JW Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther is heavy with a sense of unease, as it describes a young man's descent into mental instability that ends in his suicide. The cause of this feeling of unease lies in the narrator himself, as his own mental state is reflected in his letters to Wilhelm, creating a largely melancholy tone. The novel itself contains little real tragedy, until Werther's suicide which does not occur until the end. This suggests that the unease at the heart of the novel comes from Werther himself rather than anything else that may occur in the book. Although the unease channeled in Werther's letters is heightened by unrequited love and public humiliation at the hands of the aristocratic class, it is his deep inner unease that prevents him from dealing with these events, instead resolving to commit suicide. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay On the surface, the phenomenon of unrequited love seems to be at the heart of the novel's sense of unease. Werther's love for Lotte creates a deep sense of discomfort for both parties as he pursues her when she is already with Albert. Werther's feelings for Lotte also trigger his descent into depression and are the direct situational cause of his suicide. Indeed, Vartan Gregorian calls it “an impossible love with an engaged woman, with no possible positive outcome, no happy ending”[1]. Werther loses himself so completely in his infatuation with Lotte that he even states that “[his] imagination only sees her: all the objects around her only count to the extent that they relate to her”[2]. . This shows how completely she becomes his life, and to not be able to have her is to be unable to be happy and, ultimately, to be unable to continue living. Even when he is absent from her company after moving to town, the destructive impact of her grief on him remains. This leads Frank Schalow to assert that "the mysterious depth of love is also a fact, in that it maintains a devotion to the other, even after the physical presence of the other has disappeared"[3]. In addition to its devastating effect on Werther, his unrequited love for Lotte also creates a sense of unease in the other characters. Lotte comes to feel torn, as she cares for Werther, but feels uncomfortable with his constant and increasingly intense adoration for her. Additionally, she is forced to suffer emotionally when Werther chooses to leave if he cannot have her romantically, and then again when he commits suicide. This is evident when she tells Werther that "[she] will never be able to walk in the moonlight without the thought of [her] dearly departed coming to her mind" (65), suggesting that the loss of her friend would leave her with an eternal feeling of uneasiness. The most widespread support for the idea that the unease in the novel is the result of unrequited love is found in Werther's final letter to Wilhelm, as he speaks of "As his image haunts him ! Whether she is awake or asleep, it fills [her] entire soul! (107). This shows that Lotte is the last thing on Werther's mind and therefore perhaps the cause of his depression and unhappiness. Additionally, Lotte can be seen as a trigger for Werther's malaise and ultimate suicide, as she agrees to send him his weapons, which he takes as a sign of her approval. The fact that Werther asks this woman for permission to die shows the inner turmoil she causes him. A turmoil that overshadows the entire novel. Because of Werther's unrequited lovefor Lotte, Werther and Albert's friendship is also strained and uncomfortable as Werther becomes increasingly obsessed with Albert's fiancée. Werther respects and loves Albert when he meets him, recounting in his letters to Wilhelm that he "could not help esteeming Albert" (47) and that Albert had "many feelings and [was] fully sensitive to the treasure which he possesses in Charlotte” (48). However, he also feels an irrevocable sense of jealousy and bitterness as he covets Albert's relationship with Lotte. He admits how much it pains him to see another man "in possession of such a perfect being" (47), and suggests that his approval of Albert is yet another source of discomfort in the novel as he resents himself as well as Albert. This is evident when Werther asks Wilhelm: "What good does it do me to continually repeat that he is a good and estimable man?" It is for me an inner torment” (113). The result of this respect mixed with jealousy is that Albert and Werther fall into a difficult friendship overshadowed by a feeling of unease. As both are close to Lotte, as well as each other, the dynamic becomes that of a respectful but extremely uncomfortable love triangle, with Werther playing the outsider. Margaret Church even states that Werther ended his life to break the triangle, stating that "he committed suicide with the firm conviction that one of the three must die"[4]. The tense dynamic between the three main characters seems to be a significant cause of the novel's sense of unease, as all exchanges between the three become somewhat bitter when viewed in light of Werther's underlying desire to destroy the relationship between Lotte and Albert. to argue that the feeling of unease in The Sorrows of Young Werther also has its origins largely in social problems related to Werther's middle-class status. To some extent, it could be argued that the feeling of unease is created in part by Werther's negative feelings towards the inequalities experienced by the lower classes. Werther indeed makes an unpleasant observation of the upper classes when he states that "people who can claim a certain rank stand coldly apart from the people, as if they feared losing their importance through contact" (11). By breaking this behavior, it could be argued that Werther comes to see the humanity and struggles of the peasants and Martin Swales argues that "Werther becomes aware of and is offended by the inequalities in the society around him...he is aware that the intensity of one's interior life has a price: that of renouncing the society of one's peers”[5]. In other words, it can be argued that he becomes disillusioned with his own bourgeois roots as he witnesses the most unfortunate end of the class system. The same system that gives Werther some kind of status makes ordinary people socially obsolete. This might partly explain why Werther later struggled to settle into his aristocracy-led legal work. However, Swales also gives a contrary view to this idea, since he states that "Werther is only imperfectly aware of the social causes of so much unease"[6]. This suggests that the feeling of unease is unlikely to be due to the sense of social injustice that Werther reflects in his letters, as his bourgeois roots made him too ignorant to fully understand the plight of the lower classes. The novel's uneasy feeling is that Werther is no longer accustomed to feeling inferior, leading to culture shock when he leaves his small rural home. Werther begins the novel by observing the simple lives of rural peasants. In doing so, he gets used to a position ofsuperiority. In comparison with the surrounding working classes, his middle class status seems exaggerated to him. Although he is friendly towards the peasants, he is also condescending, as evidenced by his telling Wilhelm how he was "particularly amused by observing their character and the simplicity of their behavior" (19). . The adjective “amused” (19) shows the extent to which Werther regards the peasants as mere objects of entertainment. Although he feels affection for them, this affection is more akin to that felt for a pet than that felt for an equal. His friendships with the peasants are based largely around the way they make him feel superior, as is evident when he tells Wilhelm that "the ordinary people of the place already know and love him" (11). He feeds on their admiration for him, imagining himself to be some kind of idol and leading him to have inflated self-esteem. The repercussions of this inflated self-esteem only become evident when Werther moves to Weimar. Instead of being an upper class individual among the oppressed, Werther himself becomes an oppressed, as his new world is ruled by the aristocratic class while Werther himself is only middle class. The class gap becomes clear to Werther as he befriends Count C, telling Wilhelm how he "got to know Count C and [he] esteemed him more and more every day » (70). As aristocrats, Count C as well as Werther's other aristocratic friend, Fraulein Von B, cannot maintain public relations with bourgeois individuals like Werther. This is made clear when Fraulein Von B joins the other aristocrats in snubbing Werther at Count C's party, later explaining how "[she] knew the Ss and T's would leave the room rather than stay in [Werther's] company." ". (81). Having recently lived among ordinary people, Werther is unprepared for such a loss of importance and struggles to adapt. Thomas J. Scheff highlights the importance of this event in contributing to Werther's malaise by stating that "Werther's suffering had its origins in humiliation"[7]. He also takes this snobbery in an extremely personal way, even asserting that “everything conspires against [him]” (81). This personal and social rejection leads Werther to feel a sense of unease even after separating from Lotte. David Constantine supports this by asserting that "In his employment with the Envoy...[Werther] feels oppressed and reduced...he soon comes into conflict with the social order itself, is humiliated and pushed further in isolation. obsession that will kill him”[8]. Indeed, Werther is so completely humiliated at having been snubbed by the aristocratic class that he returns to Wahlheim, and subsequently to his self-destructive and obsessive infatuation with Lotte. Werther's humiliation at the hands of the aristocratic class not only plunges him deeper into depression, which is reflected in the tone of his writings, but also reflects the social malaise of the 18th century. Indeed, with the advent of the Age of Enlightenment, people began to accept new ideals. The narrow social hierarchy presented in The Sorrows of Young Werther was being challenged, as evidenced by Werther's angry departure after being snubbed. However, although unrequited love and social class issues may seem to provoke the feeling of unease at the heart of the novel, I am inclined to argue that its true origin is personal rather than social or emotional. The inevitable discomfort is a product of Werther's hypersensitive, depression-prone personality type. Indeed, Morton Schoolman supports my point of view by asserting that "although loveshared by Lotte for Werther may have precipitated his suicide, as a prelude to this catastrophic romantic episode, it would seem that Werther's painfully acute sensitivity practically paralyzed his affirmation for life" 9]. In other words, Werther does not become emotionally unstable because he is unable to deal with his unrequited love for Lotte. Rather, he is unable to deal with his unrequited love for Lotte because he is emotionally unstable. Thomas J. Scheff supports this idea, as he argues that "the concept of alienation constitutes a bridge between [Werther's and Lotte's] romance"[10]. This suggests that the reason Werther falls in love with Lotte is because he sees in her some of the social unease that is also in him. This further suggests that Lotte herself serves as a catalyst for Werther's growing unease, and that his unrequited love could have been replaced by any other trial, if at all, and Werther would still have seen it all with eyes of sadness. Scheff further denounces unrequited love as the origin of unhappiness since he describes it as “infatuation rather than love”[11]. Martin Swales supports both my argument and Scheff's when he states that "the thought of suicide is present in Werther's mind from the very beginning...it is there before Werther even meets Lotte...that clearly shows that Werther's suicide was not simply the result of unhappy love”[12]. Indeed, even in Werther's first letter to Wilhelm, the fragile emotional state reached in the novel is foreshadowed, as he states that "[he] will no longer continue, as has always been [his] habit, to ruminate on all the little annoyances that fortune can bring him. can dispense” (7). This highlights that Werther is simply prone to episodes of depression and anxiety in response to triggers, with his love for Lotte and social snobbery serving as triggers throughout the novel, rather than the root cause. His fascination with suicide throughout the novel suggests that he was destined to end his life, regardless of the events. Therefore, the feeling of unease created by Werther is simply a natural part of him, rather than the culmination of misfortunes. This is evidenced by the fact that Werther condones suicide by saying that "it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever." . It also suggests that Werther almost romanticizes the idea of ​​self-destruction, suggesting that the presence of unease in his letters is deliberate. The feeling of unease in the novel is also due to personal causes, as Werther's excessive sensitivity makes him unable to handle rejection. Indeed, this causes him to suffer both his rejection by Lotte and his snobbery towards Count C's party to a much greater extent than can be considered rational. In turn, this increased suffering and sorrow of Werther is manifested through his depressive narration. Although the novel's unease originates in Werther's personal character traits, it is reinforced by natural events corresponding to his increasing agitation. The weather often reflects his moods and the unease surrounding events, as it tends to become stormy in times of Werther's intense stress. Another pathetic fallacy is used when Werther returns to Wahlheim. Werther notes that the walnut trees that “often filled [his] heart with joy…had been cut down. Yes, cut to the ground! (100). The destruction of the walnut trees reflects Werther's growing grief and adds to the novel's sense of unease. The death of Hans, Werther's peasant friend, although secondary to the major events, creates a feeling of, 1987), 30