WERTHER MANIA
by Alix Roberts
The world-wide response to Werther can only be described as sensational. Perhaps
because Werther
's acknowledged status as quasi-autobiographical or "confessional" literature, the
earliest readers of the novel seemed to be preoccupied with its veracity, as Goethe
himself noted years later in his autobiography: "Instead of saying something nice
about the book just as it was, all of them wanted to know how much of it was true! This
made me very angry an d my reply was invariably extremely rude...On second thought,
I couldn't really blame these people. Jerusalem's fate had created a sensation."
Memorial processions and ceremonies took place all over Europe; earnest readers pilgrimaged
to Wetzlar in search of Werther's grave. These contemporary readers seemed unwilling
or unable to separate fact from fiction, and this situation was dramatized by the
rumors of Liebstod, or love-suicide, that swept across Europe. Although only a few real
cases of suicide were circumstantially linked to Werther
, Goethe was sadly aware that the book was, for some readers, dangerously real: "Just
as I felt relieved and lighthearted because I had succeeded in transforming reality
into poetry, my friends were confusing themselves by believing that they had to turn
poetry into reality, enact the novel and shoot themselves!" The older Goethe had a
rather cynical view of the youthful angst that contributed to Werthermania:
"For just as only a small firing charge is needed to detonate a powerful mine, the
explosion Werther caused was so far-reaching because the young people of that era
had already undermined themselves; and the shock was so great because everyone could
now burst forth with his own exaggerated demands, unsatisfied passions, and imaginary sufferings."
All over Europe, readers displayed an insatiable appetite for all things Wertherian;
writers, artists, and merchants rushed in to fill the demand. "Novelists, playwrights,
poets, composers, choreographers, and iconographers ranging from reputable painters and illustrators to anonymous wax workers...quickly appropriated [Werther's] themes
to their peculiar talents. In addition, the cult of Werther was exploited by the
trade: eau de Werther was sold, and Charlotte and Werther, figures long as familiar
and ubiquitous as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck today, appeared on fans and gloves, on bread-boxes
and jewelry, on delicate Messen porcelain and enterprisingly commissioned china...."
(Atkins, 2) Men began to imitate Werther's dress - blue frock coat, buff leather waistcoat and breeches (ironically, Goethe noted that Jerusalem adopted this attire
in imitation of the English).
Original Werther-inspired poetry and drama has been produced in 14 languages, including
Hebrew, Czech, and Chinese (the Penguin edition of Werther provides a good sampling
of these Werther-inspired works). Yet by far, the greatest literary response to
the novel came from England. Atkins cites over 200 Werther-related poems in English,
more than in any other language - including German. Atkins, like the overwhelming
majority of critics, acknowledges the importance of these poems in their day while
quickly dismissing their literary value: "English Werther poetry was produced by writers
now almost completely forgotten, yet these mediocrities constituted 'English literature'
in their day." (16) There are perhaps two explanations for the low critical opinion
of these Werther spinoffs: they tend to emphasize the emotional aspects of the text
over the psychological, social, and moral threads that tend to interest modern critics;
and they were produced largely by unknown "hack" writers - many of them women. Thus, the critical dismissal of these poems largely mirrors the critical dismissal of
sentimentality itself.
Taken from the Ruotolo Report
located at: http://lists.village.virginia.edu/courses/enec981/ruotolo.html