The sufferings of a young Werther author. The Sorrows of Young Werther

Suffering young Werther. Romance (1774)

The action of the novel in letters, namely this genre, characteristic of literature of the 18th century, is chosen by Goethe for his work, takes place in one of the small German towns at the end of the 18th century. The novel consists of two parts, these are letters from Werther himself and additions to them under the title “From Publisher to Reader.” Werther's letters are addressed to his friend Wilhelm, in them the author strives not so much to describe life events, but to convey his feelings inspired by his acquaintance with the world around him.

Lotta, as the girl’s close friends call her, is the eldest daughter of the princely amtman; there are nine children in their family. Their mother died, and Charlotte, despite her youth, managed to replace her with her brothers and sisters. She is not only visually attractive, but also has independent judgment. Already on the first day of meeting Werther and Lotte, a similarity of tastes is revealed, they easily understand each other.

From that time on, the young man spends most of his time every day in the Amtsman's house, which is an hour's walk from the city. Together with Lotte, he visits a sick pastor and goes to look after a sick lady in the city. Every minute spent near her gives Werther pleasure. But the young man’s love is doomed to suffering from the very beginning, because Lotte has a fiancé, Albert, who has gone to get a solid position.

Albert arrives, and although he treats Werther kindly and delicately hides the manifestations of his feelings for Lotte, the young man in love is jealous of her for him. Albert is reserved, reasonable, he considers Werther an extraordinary person and forgives him for his restless disposition. For Werther, the presence of a third person during meetings with Charlotte is difficult; he falls either into unbridled joy or into gloomy moods.

One day, in order to get a little distraction, Werther is going on horseback to the mountains and asks Albert to lend him pistols for the road. Albert agrees, but warns that they are not loaded.

Werther takes one pistol and puts it to his forehead. This harmless joke turns into a serious argument between young people about a person, his passions and reason. Werther tells a story about a girl who was abandoned by her lover and threw herself into the river, because without him life for her had lost all meaning.

Albert considers this act “stupid”; he condemns a person who, carried away by passions, loses the ability to reason. Werther, on the contrary, is disgusted by excessive rationality.

For his birthday, Werther receives a package from Albert as a gift: it contains a bow from Lotte’s dress, in which he saw her for the first time. The young man suffers, he understands that he needs to get down to business and leave, but he keeps putting off the moment of separation. On the eve of his departure, he comes to Lotte. They go to their favorite gazebo in the garden. Werther says nothing about the upcoming separation, but the girl, as if sensing it, starts talking about death and what will happen after it. She remembers her mother, the last minutes before parting with her. Excited by her story, Werther nevertheless finds the strength to leave Lotte.

The young man leaves for another city, he becomes an official under the envoy. The envoy is picky, pedantic and stupid, but Werther made friends with Count von K. and tries to brighten up his loneliness in conversations with him. In this town, as it turns out, class prejudices are very strong, and the young man is constantly pointed out about his origin.

Werther meets the girl B., who vaguely reminds him of the incomparable Charlotte. He often talks with her about his former life, including telling her about Lotte.

The surrounding society annoys Werther, and his relationship with the envoy is getting worse. The matter ends with the envoy complaining about him to the minister, who, being a delicate person, writes a letter to the young man in which he reprimands him for being excessively touchy and tries to direct his extravagant ideas along the path where they will find the right application.

Werther temporarily comes to terms with his position, but then a “trouble” occurs that forces him to leave the service and the city. He was visiting Count von K., stayed too long, and at that time guests began to arrive. In this town, it was not customary for a low-class person to appear in noble society. Werther did not immediately realize what was happening, and besides, when he saw a girl he knew, B., he started talking to her. Only when everyone began to look sideways at him, and his interlocutor could hardly carry on a conversation, did the count, calling the young man aside, delicately asked him to leave. The young man quickly left. The next day, gossip spread throughout the city that Count von K. had kicked Werther out of his house. Not wanting to wait until he is asked to leave the service, the young man submits his resignation and leaves.

First, Werther goes to his native place and indulges in sweet childhood memories, then he accepts the prince’s invitations and goes to his domain, but here he feels out of place. Finally, unable to bear the separation any longer, he returns to the city where Charlotte lives. During this time she became Albert's wife. Young people are happy.

The appearance of Werther brings discord into their family life.

One day, while walking around the outskirts of the town, Werther meets the crazy Heinrich, who is collecting a bouquet of flowers for his beloved. Later he learns that Heinrich was a scribe for Lotte’s father, fell in love with a girl, and love drove him crazy. Werther feels that the image of Lotte is haunting him and he does not have the strength to put an end to his suffering. On this letter young man break off, and we learn about his further fate from the publisher.

Love for Lotte makes Werther unbearable for those around him. On the other hand, the decision to leave the world gradually becomes stronger in the young man’s soul, because he is unable to simply leave his beloved. One day he finds Lotte sorting through gifts for her family on the eve of Christmas. She turns to him with a request to come to them next time no earlier than Christmas Eve. For Werther, this means that he is deprived of the last joy in life.

Returning home, Werther puts his affairs in order, writes Farewell letter his beloved, sends a servant with a note to Albert for pistols. At exactly midnight, a shot is heard in Werther's room. In the morning, the servant finds a young man, still breathing, on the floor, the doctor comes, but it is too late. Albert and Lotte are having a hard time with Werther's death. They bury him not far from the city, in the place that he chose for himself.

Werther is the hero of Goethe's novel, which became the first work of new German literature that immediately gained European resonance. V.'s personality is extremely contradictory, his consciousness is split; he is in constant discord both with those around him and with himself. V., like the young Goethe himself and his friends, represent that generation of rebellious youth of all ranks, huge creative possibilities and whose life demands determined their irreconcilable conflict with the inert social order. V.'s fate is a kind of hyperbole: all the contradictions in it are sharpened to the last degree, and this leads him to death. V. is presented in the novel as a person of extraordinary talent. He is a good draftsman, poet, endowed with a subtle and diverse sense of nature. The very first pages of the novel are imbued with a feeling of joyful, pantheistic in spirit, merging V. with the elements of nature. But precisely because V. is a fully “natural man” (as the enlighteners thought of him), he makes severe, sometimes exorbitant demands on his environment and society. V., with ever-increasing disgust, sees around him a “struggle of petty ambitions” and experiences “boredom in the company of vile people swarming around.” He is disgusted by class barriers, at every step he sees how aristocracy degenerates into empty arrogance.

V. feels best in company ordinary people and children. He is endowed with great knowledge, at one time he tries to make a career (serves for a certain envoy), he is patronized by the enlightened Count K. But the envoy turns out to be a petty, picky pedant, Count K. (to please his noble guests, who do not tolerate the presence of commoners) offends V.V. ... breaks up with them, and his circle of friends and acquaintances becomes increasingly thin. Gradually all human life begins to seem to him like some kind of well-known cycle.

Love appears to be the only joy for V. because it does not lend itself mechanically established order. Love for V. is the triumph of living life, living nature over dead conventions (it is no coincidence that Lotta, like V., is a “child of nature”; conventions and pretense are alien to her). At the same time, Lotte’s entire behavior is marked by duality and hesitation: feeling V.’s charm and the power of his love, she cannot break with Albert, her fiancé; the same dual game continues after Lotte’s marriage. Minutes of emotional, spontaneous attraction to each other alternate with painful separations. Little by little, V. comes to the firm conviction that he is not given the opportunity to fulfill his life’s calling, that he is rejected by everyone, and this pushes him to a fatal decision.

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Small German town of the 18th century. The basis of Goethe's novel is Werther's letters to his friend Wilhelm and additions to the letters “From Publisher to Reader.” The letters describe the events of the life of Werther, a young, intelligent, poor man who is interested in art.
Having settled in this town, he draws, reads poetry, and meets people. Having met Charlotte S. at a country ball, he falls in love. The eldest daughter of the princely amtman, Lotta, grew up without a mother and was engaged in raising her eight brothers and sisters, attractive appearance and extraordinary mind. Werther spends a lot of time with Lotte: together they go to the sick pastor and look after the sick lady. But the girl was engaged to the young man Albert, who was absent at that moment, and Werther was doomed to suffer.
Albert returns, and the young man in love is forced to meet Lotte in his presence. Despite the fact that Albert tried not to openly show feelings for his bride, Werther behaved unreasonably and was constantly jealous.
Once, getting ready to go for a ride on horseback, Werther asked Albert for pistols. Albert gives unloaded pistols, and the young man puts one to his forehead. The young men argued over Werther's antics. Werther's story about a girl who threw herself into the river because of the betrayal of her lover seemed “stupid” to Albert. He believed that reason should always prevail over feelings.
Having received a bow from his beloved’s dress for his birthday from Albert, the young man decides to leave to end his suffering. Before leaving, he meets a girl who has a presentiment of separation and begins to talk about death, about her late mother, but still, suffering, the young man leaves her.
In another city, Werther works as an official for an envoy who constantly finds fault with him. The young man meets Count von K. E and communicates with him from time to time. But his low-class origin does not allow him to live.
Werther was introduced to the girl B., who reminds him of his Lotte, but his relations with the people around him are deteriorating, the envoy writes a complaint against him. And during his next visit to Count K., the young man got carried away in conversation with the girl B., which was not allowed for a person of his class. Having come to his senses, he leaves the count’s house, and then the town.
His home distracted poor Werther for a while, but having endured the separation, he goes to Charlotte, who is happily married to Albert. Lotte feels sorry for the young man and this brings discord into her family.
Werther understands that his suffering will not end; he meets Heinrich, who is in love with Lotte, Lotte’s father’s scribe, who went crazy with love and collected flowers for her.
And already from the author we learn that the young man is haunted by thoughts of suicide. Arriving on the eve of Christmas to Lotte and hearing a request not to come to her anymore due to the fact that he no longer controlled himself and approached the girl, Werther decided to commit suicide.
At home at midnight, he shot himself with Albert's pistol, leaving a farewell letter. Lotta and Albert buried him where he himself indicated in the letter.

Please note that this is only a summary literary work"The Sorrows of Young Werther." Many things are missing from this summary. important points and quotes.

The novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (a brief summary is presented below) is the most famous, after “Faust,” work of the 18th century by J. V. Goethe. It is about this dramatic narrative, based on real events, we'll talk about it in this article.

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The novel was written in 1774. The work is based on a story that Goethe himself witnessed. In 1772, the writer was in Wetzlar, a small town. Here, in the office of the imperial court, he practiced law. Fate brought him together with a certain Kästner, who served as secretary of the Hanoverian embassy. Goethe spent several months in the city and left at the end of the summer. After some time, the writer received a letter from his friend. Kästner reported that their mutual friend Jerusalem, a young official, had committed suicide. The reason for this was feelings of hopelessness and humiliation, as well as dissatisfaction with their position in society.

Goethe decided that this incident could be presented as a tragedy for his contemporary generation. It was then that the writer had the idea of writing a novel.

Genre originality and structure

He turned to the then popular genre of the novel in verse by Goethe. “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (a brief summary will confirm this) is a sentimental novel. And such works very often had one structure - they were made up of numerous letters written by the main characters. Our work was no exception.

The novel consists of two parts, each of which, in turn, is composed of letters from Werther himself and the publisher publishing the novel, whose messages are addressed to the reader. The protagonist's letters are addressed to his faithful friend Wilhelm. Werther describes in them not only the events occurring in his life, but also his experiences and feelings.

“The Sorrows of Young Werther”: summary

The main character is a young man named Werther, he is inclined towards poetry and painting. A young man settles in a small town, wanting to be alone. Here he communicates with ordinary people, enjoys nature, draws and reads Homer.

Werther is invited to a youth country ball, where he meets a certain Charlotte S., with whom he immediately falls in love. Relatives call the girl Lotta, she is the eldest daughter of the amtman (district commander) of the principality. The mother in their family died early, so Charlotte replaced her for her younger brothers and sisters. The girl turned out to be not only beautiful, but also smart.

Love

It was from this moment that the most terrible suffering of young Werther began. Summary talks about the birth of his love. young man everything free time spends at Lotte's house, which is located outside the city. He and his beloved go to visit a sick pastor and take care of a sick lady. Werther enjoys these visits because he can be with Lotte.

However, the young man's love is doomed to suffer due to the fact that Charlotte already has a fiancé - Albert, who has left to get a high position.

Return of Albert

The novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” was written within the framework of the sentimental direction, a brief summary of which we are considering, therefore the hero of the work is very emotional, he is not able to restrain his feelings and impulses, he is disgusted with rationality in his actions. That is why Werther is overcome by an unbearable feeling of jealousy when Albert returns. The young man shows his restless disposition: he either falls into unbridled gaiety, or becomes gloomier than a cloud. Albert is friendly towards Werther and tries not to attach importance to such differences.

Birthday

We continue to describe the summary of “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” Werther's birthday is coming. Albert gives him a mysterious package. There is a bow from Charlotte's dress, in which the young man saw her for the first time. Werther suffers and comes to the conclusion that it is better for him to leave, but the moment of departure is constantly postponed.

The young man does not tell anyone about his decision. On the eve of his departure, he goes to see Charlotte. The girl begins to talk about death, remembers her mother and those moments when they saw each other in last time. Werther is excited by the girl’s story, but still remains firm in his intention to leave.

In a new place

Serious changes are taking place for the main character of the novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (Goethe Johann is the author of the work). He leaves for another city. Here he enters the service of an envoy who is distinguished by his pedantry, pickiness and stupidity. Werther's only friend in the new place is Count von K., who brightens up the young man's loneliness. It turns out that in this city there are very strong prejudices associated with a person’s class. Therefore, Werther now and then hears unpleasant statements about his origin.

The young man meets the girl B., who is somewhat similar to Charlotte. Werther often talks with this girl about his past life, even talks about Lotte. Society constantly annoys the young man, and his relationship with the messenger deteriorates. As a result, the boss writes a complaint against Werther to the minister. In response, he sends the young man a letter, asking him to be less touchy, to leave extravagant ideals and direct his energy in the right direction.

Return

The novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (Goethe) continues. And the summary tells why the main character had to leave his new place of residence, despite the fact that he managed to come to terms with his situation.

Werther was visiting his friend Count von K. and accidentally stayed too long. At this time, guests began to gather to the count. According to city etiquette, among the noble society there should not be a person of low origin. Werther completely forgot about this rule and stayed with the count. In addition, he noticed B., with whom he immediately spoke. However, gradually the young man realized that the audience was casting sidelong glances at him, and his interlocutor had to make more and more efforts to maintain a conversation. Realizing this, Werther quickly leaves.

However, the next day the city was flooded with rumors that Werther had been expelled by Count von K. The young man, realizing that this story would end with his dismissal from service, decided to resign himself and then leave.

First of all, Werther goes to where he spent his childhood. Here it is given sweet memories. At this time, an invitation comes from the prince, and our hero goes to his domain, from where he soon leaves, no longer able to bear the separation from his beloved.

Charlotte lives in the city. During the time that Werther was away, she managed to marry Albert. Now she is happily married. However, the arrival of an old friend causes discord in the family. Lotte sees Werther's love and sympathizes with him, but it is difficult for her to watch his suffering. The young man himself is constantly in dreams; he would long to fall asleep forever, so as not to leave the world of dreams and not return to painful reality.

Lotta

Creates images of very vulnerable and impressionable people Goethe I.V. (“The Sorrows of Young Werther”) - summary Henry's story confirms this. One day, Werther meets a local madman, Heinrich, in the outskirts of the city, who collects poems for his beloved. It soon turns out that this is none other than the former scribe of Charlotte's father, who fell in love with the girl and went crazy from unrequited passion.

Werther begins to realize that the image of Charlotte is haunting and tormenting him. With this confession, Werther’s own letters end. The publisher now continues to describe the events.

The young man becomes unbearable to those around him because of his passion. Gradually, the young man becomes stronger in the idea that his only salvation is to leave this world. On the eve of Christmas, Lotte asks her friend to come to them no earlier than Christmas Eve. However, Werther appears the very next day. The girl accepts it, they read it together. At some point, the young man loses control of himself and approaches Charlotte, who immediately asks him to leave their house.

Denouement

The novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” is coming to an end. A chapter-by-chapter summary describes the final episode of the work. Werther returns home, writes a letter to Lotte and sends a servant to Albert for pistols. At midnight, a shot is heard in the young man's room. The next morning, the servant discovers Werther still alive and calls the doctor, but it is too late. Albert and Charlotte had a hard time hearing about their friend's death. They bury him outside the city in the place where Werther wanted to be buried.

The sentimental novel in epistolary form was written in 1774. The work became the second literary success of the great German writer. Goethe's first success came after the drama "Götz von Berlichingen". The first edition of the novel instantly becomes a bestseller. A revised edition was published in the late 1780s.

To some extent, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” can be called an autobiographical novel: the writer spoke about his love for Charlotte Buff, whom he met in 1772. However, Werther’s beloved was not based on Charlotte Buff, but on Maximilian von Laroche, one of the writer’s acquaintances. The tragic ending of the novel was inspired by Goethe's death of his friend, who was in love with married woman.

In psychology, the Werther syndrome or effect is usually called a wave of suicides committed for imitative purposes. A suicide described in popular literature, cinema, or widely covered in the media can provoke a wave of suicides. mass media. This phenomenon was first recorded after the publication of Goethe’s novel. The book was read in many European countries, after which some young people, imitating the hero of the novel, committed suicide. In many countries, authorities were forced to ban the distribution of the book.

The term “Werther effect” appeared only in the mid-1970s thanks to the American sociologist David Philipps, who studied the phenomenon. As in Goethe's novel, those most susceptible to the effect are those who were in the same age group with the one whose “feat” was chosen to be emulated, that is, if the first suicide was an elderly person, his “followers” will also be elderly people. The method of suicide will also be copied in most cases.

A young man named Werther, who comes from a poor family, wants to be alone and moves to a small town. Werther has a penchant for poetry and painting. He enjoys reading Homer, talking to the people of the city, and drawing. Once at a youth ball, Werther met Charlotte (Lotta) S., the daughter of a princely leader. Lotta, being the eldest, replaced her brothers and sisters deceased mother. The girl had to grow up too early. That is why she is distinguished not only by her attractiveness, but also by her independence of judgment. Werther falls in love with Lotte on the very first day of their acquaintance. In young people similar tastes and characters. From now on, Werther tries to spend every free minute with an unusual girl.

Unfortunately, the love of a sentimental young man is doomed to numerous sufferings. Charlotte already has a fiancé, Albert, who left the city for a short time to get a job. Returning, Albert learns that he has a rival. However, Lotte's fiancé turns out to be more reasonable than her suitor. He is not jealous of his bride for his new admirer, finding it quite natural that it is simply impossible not to fall in love with such a beautiful and intelligent girl as Charlotte. Werther begins to have attacks of jealousy and despair. Albert tries in every possible way to calm his opponent, reminding him that every action of a person must be reasonable, even if madness is dictated by passion.

On his birthday, Werther receives a gift from Lotte's fiancé. Albert sent him a bow from his bride's dress, in which Werther first saw her. The young man takes this as a hint that it is high time for him to leave the girl alone, and then goes to say goodbye to her. Werther again moves to another city, where he gets a job as an official under the envoy. The main character does not like life in a new place. Class prejudices are too strong in this city.

Seal of bad luck
Werther is constantly reminded of his ignoble origins, and his boss turns out to be overly picky. However, soon the young man makes new friends - Count von K. and the girl B., who is very similar to Charlotte. Werther talks a lot with his new friend, tells her about his love for Lotte. But soon the young man had to leave this city too.

Werther goes to his homeland, believing that it will be there that he will feel better. Not finding peace here either, he goes to the city where his beloved lives. Lotte and Albert had already gotten married by that time. Family happiness ends after Werther returns. The couple begins to quarrel. Charlotte sympathizes with the young man, but cannot help him. Werther increasingly begins to think about death. He does not want to live away from Lotte and at the same time cannot be near her. In the end, Werther writes a farewell letter and then takes his own life by shooting himself in his room. Charlotte and Albert are grieving their loss.

Characteristics

The main character of the novel is independent enough to receive a decent education, despite his low origin. He finds it very easily mutual language with people and place in society. However, the young man definitely lacks common sense. Moreover, in one of his conversations with Albert, Werther argues that an excess of common sense is not needed at all.

All of my life main character, being a dreamer and romantic, was in search of an ideal, which he found in Lotte. As it turns out, the ideal already belongs to someone. Werther does not want to put up with this. He chooses to die. Although she had many rare virtues, Charlotte was not perfect. It was made ideal by Werther himself, who needed the existence of a supernatural being.

Incomparable Charlotte

It is no coincidence that the author notes that Werther and Lotte are similar in their tastes and characters. However, there is one fundamental difference. Unlike Werther, Charlotte is less impulsive and more restrained. The girl's mind dominates her feelings. Lotte is engaged to Albert, and no passion can make the bride forget her promise to the groom.

Charlotte took on the role of mother of the family early, despite the fact that she did not yet have her own children. Responsibility for someone else's life made the girl more mature. Lotta knows in advance that she will have to answer for every action. She perceives Werther, rather, as a child, one of her brothers. Even if Charlotte had not had Albert in her life, she would hardly have accepted the advances of her ardent admirer. In her future life partner, Lotte is looking for stability, not boundless passion.

The ideal Charlotte has found for herself an equally ideal spouse: both belong to the upper strata of society, and both are distinguished by their composure and restraint. Albert's prudence does not allow him to fall into despair when meeting a potential opponent. He probably doesn't consider Werther a competitor. Albert is confident that his smart and prudent bride, like himself, will never exchange her groom for a crazy man who can so easily fall in love and do crazy things.

Despite everything, Albert is no stranger to sympathy and pity. He does not try to rudely remove Werther from his bride, hoping that the unfortunate rival, sooner or later, will come to his senses. The bow sent to Werther for his birthday becomes a hint that it is time to stop dreaming and take life as it is.

Composition of the novel

Goethe chose one of the most popular literary genres of the 18th century. The work was divided into 2 parts: letters from the main character (the main part) and additions to these letters, entitled “From the publisher to the reader” (thanks to the additions, readers become aware of Werther’s death). In the letters, the main character addresses his friend Wilhelm. The young man strives to talk not about the events of his life, but about the feelings associated with them.

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Werther, a young man from a poor family, educated, inclined towards painting and poetry, settles in a small town to be alone. He enjoys nature, communicates with ordinary people, reads his beloved Homer, and draws. At a country youth ball, he meets Charlotte S. and falls madly in love with her. Lotta, as the girl’s close friends call her, is the eldest daughter of the princely amtsman; there are nine children in their family. Their mother died, and Charlotte, despite her youth, managed to replace her with her brothers and sisters. She is not only visually attractive, but also has independent judgment. Already on the first day of meeting Werther and Lotte, a similarity of tastes is revealed, they easily understand each other.

One day, in order to get a little distraction, Werther is going on horseback to the mountains and asks Albert to lend him pistols for the road. Albert agrees, but warns that they are not loaded. Werther takes one pistol and puts it to his forehead. This harmless joke turns into a serious argument between young people about a person, his passions and reason. Werther tells a story about a girl who was abandoned by her lover and threw herself into the river, because without him life for her had lost all meaning. Albert considers this act “stupid”; he condemns a person who, carried away by passions, loses the ability to reason. Werther, on the contrary, is disgusted by excessive rationality.

Werther meets the girl B., who vaguely reminds him of the incomparable Charlotte. He often talks with her about his former life, including telling her about Lotte. The surrounding society annoys Werther, and his relationship with the envoy is getting worse. The matter ends with the envoy complaining about him to the minister, who, being a delicate person, writes a letter to the young man in which he reprimands him for being excessively touchy and tries to direct his extravagant ideas along the path where they will find the right application.

One day, while walking around the outskirts of the town, Werther meets the crazy Heinrich, who is collecting a bouquet of flowers for his beloved. Later he learns that Heinrich was a scribe for Lotte’s father, fell in love with a girl, and love drove him crazy. Werther feels that the image of Lotte is haunting him and he does not have the strength to put an end to his suffering. At this point, the young man’s letters end, and we learn about his future fate from the publisher.

Returning home, Werther puts his affairs in order, writes a farewell letter to his beloved, and sends a servant with a note to Albert for pistols. At exactly midnight, a shot is heard in Werther's room. In the morning, the servant finds a young man, still breathing, on the floor, the doctor comes, but it is too late. Albert and Lotte are having a hard time with Werther's death. They bury him not far from the city, in the place that he chose for himself.

The very first pages of the novel are imbued with a feeling of joyful, pantheistic in spirit, merging V. with the elements of nature. But precisely because V. is a fully “natural man” (as the enlighteners thought of him), he makes severe, sometimes exorbitant demands on his environment and society. V., with ever-increasing disgust, sees around him a “struggle of petty ambitions” and experiences “boredom in the company of vile people swarming around.”

He is disgusted by class barriers, at every step he sees how aristocracy degenerates into empty arrogance. V. feels best in the company of ordinary people and children. He is endowed with great knowledge, at one time he tries to make a career (serves for a certain envoy), he is patronized by the enlightened Count K. But the envoy turns out to be a petty, picky pedant, Count K. (to please his noble guests, who do not tolerate the presence of commoners) offends V.V. ... breaks up with them, and his circle of friends and acquaintances becomes increasingly thin. Gradually, all human life begins to seem to him like a certain pre-known cycle.

Love appears to be the only joy for V. because it does not lend itself to a mechanically established order. Love for V. is the triumph of living life, living nature over dead conventions (it is no coincidence that Lotta, like V., is a “child of nature”; conventions and pretense are alien to her). At the same time, Lotte’s entire behavior is marked by duality and hesitation: feeling V.’s charm and the power of his love, she cannot break with Albert, her fiancé; the same dual game continues after Lotte’s marriage. Minutes of emotional, spontaneous attraction to each other alternate with painful separations. Little by little, V. comes to the firm conviction that he is not given the opportunity to fulfill his life’s calling, that he is rejected by everyone, and this pushes him to a fatal decision.