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The intensification of the body in Goethe's 'Die Leiden des jungen Werther.' (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
From: The Germanic Review
Date: 19940622
Author:Davis, William Stephen
The hero in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 'The Sorrows of Young Werther' intensifies the body by making it metaphysical. Lotte's eyes become metaphors of a feminine ideal, woman mirroring man. The problem for Werther is that a metaphysical body increases rather than sublimates sexual desire. Werther deals at first with Lotte's rejection by assuming a 'Don Giovanni' identity to evoke guilt and pity. When this does not work, Werther kills himself as a way of exchanging his identity for an archaic integration with the world and with Lotte as an eternal mother figure.
1. The Fading Subject
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