In Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, the main character asks in his opening letter, “what is man
that he is allowed to complain about himself?” Indeed, it seems that humans are the only earthly
creatures capable of creating their own unhappiness. Unfortunately, this means that they have the
capacity for producing a good deal of unhappiness in others as well. Werther seems to recognize this
from the very beginning yet at the same time seems powerless to do anything about it. In that light, how do
you interpret the inevitable end to which he is moving, in which Werther sets up a seemingly unavoidable
complicity between Lotte and Albert with his final act. How does the central theme of suicide so carefully
woven into the novel finally culminate in this dreadful way? What conclusion do you think Goethe wants
the reader to come away with?