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Preface & May 4–June 19

Summary: Preface

An unnamed narrator directly addresses the reader, introducing them to Werther, an individual worthy of their love, admiration, and sympathy.

BOOK I

Summary: May 4–May 13

Werther writes to a friend, Wilhelm, from a nobleman’s estate in which his family has some managerial involvement. Werther praises the solitary peace and tranquility of his surroundings. An artist by inclination, he closely observes and is inspired by the beauty of the trees, sunlight, streams, and insects around him, and feels that he’s become a better artist than ever before. In this setting, Werther feels the nearness of God, and he views the setting as paradise. He makes daily visits to a fountain fed by natural springs, where he watches the comings and goings of the townspeople, imagines the spot when it was once a center of commerce, and feels a kinship with the past. Werther vehemently declines his friend’s offer to send books. He regards reading as overstimulating and only makes an exception for the calming poetry of Homer. Werther confesses that his unpredictable moods sometimes rapidly change between extremes of happiness and sadness and that he indulges his temperament like a sick child, a confession Werther asks his friend not to repeat as he knows people would not approve.

Summary: May 15–May 17

Werther characterizes his social life as full of short-lived acquaintances. As a gentleman, he encounters suspicion when he is friendly with the local townspeople, who interpret his interest in their daily lives as ridicule. Werther sees that they scratch out a meager existence with continuous labor, expend their energies simply surviving, feel imprisoned by their circumstances, and lack a sense of purpose that gives their lives meaning and focus. He enjoys losing himself in their simple pleasures like eating, drinking, and dancing but misses the intellectual stimulation of educated people. Werther receives a visit from V—, a recent university graduate, who heard about Werther’s art pursuits. V— attempts to draw Werther into erudite conversation about various art theories, but Werther doesn’t engage. Later, Werther tells Wilhelm he intends to accept an invitation from a district judge who has retired from public service with his nine children following the death of his wife.

Summary: May 26–May 30

Werther moves to Walheim, having found a small cottage with an idyllic view of a valley. He likes to sit outside the small inn with his coffee and read Homer’s epic poetry. One afternoon, he comes upon a four-year-old boy and his six-month-old brother sitting on the ground in the otherwise deserted square, and Werther sketches the scene realistically. He judges the drawing true to life and interesting, a result of working within the rules of form. But Werther also feels that acceptable isn’t the same as faithful to an ideal, and he blames pragmatism for the loss of true inspired creativity. 

After two hours, the mother returns and explains to Werther that the four-year-old was babysitting the infant. Werther finds that the mother’s approach to living each day at a time relaxes him, and he begins visiting them, bringing snacks and pennies for the boys. On another occasion, Werther talks with a young peasant man who tells Werther of his love for a young widow. The devotion, passion, and respect with which the man describes his love touches Werther, who longs to have such an experience. Werther craves to meet this special woman but decides instead to preserve the image he has formed through the man’s eyes. Werther believes the picture in his imagination surpasses the reality.

Summary: June 16

Werther explains to Wilhelm his two-week silence: He has met the perfect woman and is in a state of infatuation. Werther tells Wilhelm that he had accepted an invitation to a country ball and had offered his hand to an agreeable woman from his neighborhood. He arranged a carriage for his date, his date’s aunt, and Charlotte, the daughter of S—, the district judge he had been invited to visit. On the way to pick up Charlotte, his date and her aunt warn him not to fall in love with Charlotte because she’s engaged to a wealthy and respectable man. 

Werther, his date, and her aunt arrive at Charlotte’s home to find her giving dinner to six of her eight brothers and sisters. Charlotte has a natural gift for mothering, and the elegant maternal picture touches Werther. On the way to the ball, the group discusses books, and Charlotte impresses Werther with her intelligence and zest for life. Werther and Charlotte dance euphorically, matching each other step for step. Werther finds their partnership so serendipitous that he later tells Wilhelm that henceforth he regards waltzing as an intimate act. Werther and Charlotte’s enjoyment of each other draws notice from a lady who admonishes Charlotte by wagging a finger and saying the name “Albert” twice. Werther becomes flustered when Charlotte explains that Albert is her fiancé. 

The ladies are frightened when a sudden and severe thunderstorm strikes, and Charlotte devises a game to distract them. Afterwards she admits to Werther that she was frightened as well, but keeping up the others' spirits helped her to forget her fears. She touches Werther's hand and invokes the name of the German poet Klopstock, and Werther kisses her hand.

Summary: June 19

Three days after Werther's lengthy letter about meeting Charlotte and the events of the ball, he writes Wilhelm a brief missive detailing the ride home. Werther stays awake with Charlotte while the others sleep despite her protestations that he need not do so, and he gazes at her silently and steadfastly until they reach her home. At the door she gives Werther permission to call on her as a friend, and he writes to Wilhelm that since that moment the world is "nothing" to him.

Anlaysis: Preface & May 4–June 19

Despite Werther’s recent emotional troubles, he is able to utilize his instincts of self-preservation to exert control over his life and exact pleasure from solitary pursuits. Werther attempts to maintain control over his mental state by limiting outside stimuli, such as overly challenging books or conversations, and to bolster his sense of tranquility by indulging in the natural beauty that surrounds him. He also extends this control to his perception of the peasants, servants, and other working-class people with whom he interacts. By imagining them as merely simple and hardworking subjects devoid of intellect, he can allow himself to deduce that they are unbothered by the angst in which he sometimes wallows. This egotistical stance permits Werther to keep difficult emotions at bay and to avoid the hard truth that those same people, despite having a lower position in the social structure, may have a similarly unflattering and narrow view of him as well. He reverts to his self-preservation instincts when ending the conversation with V—, but lacks the self-awareness to realize the irony in turning down the very intellectual stimulation he claims to crave.  

It is Werther’s middle-to-upper-class station in life that allows him freedom from self-judgment and a lack of concern over starting his career. This status instills a confidence in his finances, education, and higher-than-average intellect, and it allows him to indulge his artistic talents without worrying about whether they will ultimately support his lifestyle. The satisfaction Werther derives from his interactions with the mother and her two boys as well as the young peasant man would not be the same if they shared the same social class. If they did, Werther would need to invest real emotional effort in addition to pennies and a listening ear. Like the image of the young peasant’s beloved, Werther’s idealized image of human interaction is more appealing than its reality. 

Werther’s interactions with the mother, her two boys, and the young peasant man set the stage for Werther to fall in love. The mother embodies everything that Werther finds humble, unpretentious, and noble about working-class motherhood. This prefigures Charlotte’s appearance, since she is in effect the mother of eight young children. When Werther falls in love with the young man’s love story, he does not yet know that he will soon fall in love with Charlotte. Like the young man’s beloved widow, Charlotte is also unattainable, but Werther’s obsession with the young man’s tale of star-crossed love suggests the lengths that he is willing to go to in order to achieve it.

Werther’s uncontrollable ardor for Charlotte causes him to abandon his previous instinct for self-preservation and make himself vulnerable to the storm and stress of the emotions she arouses in him. The fact that he neglects to write Wilhelm for two whole weeks suggests that the tranquil environment that he has so carefully curated for himself has given way to one of anxiety interspersed with pleasure. Werther has previously kept acquaintances at arm’s length in order to distance himself emotionally, and the negative attention that his and Charlotte’s shared pleasure draws during their intimate waltz foreshadows other inappropriate exchanges to come. When Charlotte invokes Klopstock’s name, it is the first shared understanding between her and Werther. The reference to the contemporary romantic poet known for suffering through unrequited love suggests that Werther, too, will be vulnerable to suffering because of his passion.

Next section June 21–September 10

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