Language: Novel and Wolfgang Von Goethe
"Power of Language or Lack of" Language is a persons capacity to express their passions hopes, dreams, fears, and thoughts. Authors across different generations have tried to bring to their respective audiences that language is one of the most important aspects of life, without it humans cannot understand and coexist with eachother. Yet no other two novels has shown the opposite of that more emphatically than The Sufferings of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Goethe and Flaubert explores the notion that language is an imperfect communication medium and lacks the ability to help one fully express themselves whole heartedly and truthfully. The characters ideas and emotions are reflected in the authors writing style. Goethes novel is true to romanticism. In Sufferings of Young Werther, the protagonist, Werther, writes intimate accounts of the German country side to his friend. One of the letter reads "It makes me angry that Albert does not seem delighted as he - hoped - as I - thought to be, if - I am not fond of dashes, but it is the only way of expressing myself here - and I think I make myself sufficiently clear" (Goethe 104). oethe brillianlty uses these dashes to show the unstable psyche of Werther. Where prior to this passage Werther has an uncanny ability to explain the lush enviornment of the countryside. As the novel progresses the dashes are excessivelly used and he is deeper into depression. Werther continues to find the right words necessary to express his passion but he loses connnection to with others. Even as truth is spoken, the intent of the message can be misconstrued. Lotte, the heroine in Sufferings of Young Werther, attempts to reject Werther "Do you not sense that you are deceiving yourself and willing your own destruction. Why me of all people...I belong to another." but he believes her husband is forcing her to save it "How very wise! I suppose that was one of Alberts
Cited: Auerbach, Erich. "On the Serious Imitation of the Everyday." Madame Bovary. Ed. Margaret Cohen. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ,2005. 432. Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Ed. Margaret Cohen. 2nd ed. Trans. Eleanor Marx Aveling and Paul de Man. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 2005. Goethe, Johann Wolgang von. The Suffferings of Young Werther. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 2012