Point of View

There are two distinct points of view in "The Sorrows of Young Werther." The first point of view is seen only from that of the protagonist, Werther, through his letters. The second is the point of view of an unnamed individual who finds documents belonging to Werther after his suicide.

The first two sections of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" are presented in the epistolary genre in dated letters from young Werther to his friend Wilhelm. The point of view in these sections is restricted to that of an emotionally disturbed young man and therefore, the veracity of some of his professions deservedly come under some scrutiny. The letters are Goethe's mechanism to allow a peek inside Werther's head and heart. While the recipient of the letters, Wilhelm, is never seen nor directly heard from, Werther responds to concerns expressed by Wilhelm in unseen letters to...