Nature is a “cradle” of everything created on earth. Nature can influence people due to its magnificence and fascination. It is no surprise that some people obtain passion and inspiration from the natural diversity around them. Others are more likely to get into despair owing to bad weather or some cataclysms happening. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe is an applicable demonstration of how the main hero appealed to nature as a reflection of his joy and sorrows. This theme can be generally extracted out of the main ideas presumed in the novel. Moreover, Werther is an example of a man whose heart pounds if only he appeals to nature for more objectives to live. Hence, The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe is applicable in highlighting an unannounced topic of nature throughout the letters of the main character.
Nature cannot but amuse a human being. Such a statement goes throughout the whole novel by Goethe. Werther wanted to shape his feelings and to provide more impressions on his friend by means of substituting his feelings through nature. “Did I not feel charmed at those truly genuine expressions of nature, which, though but little mirthful in reality, so often amused us” (Goethe 7)? This peculiarity of what Werther tried to express to his friend, Wilhelm, amazes at once. The question is that the main hero can tell the truth of his heart by means of the charms of nature. It seems that there is nothing more fascinating and beautiful for a man than to bring in personal assumptions on life prospects and human beings in terms of their controversial character.
Love affairs and attitudes to nature are both full of emotional coloring. Werther was seriously struggling, for his love was not his own. The girl that belonged to another male heart could never be with the main character. However, he tries to seek tranquility closer to nature. Werther is inclined to compare his love with the most beautiful aspects of nature. It is logically correct, for the non-man-made reality cannot but touch a human heart. In his reasoning about the love that is distant from him, Werther notes: “This confirmed me in my resolution of adhering, for the future, entirely to nature” (Goethe 16). It is apparent that the ideas on nature fulfill the protagonist to the bottom of his heart. He cannot but become humiliated before the magnificence of nature as such. Werther cannot find out something more graceful and eloquent than thoughts on the features of nature. He never uses something against nature, but he seems miserable because he cannot be happy anymore. The more Werther wants to compare or contrast something with nature, the more pain he gains. It is so, for there is nothing so stable and beautiful than what was created to please a human being.
Nature impresses people of art. This is the way people are inclined to create works of aesthetical value. It is, undoubtedly, true that a man cannot have an alternative to fulfill aesthetical needs if there is no nature at all. This point is highly emphasized in the works of many Classicists. On the other hand, art can be supposed as a product of the mind influenced by nature. Werther persuasively remarks: “Can we never take pleasure in nature without having recourse to art” (Goethe 19)? This rhetoric overwhelms the protagonist. Further still, it does not let him go aside from the natural implications of his soul full of passion to his love reflected in nature. He is full of sparingly chosen metaphors and symbols to illustrate his ominous dismay. Werther is helpless to change something. His attempts to heal his spiritual wounds are in vain. However, he is apt at writing letters to Wilhelm passionately. It becomes a sort of art for him, and Werther cannot stop this strong feeling.
Nature can be associated with the beauty of a woman. The protagonist is totally unhappy, for he knows what nature is. He knows how beautiful the woman of his life is. He implements his worries as for never reaching his aim. Werther is trapped in the pitfalls of fallacies. He feels shame that nature is glorious as well as Lotte, his love. It is the sticking point at which Werther realizes the insignificance of living on earth without that one to whom he wants to devote his entire life. Werther points out once: “…when glorious nature displays all her beauties before me” (Goethe 98)… This remark is full of sincere love and trembling of Werther who is so sensible and open-hearted to nature. In fact, he is usually welcome to be present somewhere in the forests and hills of Weimar. However, he is no longer appreciated to express his feeling to a girl whose heart is engaged by another man.
Werther has an inner attraction toward nature. The main hero is very emotional and touching in his confessions stated in letters. Thus, he provides a scope of assumptions that characterize his doubts as well as his arguments to be within nature. He prominently notices that nature is something that should be secured and saved, as a man keeps his feelings and closest people in safety. Werther comments on his devotion to nature by virtues of his own emotional experience when near willows, at sands, over rocky hills, etc. His extravagant intentions are to persuade that it is nature that stimulated him to be open to passions and feelings. Everything that influenced Werther while his outing in the forest invoked in him “the inner warmth which animates all nature” (Goethe)… Moreover, such moments made Werther be a prisoner of his own passions. His sufferings seem t him everlasting for some measure. Hence, Werther no longer wants to search for appeasement in the wilds.
The sorrow of a human being can overshadow the beauty of nature. Werther justifies the beauty of the sceneries that he observes each day until the time comes. This statement has particular grounds. First of all, the main character is torn apart, as the spiritual wounds which love caused him. Second, his sense of feeling the reality cannot take such sufferings anymore. However, a man should be accurate in reasoning nature and its peculiarities. Werther comments on it in the following way: “I cannot think: I have no longer any feeling for the beauties of nature” (Goethe 61)… Such position of the protagonist drives anybody to infer that nature cannot be blamed until changed or disfigured by a man. Moreover, a man should control personal emotions, because sooner or later everything that catches an eye in the wild will come down to nothing at all. This is where the real tragedy of a human being lies. This is an apocalyptic turn to nowhere, meaning moral and, then, physical death.
Nature is a precursor of appropriate behavior among human beings. It is vital to admit that Werther personifies himself with nature. He reduces to call things by their names but from the point of attributes of nature. It is largely a widespread tendency among people whose hearts are so tangible, as it is in the case with Werther. Nevertheless, the protagonist is trying to impulse his feelings by highlighting the peculiarities of seasons of the year. In this respect one should take a glance at an applicable episode in the book: “As nature puts on her autumn tints it becomes autumn with me and around me” (Goethe 89). This is what moves Werther in his desire to rejoice. He is able to find out shelter in nature and its peculiarities in an annual span. He motivates it as an inevitable need that surpasses his mind totally. Furthermore, Werther is easier to explain Wilhelm his worries and the joy of life by associating it with a particular season of the year.
Thus, the topic of nature has an all-pervasive character that illuminates the life and worries of young Werther. Every single interpretation of nature in his letters gives substantial grounds to think of his devotion to nature. Moreover, it is a challenge that Werther experienced throughout his sorrows. Perhaps, it is the wilds that could save him from taking his life.
Works cited
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. The Sorrows of Young Werther. Washington, DC: Filiquarian Publishing, LLC., 2007.