The book "The Troubles of Young Werther" in my hand reminds me of a message that has been circulating in the publishing circle recently. To the effect that some parents complained to "12345" because of the content of "Aesop's Fables" that "the crab strangled his bad snake friend", "asking the publisher to delete this article and recover all published books", so as not to leave a great psychological shadow on their children.
I suddenly didn't know how to talk about The Troubles of Young Werther.
This is not a new story. It is a tragic story written by Goethe about a teenager and his love, whether it is interpreted or analyzed, "The Troubles of Young Werther" has had no less than a thousand "Hamlets" since its publication, but today, what attitude should we take to understand this story?
Strictly speaking, according to the current common standard of trial, "The Troubles of Young Werther" contains several "sensitive words": juvenile, love and suicide. If you understand it from the surface of the story alone, these words are enough for a second parent to call and complain. The difference is that Gary Kelley, the world's finest illustrator today, paints this suffocating story in a fairytale style.
The story is said to be based on Goethe's own experience, except that in reality he did not end his life like Werther did. Goethe's purpose in writing this story was to criticize the imprisonment of the people's minds by the feudal autocracy of Europe, the feudal system and the hierarchical concept of people's personality and marriage, and so on, and goethe was trying to sing the praises of life, freedom, and love in a fierce, strongly rebellious and rebellious text style.
If Goethe is asked to use a single way of praise to praise life, to celebrate freedom, and to praise love, I am afraid that it will not have any impact on the shaking of the European feudal system, and there is a suspicion of "aiding and abetting abuse". Although the times are different, the classic stories are not to say that they can be changed, and they can be deleted, and the reason why they have become classics is that the spirit they contain maintains an attitude of self-examination and reflection for us.
If you understand it from the perspective that "The Troubles of Young Werther" is a celebration of life and love, Gary Kelly's illustration of the book is a good interpretation of Goethe and this story.
"The Troubles of Young Werther" tells the story of teenagers' troubles about love. The ambivalence of those youthful upheavals, Goethe really described vividly, and the doubts of teenagers in the face of the traditional rules of reality, including the yearning for love, also have detailed psychological portrayals. But be aware that the heroine of the story, the woman named Lutie, whom Witt loves deeply, does not love Witt. Even in her mind, Witt was a careful-eyed lunatic. When Lutie handed witt the pistol—whether she realized tragedy was imminent or not—the end was set.
The question is, how do we tell the teenager around us about the mood and final behavior of the young Werther? It is not advisable to entangle people who do not love themselves, and it is even more undesirable to end their lives easily. To some extent, Wetter is a bad example for us today, but it was born out of the challenge and protest of feudalism, and this spirit needs to be borne in mind.
Who didn't have troubles in their teenage years? Those impulsive, uninformed annoyances always affect our thoughts and moods, and may even dominate our behavior. At this point, do we also have to block everything as a way to solve the problem? Of course not. To use the current concept to understand Witt, his loneliness, his limited understanding of love, all stem from the people around him and the society he lives in do not understand him, so that he feels incompatible with the outside world, loneliness arises spontaneously, and the tragedy has long been ambushed. Taking him as a bad example, we should instead take this story out and share it with young girls, let everyone empathize, and understand the right and wrong in it, which is the best way to use the classic.