The Sorrows of Young Werther
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Book Club
The Sorrows of Young Werther
8 ways to start a deeper conversation.
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
Letters
How does telling the story through Werther's letters to Wilhelm shape what you feel about him?
Keep the conversation going
- What do we never hear from Wilhelm or Charlotte?
- Did you trust Werther's view of events?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
How does telling the story through Werther's letters to Wilhelm shape what you feel about him?
Keep the conversation going
- What do we never hear from Wilhelm or Charlotte?
- Did you trust Werther's view of events?
How does Werther's feeling for nature change from the first letters to the last?
Keep the conversation going
- What does the change in seasons mirror?
- Why does he find so much in Homer, and later in Ossian?
What does Werther see in Charlotte, and what does she see in him?
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of their first meeting, as she cut bread for her siblings?
- Does she love him?
Is Albert a rival, a friend, or both?
Keep the conversation going
- How fair is the novel to him?
- What does their argument about suicide reveal?
Is Werther's intensity of feeling a gift or an illness?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does he fail at his post with the ambassador?
- What does the humiliation at the count's reception do to him?
What do the stories of the young servant and the madman who loved Charlotte add?
Keep the conversation going
- How do they mirror Werther?
- Does he see the warning in them?
Why is the reading of Ossian the turning point between Werther and Charlotte?
Keep the conversation going
- What happens between them that evening?
- Could either of them have stopped what followed?
How did you respond to Werther's death and to the editor's account of his last days?
Keep the conversation going
- What does it mean that the pistols are Albert's, handed over by Charlotte?
- Does the novel romanticise his death, or warn against it?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.