The Sorrows of Young WertherGoethe, Johann Wolfgang von
General
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Germany -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Unrequited love -- Fiction; Young men -- Germany -- Fiction
"It is all over, Charlotte: I am resolved to die! I make this
declaration deliberately and coolly, without any romantic passion, on
this morning of the day when I am to see you for the last time. At the
moment you read these lines, O best of women, the cold grave will hold
the inanimate remains of that restless and unhappy being who, in the
last moments of his existence, knew no pleasure so great as that of
conversing with you! I have passed a dreadful night or rather, let me
say, a propitious one; for it has given me resolution, it has fixed my
purpose. I am resolved to die. When I tore myself from you yesterday,
my senses were in tumult and disorder; my heart was oppressed, hope and
pleasure had fled from me for ever, and a petrifying cold had seized
my wretched being. I could scarcely reach my room. I threw myself on
my knees; and Heaven, for the last time, granted me the consolation of
shedding tears. A thousand ideas, a thousand schemes, arose within my
soul; till at length one last, fixed, final thought took possession of
my heart. It was to die. I lay down to rest; and in the morning, in the
quiet hour of awakening, the same determination was upon me. To die! It
is not despair: it is conviction that I have filled up the measure of
my sufferings, that I have reached my appointed term, and must sacrifice
myself for thee. Yes, Charlotte, why should I not avow it? One of us
three must die: it shall be Werther. O beloved Charlotte! this heart,
excited by rage and fury, has often conceived the horrid idea of
murdering your husband—you—myself! The lot is cast at length. And in
the bright, quiet evenings of summer, when you sometimes wander toward
the mountains, let your thoughts then turn to me: recollect how often
you have watched me coming to meet you from the valley; then bend your
eyes upon the churchyard which contains my grave, and, by the light of
the setting sun, mark how the evening breeze waves the tall grass
which grows above my tomb. I was calm when I began this letter, but the
recollection of these scenes makes me weep like a child."
About ten in the morning, Werther called his servant, and, whilst he
was dressing, told him that in a few days he intended to set out upon
a journey, and bade him therefore lay his clothes in order, and prepare
them for packing up, call in all his accounts, fetch home the books
he had lent, and give two months' pay to the poor dependants who were
accustomed to receive from him a weekly allowance.
He breakfasted in his room, and then mounted his horse, and went to
visit the steward, who, however, was not at home. He walked pensively
in the garden, and seemed anxious to renew all the ideas that were most
painful to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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