someone to help him like Wilhelm. Werther went to the extreme to deal with the situation and it was not necessary. Werther should have realized that after Albert and Charlotte were married that he had no chance and moved on. He was attached to Charlotte and knew no one else. He even says that he wishes “to be buried in the dress” that has been “rendered sacred by your touch.” (212). He was still attached to her even when he was going to commit suicide. This suicide can not be justified because he knows what he is doing, but he has no guidance. Mentally, he has a problem but he still has an immature obsession over Charlotte.
Werther is not stopped in the act of killing himself. There are many opportunities that could have allowed intervention to stop him. Werther asked Albert if he could borrow his pistol. Albert gave the note Werther gave him to Charlotte and said, “Give him the pistols. I wish him a pleasant journey…”(207). Albert definitely knows what Werther wants to do with them and so does Charlotte. Albert basically is allowing Werther to kill himself and that is not right. Although that Albert is letting this happen, it is still wrong of Werther to commit suicide over Charlotte. Albert let this happen because he was definitely getting annoyed with Werther. Werther was always trying to get with Charlotte, and Albert does not want that because he is with her.
Charlotte knew that something bad was going to happen after Werther got the pistols. After the servant left with them she “retired at once to her room, her heart overcome with the most fearful forebodings.” (207). This shows that she knew in the back of her mind that he was going to do something bad with those pistols and she was going to be feel bad for it. This is not justified because she should not have given the servant the guns if she was going to have those feelings afterward. She was just like Albert and let it happen. The servant can be blamed as well. He should have thought about why he was delivering guns to Werther. That would have been common sense. What made all of this worse was that when the servant handed the pistols over to Werther, he told him that Charlotte gave it to him herself. Werther immediately thought of the delight that she touched the pistols. He then writes to her talking about how she touched the guns. This just continues the never ending story of his obsession and further proves that it was not right for him to kill himself over it.
In conclusion, Werther’s suicide was not justified. It was wrong of him and all of the people who were involved in it. It was wrong of him because committing suicide is never the answer to a problem. It was wrong of Albert and Charlotte for giving him the pistols knowing that he was going to do something bad. His servant also could have done something to prevent this fiasco. In the end, Werther did not think through his actions and committed an unjustified suicide because suicide is never justified.
