Artistic Details Expressing Love and Death in Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”

Abstract

The article presents the semantics of certain artistic details found in the text of Johann Wolfgang Goethe's novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”. Our interest in this topic was sparked by the significance and essential role of artistic details in understanding the literary work. We focused specifically on details that express the conceptual planes of love and death, limiting our analysis to color details: blue, yellow, pink, and black.

The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the opposition between details that carry the shade of love (or life) and those associated with death. Such an analysis allows for a deeper exploration of the characters' psychological depth and, potentially, the intensity of social and familial values. Our examination of details and their poetics is conducted using both traditional literary analysis and the structural-semantic method, which does not reject traditional analysis but, by delving into the deeper layers of the fragmentary-semantic plane, uncovers new meanings. This, in turn, affirms the validity of traditional literary approaches while allowing for a fresh perspective on the subject.

In discussing the text as an artistic whole, we present the detail as a dynamic micro-element—meaning that what we study is both a detail and a moving component of the work’s dynamic structure. This detail can shift from one word sequence to another, generating what V. Vinogradov terms "incremental meaning" ("приращенный смысл"), thus offering broader possibilities for reinterpreting details, highlighting their multifunctionality, and emphasizing their leitmotif significance. The foundation of this research is based on the theory of word sequences proposed by V. Vinogradov and later developed by structuralists such as V. Toporov, B. Uspenski, and T. Tsivyan. A structural-semantic analysis of Goethe’s Werther enables us to penetrate deeper into the novel’s subtextual layers.

Our objective is to trace the movement of the studied details throughout the textual space of the novel and to determine their significance within individual fragments—specifically within the context of word sequences.

Through our analysis, we conclude that The Sorrows of Young Werther actively employs and contrasts artistic details that express love and death. A particularly intriguing aspect is that details associated with love, when placed in a new context or different word sequence, may transform into details signifying death. In some cases, both meanings may coexist simultaneously. These details are recurrent, provide a fresh perspective on situations and characters’ inner worlds, function as leitmotifs, and ultimately underscore the tragic fate of the two lovers: the details representing death triumph over those symbolizing love, which fully aligns with the novel’s overarching theme.