The book began once the narrator, Werther, wrote a letter to Wilhelm after Werther left to pursue his dreams. The book was mostly comprised of letters to Wilhelm that explained what was going on in his life and how he felt about the events. In some instances, it appeared that Werther was also writing to Lotte, but it was mostly letters back and forth to Wilhelm. Throughout the letters, Werther was explaining the situations he encountered along with the people, and while sometimes he wrote about other people, it was always what he saw in them. A few instances he wrote this way, but it was still mostly about himself, which I think he didn’t understand at those points that it was still about him and his reactions to the events, as with page 94 where Lotte had written a letter and he gladly assumed it was for him despite her husband was away. Among that, his infatuation with Lotte is certainly misunderstood as he believed that she was just as in love with him as he was with her, but to me, she didn’t see him more than a good companion and is in love with Albert, her husband. I think he understood his feelings to a certain extent, but then fell into them a little too much and couldn’t pull himself out of it (his desire for Lotte), and I doubt that he truly understood anyone else relayed in the story, as with his family’s concerns and why they pushed him toward a more reliable job, and, especially, Lotte’s affections toward him. There was a lot of emotions that flowed through Werther throughout the book, so I wouldn’t say that there was one presiding emotion / tone when he wrote — most of it is all over the emotional curve. Throughout the story, Werther certainly changed. On page 57 under the section August 18, he changed entirely. The overall tone had consisted of hope, love, admiration, energy, but on that page it completely flipped around to fury, despair, loneliness, and hopelessness. So much so, he had gone from full of life to no life at all.
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Apr 3rd, 2021 by Tapanga
I don’t think that he was ever really writing to Lottie personally, I think it was probably more of the scenario where you may be talking to someone about something and then hypothetically say what you would like to say to someone else. Maybe he wrote it in a way where if she ever did happen to read the letters that he would be speaking eloquently, or as eloquently as a manic young Werther would be able to. I do think that Lottie was in love with him, but where Werther seeped himself in his love and obsession with her she instead pushed down those emotions and kept him at arms length. He was a faithful friend and companion to her up until the kiss where it made her have to sit back and think about her possible feelings for him that she never allowed herself to think about. That may have been my take on her personally though, so take it with a grain of salt. I agree with what you said about the emotional curve though, when he’s in one emotion it isn’t difficult to predict what he’s going to feel next and despite how explosive his emotions could be it was always in a natural and fairly consistent way.