Summary “From Goethe”


The novel was written in 1774. The story was based on the story that Goethe himself witnessed. In 1772, the writer was in Wenceslas, a small town. Here in the office of the imperial court, he was practicing law. Fate brought him with a certain Kestner, who served as secretary of the Hanoverian Embassy. Goethe spent several months in the city and left at the end of the summer. After some time, the writer received a letter from his friend. Kestner reported that their mutual friend, Jerusalim, a young official, had committed suicide. The reason for this was unhappy love, feelings of despair and humiliation, as well as dissatisfaction with their position in society.

Goethe decided that this case can be imagined as a tragedy to his generation today. It was then that the writer had an idea about writing a novel.

Genre peculiarity and structure

He turned to the popular genre of the novel in Goethe’s poems. “The Suffering of a Young Werther” (a brief summary will confirm this) – a sentimental novel. And such works very often had one structure – they were composed of numerous pisem main characters. Was not an exception and our work.

The novel consists of two parts, each of which, in turn, is composed of the letters of Werther himself and the publisher, who publishes a novel, the messages of which are addressed to the reader. The letters of the protagonist are addressed to his faithful friend Wilhelm. Werther describes in them not only the events taking place in his life, but also his experiences and feelings.


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Summary “From Goethe”