Goethe's Sorrows Term Paper

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 443 words ( 1 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 0

Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as translated by Michael Hulse asks: "What did Goethe see as proper and improper moral precepts? How does one determine the difference between right and wrong?"

The titular hero of Goethe's book, Young Werther, dies a suicide. According to traditional Christian moral precepts he thus has committed an immoral act. However, although Goethe acknowledges the horror of suicide from the perspective of the dead man's friends and associates, the author also stresses the importance of living a fulfilling emotional and artistic life upon the principles of love. Such a life must be filled with an appreciation and apprehension of the sublime to be truly lived.

Stuck Writing Your "Goethe's Sorrows" Term Paper?

View All Our Example Goethe's Sorrows Term Paper

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

Thus, much as young Werther feels for his beloved, whom he cannot marry the girl, and so he kills himself. Goethe makes the radical suggestion through not only the melodramatic plot of his work named after his hero, but also of the reasons the hero gives for killing himself, that the individual's own heart, rather than preexisting collective moral structures, institutions, and judgments must guide morality, The individual's proper and internal sense of right and wrong holds sway and create precepts for today, rather than obey the moral precepts of yesteryear.

The individual determines the difference between right and wrong based not upon logic, nor preexisting norms….....

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Goethe's Sorrows" (2004, April 16) Retrieved July 4, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/goethe-sorrows-167711

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Goethe's Sorrows" 16 April 2004. Web.4 July. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/goethe-sorrows-167711>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Goethe's Sorrows", 16 April 2004, Accessed.4 July. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/goethe-sorrows-167711
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example