It is presumable that the protagonist of The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe is a man from whose thoughts we can derive wise and important statements about life. In many passages, Werther offers us his unique perspective on various elements of life, including survival, freedom, mortality, and moral vision. Mostly he is addressing his close friend Wilhelm, so it is clear that these are personal letters containing deep thoughts and feelings. However, contradictions emerge in the letters that will be examined. I therefore believe that while much of what he says is eloquent and inspiring, it does not necessarily all constitute a series of wise life lessons. Perhaps there is a wealth of truth in what Werther says, but whatever life lessons he imparts come not just from what he thinks, but also from how and to whom he presents these ideas and how he applies them to his life. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Talk in great detail about how you see the rest of human existence. This outlook is not necessarily positive; in fact, he is quite critical of the people he meets. In the letter of May 17 Werther writes: «The human race is nothing but a monotonous thing. Most of them toil most of their time at mere subsistence; and the little bit of freedom that remains to them disturbs them to such an extent that they use every effort to free themselves from it. Oh, the fate of man!" (Goethe, 6) In the same letter he also happens to say: "Alas, the friend of my youth is gone! Alas, if I had ever known her! I might say to myself, "You are a dreamer seeking what is not found down here." (Goethe, 7) This seems to say that there is a certain human stature and that people are comparable to a certain ideal. In his case Werther can't seem to find anyone who equals or betters his dear deceased friend in quality. He seeks company, but what is paradoxical about this is how little he appreciates most of the company he receives, even believing that he is adored by those who meet him. Perhaps he is not entirely wrong in sensing that people find it necessary to suppress certain talents, emotions, or impulses for practical reasons. This is raised in the May 22 letter, where he writes "... I consider the narrow limits within which our business and activity are limited." investigative powers are limited; when I see how all our energies are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which once again have no other purpose than to prolong a miserable existence..." (Goethe, 8) He argues that our passivity in this world makes us seem no longer like big children, who are attracted and repelled by a few sensory things, but do not seek a deeper meaning in anything. Furthermore, he proposes that for other bodies in the universe, the dead individual is immediately mourned, and then soon forgotten. In the letter of October 26 he says: «I often contribute to their happiness, and my heart seems unable to beat without them; and yet... if I died, if I were taken out of this circle, they would feel... or how long would they feel the void that my loss would cause in their existence?” (Goethe, 78) This tells me that, not only is Werther as willing to discard the human race as he is eager to see it embrace him, but he is afraid that his own life will vanish into thin air, and all the people who apparently adored him will Just forget it. There may be a life lesson here, but it doesn't necessarily come from his philosophy alone. The paradoxical, insecure and irrational side of man is demonstrated in Werther, who generalizes the universe to explain his own fears and. desires.Werther's general dissatisfaction adds to the irony of his character when considering his disdain for what he calls "bad mood" (Goethe, 29). In his letter of July 1 he writes: "We should tell ourselves every day," I exclaimed, "that we must not interfere with our friends, except to leave them in possession of their joys, and increase their happiness by sharing it." with them! But when their soul is tormented by violent passion, or their heart is torn with grief, is it in your power to give them the least consolation?"' (Goethe, 29-30) Perhaps there is something to be said for it. overcome difficulties with optimism; but what is really interesting in his argument are the persistent contradictions between his words here and other letters, in this one is overlooked. One obvious thing about Werther is that he feels things very acutely, so it is interesting that his apparent desire is to isolate the pain and share the happiness. The contradiction here is that he continually expresses pain, as we have seen in the previous letters. He suggests that the pain is personal and yet when he feels it he demands and listens it is easily seen in his letter of August 18, where his desperate vision of existence fully emerges: "My heart is consumed by the thought of that. destructive force that hides in every part of universal nature". (Goethe, 47) The idea of ​​mortal frailty bothers him because he realizes that death is inevitable in life. He seems to have recurring fears of living life unfulfilled, of dying, and of fading into oblivion. Perhaps this is why he turns to God for consolation: it is something perfect and eternal. He doesn't seem like a person with the moral strength necessary to overcome his fears, rather a person consumed by insecurities and who needs to be cuddled and reassured. As for affirmations about life, what we can deduce from Werther is that a man consumed by evils would perhaps like to do without them. He himself realizes this in his letter of August 12, in which he writes "My good friend, if resistance is strength, how can the maximum degree of resistance be weakness?... Human nature, I continued, «has the his limits. He is able to bear a certain degree of joy, sadness and pain, but is destroyed as soon as this measure is exceeded. The question therefore is not whether a man is strong or weak, but whether he is able to bear the measure of his sufferings." (Goethe, 42-43) Werther reiterates the concept that pain and despair cannot be generalized, but can only be examined in specific cases. He establishes that when one is ill and dies, it is very similar to ending one's life after a deep depression, however, he also compares suicide to the search for a remedy, just like what it means to get rid of bad mood. I believe that this relationship between illness and remedy be what Albert calls "all paradox" (Goethe, 43). The lesson here lies in the paradox: there seems to be a demonstrated duality of the human condition, One who is immersed in pain. he dreams of discarding it, yet seems to identify with it. And despite this desire for universal happiness, one only has a threshold until those feelings need to be expressed in one way or another. We can then say that Werther is like this. a great thinker full of relevant life lessons? I think it's fitting that Werther's hopes for universal happiness, remembrance, freedom, and piety are all relevant things, perhaps even things to aspire to. But they are not all necessarily useful as affirmations about life in general. However, its internal paradoxes, its contradictions and its exuberant irrationalism tell us more about the possibilities2006.