Idle Thoughts -- Goethe and The Sorrows of Young Werther

Goethe hated this novel. He said it haunted him in many ways and that he wished he had never written it. But, and I'm quoting from an article,

-- The Sorrows of Young Werther was Goethe's first major success, turning him from an unknown into a celebrated author practically overnight. Napoleon Bonaparte considered it one of the great works of European literature. He thought so highly of it that he wrote a soliloquy in Goethe's style in his youth and carried Werther with him on his campaigning to Egypt. It also started the phenomenon known as the Werther-Fieber ("Werther Fever") which caused young men throughout Europe to dress in the clothing style described for Werther in the novel.[5][6] It reputedly also led to some of the first known examples of copycat suicide. --

Back to my comments: The LA Times today had a report about a young man's body being found. He had committed suicide. It is believed by the authorities that he did so because of the love affair that gone wrong. So it can happen. It is much more likely with today's social media for people to commit suicide due to bullying, but certainly it is possible that in today's wired world that the idea that it's somehow cool to kill yourself if you lose out in a love affair could spread. Teenagers are notorious for doing things because they feel social pressure to do so, even if the things are self-destructive. Copycat suicides occurred even long ago when the story was written. It could happen today.

Experts have noted that teenagers often imagine when considering suicide how everyone will react. They picture themselves as floating above the action listening to everybody talk about how much they wish they'd done better by the individual who died. This is because teenagers have a really difficult time understanding the finaliality of death. Even in traditional religious belief you don't get to hang around and listen to everybody say how sorry they are that they weren't nicer to you when you were alive.