In GoetheÆs (2002) The Sorrows of Young Werther, we are treated to Young WertherÆs youthful and romantic illusions pertaining to love. WertherÆs great love for Charlotte is an unrequited love, one that causes Young Werther to believe he has lost the ability to feel. Because of his youth, Werther becomes suicidal over his obsessive love for Charlotte, a married woman. However, Werther commits suicide because his notions of love are not based in reality. Instead, WertherÆs romantic illusions are proven invalid and because of this he can no longer bear an existence which he believes offers no love.
Werther is artistic and young. Because of this, he ascribes to romantic notions and illusions that are not supported by reality. This is not to say that Werther is completely detached from reality. At one point he admits, ôI am not alone unfortunate. All men are disappointed in their hopes, and deceived in their expectationsö (Goethe, 2002, p. 52). However, WertherÆs love for Charlotte is a love that is great but not returned on the same level of passion by Charlotte. Because of his youth and artistic and romantic notions, Werther fabricates a deep connection between himself and Charlotte that is the product more of imagination and romanticism than reality. As he writes, ôHow often, my dear friend, in reading a passage from some interesting book, when my heart and CharlotteÆs seemed to meet, and in a hundred other instances when our sentiments were unfolded by the story of some fictitious character, have I felt that we were made for each otherö (Goethe, 2002, p. 52)!
WertherÆs youth and romantic notions make him unable to focus on anything but his love for Charlotte. He is quite obsessed with her and cannot seem to think of anything or feel anything unless it is related to his desire for Charlotte. In many ways, WertherÆs feelings are not true love but are instead the pr
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