Goethe's Flame
Some people have a lot of passion in their lives. Some people have very little. We are all along this spectrum for various reasons. Because I firmly believe that the extremes always teach us about the general, I find Werther a powerful book.
Werther is what happens when you take too much of that flame Prometheus gave us and put it into one body. I do not think Werther is simply explained away as overly-dramatic. I think he is much more complex than that. In fact, I think that referring to him as a drama queen is really just a way for us to alleviate our anxiety at recognizing something familiar in Werther.
We may not act like Werther all the time, but if you've ever been in love or in, what I commonly refer to most people's love as, infatuation, you'll understand Werther's behaviour.
Werther is a person born of the purest and fiercest passion. He is that bright reminder that we are capable of living, that life is worth experiencing. Even the pain is worth it. It is better to feel pain than nothing at all. Werther misses this point but you can hardly blame him. The warning is ours, not his.
Werther's passion clashes with the mundane, the vulgar, the everyday grayness that existence has become. Werther lives the only way a heavily passionate person can live: fast. He has one speed and that is on. Werther is a comet burning bright against the sky, burning up in its momentum. Werther ought to make us jealous. He ought to wake us from our dogmatic slumber.
But it is easier to call him a drama queen. You know which side of the fence I'm on for future discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment