Finding One's Death
Hence in a sense our age is too tenacious of life to die, for dying is one of the most remarkable leaps
Imagine the reaction Satan gives you when you get to hell and you tell him that you killed yourself over a girl. Well, how did you get there in the first place? Understanding the consequences well, Werther was nevertheless consumed by his passions and made the final act to end his life. In his death he sought some sort of a glory—a Kleos. This raises the question of whether such a glory can come at one’s own hands. Most would likely say this is not possible. And yet, I believe that Werther achieved just this through his death. I go further and say that not only did he find glory but a noble one at that.
I am of course talking about the subject of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, A lovely book which is much more than a simp story. Werther’s circumstances perhaps resemble those of many young men. Werther is not only troubled by his love for Lotte whom he cannot have but by the decay of time, the loss of himself, and the monotony of modern existence. Confronted by these struggles Werther decides that the way to escape, what he refers to an illness of the mind, is to make the final movement and end his life.
Werther describes a kind of undoing which progresses from one obsession to consume the entirety of his existence. Werther likens this consumption of soul to a sickness of sort in an argument which took place he had offended Albert by jokingly pointing a pistol at his own head. Acknowledging that human nature has its limits, Werther tells Albert that suicide is not a matter of being weak or strong but whether one can withstand the sum of his suffering. Werther then says “And I find it strange to call a man a coward for taking his own life as it would be improper to call him cowardly for dying of a malignant fever.”
Well, what are the symptoms of this fever? This fever is chiefly a fever of the mind, “consider the person in his limitations, how impression work upon him, ideas take hold of him, until in the end some growing passion robs him of all tranquil power of thought and drives him to destruction.” Being consumed by ones passions is timeless occurrence and many philosophers have spent great amounts of time concerning themselves with overcoming passion but this is a great mistake. Being overcome by passion can lead to foolishness but it’s also the only way to truly become great.
“To this end passion is necessary. Every movement of infinity comes about by passion, and no reflection can bring a movement about.” -Kierkegaard
All great deeds were done by those who have set their rationality aside and allowed their passions to dictate their actions. Achilles was overcome by his passion for an eternal story, Abraham by his passion for faith, and Werther by his love. Their passions serve to suspend normativity, to go beyond good and evil so to say, and create a conflict of philosophy and action. Consumed by his passion for Lotter Werther slowly becomes that which he professed to disdain, namely a man who ruins a nice day.
In the first book Werther rebukes those who always complain about good days being few and bad days many, if they would only open their hearts then they would have the strength to bear their ills. When someone mentions to him that it is seldom within our power to control our spirits Werther likens a bad mood to sloth. Like a sin, a bad mood is natural to us but “if we only have the strength to pull ourselves together the task becomes easy and in being active we can find a real pleasure.” In context of Werther’s suicide this becomes a foolish and somewhat comedic statement. Werther himself begins to become the man whom he speaks so poorly about, he becomes “unhappy”. The inability to have Charlotte is the seed which causes an incompatibility of philosophy and praxis. On one hand he distains those who are uncheerful, on the other hand he is deeply unhappy. Werther figures that the only way to address this incongruence and allow Lotte to be is to end his life.
This raises the question of whether Werther through his suicide is acting out of faith or seeking resignation. It would seem that Werther does go beyond resignation, perhaps he takes the first step of faith. Because he begins to take the last step we acknowledge the meaning of his suicide. In fact, Werther story is much alike to Kierkegaard’s princess allegory; “A young swain falls In love with a princess, and the whole content of his life consists in this love, and yet the situation is such that it is impossible for it to be realized, impossible for it to be translated from ideality into reality.”
Kierkegaard suggests two ways which the swain can address the impossibility of realization. In such a situation one can be a Knight of Infinite Resignation. First the knight allows himself to be entirely consumed by his love for the princess; he then takes his love and channels it into action. When his actions come back as “messengers of sorrow” and declare to him that it is an impossibility, he makes the movements. First he concentrates the whole power of his life and reality into a single wish; he then must concentrate the result into an act of consciousness. The knight may not forget, he may not “move on” to do so would be a contradiction. “For the knight does not contradict himself, and it is a contradiction to forget the whole content of one's life and yet remain the same man. To become another man he feels no inclination, nor does he by any means regard this as greatness.” To forget would be an act of a lower life; the butterfly forgets the caterpillar.
So the knight remembers, as Werther did even when he left the town he had met Lotte in, through remembrance there is pain but by infinite resignation there is reconciliation with existence. The knights love for the princess becomes the expression of an eternal love; the knight comes to understand what we might think of as the Platonic Form of Love. The love takes up a religious form in him which is transfigured into a “love for the Eternal Being.” In this form his love is now eternally valid for his resignation has become infinite, no matter what happens, his love can no longer be taken away. In infinite resignation there is peace and rest.
There is one more way which the young swain can address the impossibility of realizing his love for the princess; to be a Knight of Faith. The Knight of Faith makes all the movements of the Knight of Infinite resignation with one additional movement. Though he renounces his love and is reconciled in paint he takes one more step, he says; “I believe nevertheless that I shall get her, in virtue, that is, of the absurd, in virtue of the fact that with God all things are possible.” Does Werther make this final movement?
Werther briefly addresses the idea of resignation; “I bite my lips, and feel infinite scorn for those who tell me to be resigned, because there is no help for it.” Initially Werther dislikes the idea of resignation only because he perceives it as a temporal resignation; he has not yet arrived to infinite resignation. Werther’s indicates that his friend Wilhem suggests to him that “Either, you say, you have some hopes of Lotte or you have none. Good. If the former, seek to carry them through, seek to accomplish your desires. If the latter, pull yourself together and seek to be rid of miserable emotion which is bound in the end to consume all your energies.” Ultimately Werther does not rid himself of miserable emotion to do so would stop the movement of infinite resignation; after all, to be consumed by your passion is the first step of the movement.
Just before Werther’s final act we witness the last movement which begins the transformation from infinite resignation to faith. The night before Werther’s suicide, overcome by emotion, he share’s an inappropriate kiss with Lotte. In this kiss Werther claims Lotte not just for the afterlife but for this life as well.
“From this moment on you are mine, Lotte, mine. I go ahead, to my Father, to your Father, I will make my complaint to Him and He will comfort me until you come and I will fly to you and have hold of you and be with you in His everlasting sight in eternal embraces.”
The final movement is made, an appeal to God, through God has he obtained the object of his passions.
Werther’s suicide has become an act of faith. Empty reassurances of “it gets better vro” and “you are loved vro” mean nothing here. Being loved is not the concern, being great is.