Blog # 7

Werther was a man who let his desire get the best of him and lost perception of reality in the process. The trouble first started when he showed an intense obsession with the way women acted around him and whether or not his behavior was influencing them the way it should. He also felt the need to scrutinize every event that happened, whether or not it was significant, and unnecessarily report every possible perception to his friend William. When Werther met the love of his life, Charlotte, it seemed to him that his troubles were over. However, what he perceived as a wonderful occurrence in his life was actually what escalated all of his problems. Though he was initially smitten when he met Charlotte, he soon discovered she was engaged. A person in touch with reality, especially in the 1700s, would know that breaking up an engagement is unlikely, and if a person wants to be a good gentleman of society, he should not make it his goal to be with an engaged woman. Werther, on the other hand, not only continued to love Charlotte, he actually went out of his way to visit her and become close to her family. Since Charlotte was a very nice woman, Werther was led to believe that she had feelings for him as well, and his own love for her spun out of control. Throughout his encounters with Charlotte, Werther was not thinking clearly and had convinced himself that he could attain something that he could not. His true fault was him not stopping at the start of the issue, when he learned of her engagement, and continuing to pursue and obsess about an engaged woman.

If I were to help Werther, I would have been there at the very beginning. Rationally talking about the events in his life, not in the way he perceived them, would have helped him get a true grasp on others' feelings about him. If I only had the opportunity to help him once he already was enamored by Charlotte, I would have had him evaluate the situation, and guided him through the conclusion of actual events. At the point where he was close to committing suicide, I would have advised him to take himself away from the place that reminded him of Charlotte, to look for a new job, and to find new hobbies to expand his horizons. Werther needed to realize the reality of the situation he was in, but his obsession and refusal to see any other way out of his misery was what led to his demise.