The Great Pretender - Power of a Morbid Mind
There are spoilers below, but I don’t think they will spoil this book, because its value lies in the way it was written.
I see this slim novel by a young Goethe as similar to “Notes from Underground” and “Catcher in the Rye”. They are purely descriptive instead of being instructive. They are an accurate in-depth study of a morbid human – intelligent, eloquent, persuasive, sensitive, “almost” charismatic, yet selfish, self-indulgent, hypocritical, venomous, arrogant, narcissistic, deeply submersed in the belief that he is superior in mind over the ordinary and hence constantly spiteful. And, by George, not an ounce of consideration for anyone! They have the maturity of an adult in analyzing the world but the immaturity of a child in behavior. They demonstrate the disaster of combining a good brain with a narrow heart. Werther despised the mindless labor of others for materialistic things, while he ponders on high affairs, such as wooing a married beauty, as he eats cake with a silver spoon. He was proud to show how he was above class by condescending to talk with peasants and children, but made it clear behind every word that he was doing the unworthy world a favor. He boasted about his pure and selfless love for Charlotte, yet it was clear that he only wanted to fulfill his obsession to possess her and had absolutely no regard for her happiness or her reputation. “It is only the impossibility of possessing me which makes your desire for me so strong” – how dare she burst his grand lie? But he will make her pay!
And he expressed his high thoughts so beautifully! The sophistication and sensitivity of Werther earned him the esteem of many. His combined intelligence and self-centeredness grant him power to manipulate both himself and others, including kind readers. Once their concern was secured for this charming and seemingly harmless young man, however, these unfortunate souls find themselves emotionally trapped. As Werther started throwing endless tantrums, they suffer emotional damage. He wants the whole corrupted world to turn upside down for him, why can’t they just do that already? Very well, he’ll hold himself hostage. And these kind people cannot just walk away from this sorry brat because, well, he is (was) so cute! His power over others lies in the very fact that he has unmistakably likable aspects.
Werther kept arguing that his passion was like a physical disease that the patient has no control over, and hence should bear no blame. This is both true and untrue. While some unlucky people are likely more prone to emotional swings, medicines are available at early stages of the “disease”, such as a healthy dose of care for anything other than oneself. Refusal of medicine is a free choice, but the disease will progress until there comes a point when medication becomes futile.
I appreciate the honesty of Goethe in describing Charlotte. For all her goodness, she really had been encouraging and enjoying an affair all along, and Albert was really too (unrealistically) generous to have tolerated that for so long. The bird scene was suggestive and disturbing: kissing a bird by the mouth and letting it kiss your admirer and then feeding the bird with your mouth? Even this modern reader balked. I think Goethe purposefully inserted Frederica and her lover Herr as a “what-if”. Werther’s sentimentality was so dangerously attractive to naïve girls that Frederica was already drawn to him, but alas! That coarse Herr, unlike gentlemanly Albert, nipped the bud with his show of impatience. The result? A vengeful Werther loudly condemned this “criminal ill-humor” with a flowery speech, to which Frederica listened admiringly in tears. How dare Herr frown at Werther for talking sweet to his girlfriend? But that was the end. Werther has no real firepower against “mean” people.
I have to admit, no human can resist the vanity of encouraging an ardent admirer, and girls in particular have the talent to find poignant excuses for themselves and “poor Werther”. The affair had remained mental but would definitely have progressed to physical if Werther had not killed himself. Werther was already successful in breaking her barrier at the end. Ironically, he would have had what he killed himself for had he held out just a little longer. But it didn’t really matter. Werther exacted juicy revenge by destroying their marriage forever. He maliciously schemed to make them miserable for life while plotting his death. Visit Charlotte for the last time and kiss her passionately for the first time so she officially becomes his lover just in time (and therefore no longer innocent)! Remind her (and hopefully Albert) again and again of this in his death note! Trick Albert for his pistols for the suicide! She handed the pistols over herself? Fabulous! Remind her of that too in his last flowery prose! Werther struck right at the heart of their conscience, and they were hurt precisely because they are “nice”. He brought them down with him, and they allowed it. This purpose filled his entire black mind so that it had become his second nature. But to the end, Werther still wrote so poetically! “Then will I fly to meet you. I will claim you, and remain your eternal embrace, in the presence of the Almighty.” Does not the Devil love disguising as an Angel? But Werther even managed to recruit God the Almighty to approve of his Great Sacrifice. After his emotional bombardment, it is understandable if soft-hearted readers start seeing his obsession as “love”. Werther is a Great Pretender indeed.
Humans had an intrinsic potential to twist any good into evil. Such is the tragic game of a morbid like Werther. Could this be helped? No. He willingly ran past that point. Is the novel brilliant? Definitely. It depicted a dangerous morbid mind so accurately, although the overwhelming voice of the sickly Werther throughout precludes the novel from being life-changing. It describes a vermin to the minute detail, but it doesn’t instruct on an alternative way of living. Is it dangerous to unstable minds? Possibly. It is the inherent nature of Werther-wannabes to misuse anything to rationalize themselves.
There are spoilers below, but I don’t think they will spoil this book, because its value lies in the way it was written.
I see this slim novel by a young Goethe as similar to “Notes from Underground” and “Catcher in the Rye”. They are purely descriptive instead of being instructive. They are an accurate in-depth study of a morbid human – intelligent, eloquent, persuasive, sensitive, “almost” charismatic, yet selfish, self-indulgent, hypocritical, venomous, arrogant, narcissistic, deeply submersed in the belief that he is superior in mind over the ordinary and hence constantly spiteful. And, by George, not an ounce of consideration for anyone! They have the maturity of an adult in analyzing the world but the immaturity of a child in behavior. They demonstrate the disaster of combining a good brain with a narrow heart. Werther despised the mindless labor of others for materialistic things, while he ponders on high affairs, such as wooing a married beauty, as he eats cake with a silver spoon. He was proud to show how he was above class by condescending to talk with peasants and children, but made it clear behind every word that he was doing the unworthy world a favor. He boasted about his pure and selfless love for Charlotte, yet it was clear that he only wanted to fulfill his obsession to possess her and had absolutely no regard for her happiness or her reputation. “It is only the impossibility of possessing me which makes your desire for me so strong” – how dare she burst his grand lie? But he will make her pay!
And he expressed his high thoughts so beautifully! The sophistication and sensitivity of Werther earned him the esteem of many. His combined intelligence and self-centeredness grant him power to manipulate both himself and others, including kind readers. Once their concern was secured for this charming and seemingly harmless young man, however, these unfortunate souls find themselves emotionally trapped. As Werther started throwing endless tantrums, they suffer emotional damage. He wants the whole corrupted world to turn upside down for him, why can’t they just do that already? Very well, he’ll hold himself hostage. And these kind people cannot just walk away from this sorry brat because, well, he is (was) so cute! His power over others lies in the very fact that he has unmistakably likable aspects.
Werther kept arguing that his passion was like a physical disease that the patient has no control over, and hence should bear no blame. This is both true and untrue. While some unlucky people are likely more prone to emotional swings, medicines are available at early stages of the “disease”, such as a healthy dose of care for anything other than oneself. Refusal of medicine is a free choice, but the disease will progress until there comes a point when medication becomes futile.
I appreciate the honesty of Goethe in describing Charlotte. For all her goodness, she really had been encouraging and enjoying an affair all along, and Albert was really too (unrealistically) generous to have tolerated that for so long. The bird scene was suggestive and disturbing: kissing a bird by the mouth and letting it kiss your admirer and then feeding the bird with your mouth? Even this modern reader balked. I think Goethe purposefully inserted Frederica and her lover Herr as a “what-if”. Werther’s sentimentality was so dangerously attractive to naïve girls that Frederica was already drawn to him, but alas! That coarse Herr, unlike gentlemanly Albert, nipped the bud with his show of impatience. The result? A vengeful Werther loudly condemned this “criminal ill-humor” with a flowery speech, to which Frederica listened admiringly in tears. How dare Herr frown at Werther for talking sweet to his girlfriend? But that was the end. Werther has no real firepower against “mean” people.
I have to admit, no human can resist the vanity of encouraging an ardent admirer, and girls in particular have the talent to find poignant excuses for themselves and “poor Werther”. The affair had remained mental but would definitely have progressed to physical if Werther had not killed himself. Werther was already successful in breaking her barrier at the end. Ironically, he would have had what he killed himself for had he held out just a little longer. But it didn’t really matter. Werther exacted juicy revenge by destroying their marriage forever. He maliciously schemed to make them miserable for life while plotting his death. Visit Charlotte for the last time and kiss her passionately for the first time so she officially becomes his lover just in time (and therefore no longer innocent)! Remind her (and hopefully Albert) again and again of this in his death note! Trick Albert for his pistols for the suicide! She handed the pistols over herself? Fabulous! Remind her of that too in his last flowery prose! Werther struck right at the heart of their conscience, and they were hurt precisely because they are “nice”. He brought them down with him, and they allowed it. This purpose filled his entire black mind so that it had become his second nature. But to the end, Werther still wrote so poetically! “Then will I fly to meet you. I will claim you, and remain your eternal embrace, in the presence of the Almighty.” Does not the Devil love disguising as an Angel? But Werther even managed to recruit God the Almighty to approve of his Great Sacrifice. After his emotional bombardment, it is understandable if soft-hearted readers start seeing his obsession as “love”. Werther is a Great Pretender indeed.
Humans had an intrinsic potential to twist any good into evil. Such is the tragic game of a morbid like Werther. Could this be helped? No. He willingly ran past that point. Is the novel brilliant? Definitely. It depicted a dangerous morbid mind so accurately, although the overwhelming voice of the sickly Werther throughout precludes the novel from being life-changing. It describes a vermin to the minute detail, but it doesn’t instruct on an alternative way of living. Is it dangerous to unstable minds? Possibly. It is the inherent nature of Werther-wannabes to misuse anything to rationalize themselves.
