To be honest I cried when I read parts of this as well.This was an enlightening book about language, psychology, writing, history, depression and love and suicide. The reason it happened was because Werther couldn't let go of Lotte; he couldn't let go of his mindset; but it's most challenging because you cannot put your finger on it, the characters are complex. It's a wonderfully written book, all the way through. The characters, especially Lotte of course, were very beautiful. It is a paradigm-shift to see things in such bright colours and also dull. I think it is a life-benefit, or whatever you say, to anyone who reads it and it is as must read as Dostoyevsky.
When Werther talks about experiencing one moment as fully as he does, this is like the Buddhist emphasis on the here-and-now. Alan Watts also describes it well, and until reading those two, I knew a lot less about it. It helps to understanding of ourselves and nature around us and our place in it. To see the beauty and to immerse oneself in a single moment and make it super-large is to dip oneself in reality because in reality we are insignificant to nature. We are surrounded by the future ahead of us, and the past behind, and our place is with infinite possibility before, and infinite behind. This can be scary because it makes us utterly insignificant. It is mind boggling, because we are nothing compared to the infinite. It also gives us a power, though, to change our situation, because we have total control over it.
The Sorrows of Young Werther is enlightening about suicide, though, which is a dark topic. It can be upsetting, a friend of mine didn't want to read past page 33 or so.
Oh, I forgot, I wanted to say something about this. I guess it is only very rarely that death is better than life. I mean you should think about your problems and analyze things, but you must be careful not to...to take your life. In this case and almost every we can say that it was better to live. It is a very sensitive subject. There is hardly one more. But I wouldn't call it selfish, it just isn't selfish to me. Courage- most would say it takes more courage, for instance to live with whatever. Anyway, I think the problem of suicide is more the problem of life, that it does this to some people. And intricately tied to the problem of suicide is the beautifulness of life.
It is devastating but I also thought it was very beautiful. I've probably said too much about it anyways, lol. I actually don't want to read it again for a long time, there's just so much else I'd like to be doing/reading.