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Individuals and Society
Romanticism was not only a literary movement that emphasized tragedy but it was the one that praised the misfits and gave them the cult status that we may associate with people like Marilyn Mason today. In those days, being a social misfit was in vogue or so it appeared from some very well-known novels including the Sorrows of Young Werther, Frankenstein and Black Elk Speaks. All these books explore the intricate connection of individual with the society and depict the 'outcast-ness' of the central Romantic characters. While not all the leading characters of this era exhibited negativity that surrounded Frankenstein still most of them displayed abhorrence for the normal social order which resulted in their expulsion from the mainstream social circles. In this connection, Werther, the central character from The Sorrows of Young Werther serves as an adequate example of a classic Romantic misfit. He was madly even obsessively in love with a woman he couldn't possibly have a long-term relationship with and instead of understanding the madness that drove him to extremes, he would consider himself a victim of tragic circumstances and present himself as an epitome of misery. That was the essence of Romantic age i.e. Exaltation of passion and denouncement of reason.
Werther's character was created at the height of Romantic Movement and even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was slightly embarrassed of having created a character that was so insensibly passionate. But it was nevertheless a massive success with the public. Readers were completely enthralled by a character that appeared to despise the social order and that was ultimately abandoned by the society for being too passionate, sentimental and immensely emotional. The restless spirit finally had a hero in Werther and this led to the popularity and acceptance...
The relationship was the individual with the society was so clearly and intensity depicted that this character resulted in the birth of "Wertherism" throughout Europe.
Werther was not shunned by the society the way Frankenstein was. He was however ignored for his passion ran a little too deep for an ordinary person to fathom or accept. Young men around the globe could relate to Werther and his passion. The society at large however disapproved of Werther's sentimentalism and his refusal to see his fault in the entire tragic story. Werther felt he was misunderstood, and failed to see the reasons why society might have found it difficult to understand him. "It is the fate of a man like myself to be misunderstood" (10).
Disobedience and an intense desire to be completely free in expression were what drove many Romantic characters to their alienation from the society. In a letter on the Eve of Christmas in 1771, Werther expresses his extreme preoccupation with himself. He was so consumed by his own emotions and passions that it was impossible to look beyond himself and embrace the society. He wrote that he wanted to go his own way if only people would let him do that. It was his way of establishing his identity- a unique self which was though rejected by the society. (Wellbery, 1986) Romantics were misfits not only because they were preoccupied with themselves but only because they longed to understand everyone regardless of his or her social behavior. This is how they sent out a signal to the world that they wanted to be understood too in the same manner as they had chosen to understand others. In another letter, Werther exclaims: "O you rational people. You stand there so complacently, without any real sympathy, you moralists, condemning the drunkard, detesting the madman, passing by like the Levite, and thanking God that you are not made as one of these.... Shame on you sober ones! Shame on you sages!" (58)
Rationality and reason were not something Romantics wanted to be associated with- another reason why they found no place for themselves in the society. Werther for example felt that rationality was "a dreamlike kind of resignation in which we paint our prison walls with gaily colored figures and luminous prospects." Which he felt "leaves me speechless" and "I withdraw into my inner self and there discover a world" which he confessed…
References
1) Aldiss Brian. Frankenstein Unbound. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Crest, 1973.
2) Wellbery Caroline. "From Mirrors to Images: The Transformation of Sentimental Paradigms in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther." Studies in Romanticism (Summer 1986): 231-49.
3) Shelley Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. London: 1818. [University of Chicago Press, 1982]
4) Neihardt, John Black Elk Speaks. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1961
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