The early nineteenth century's cultural explosion owed much of its excitement to the battle between two opposing artistic camps. Fading Romanticism and youthful Classicism were throwing punches, and Goethe felt the tug of both sides. He considered both angles: the humanistic...
[more]The early nineteenth century's cultural explosion owed much of its excitement to the battle between two opposing artistic camps. Fading Romanticism and youthful Classicism were throwing punches, and Goethe felt the tug of both sides. He considered both angles: the humanistic force of Romanticism had given new life to his emotional expression, while the logical answer-seeking of Classicism shed light on the mysteries of man and society. As it turned out, Goethe refused to choose. Instead, he incorporated both approaches into his work and life -- a decision that would ultimately change the face of German literature. As a young man in Strasbourg, Goethe followed one of the precedents set by his idol, Shakespeare, by embracing the Gothic. Goethe's first play, "The Dramatized History of Gottfried von Berlichingen of the Iron Hand" (1771), broke new ground in German theater by insisting that drama need not represent immense, epic themes. With a mix of the fantastical, the heroic, and the common, Goethe's play actualized the theories of Gotthold Lessing and laid the foundation for the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement. Sturm und Drang promoted a literature of feeling above all else; it permitted contemporary plotlines to replace traditional stories and rejected the hyper-rational tendencies of the Enlightenment. As the Sturm und Drang movement evolved into German Romanticism, Goethe found himself thrust into the role of literary icon. In his debut novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774), Goethe developed the figure of the sympathetic hero in Romantic literature. A tale of misplaced love, but much more a lament for the impossibility of absolute love, the novel was the first of its kind; the author did not shy away from unbridled emotion. However, he never relied on tricks of melodrama; instead, according to Thomas Carlyle, Goethe portrays "the nameless unrest and longing discontent which was then agitating every bosom." In 1775, Goethe headed to Weimar to experience the city's cultural boom firsthand. For 20 years he devoted himself to strenuous involvement in the administration of the city and intensive writing; finally an exhausted Goethe retreated to Italy to reexamine the principles of life and art. When he returned he met Friedrich von Schiller, who shared his dissatisfaction with Romanticism's lack of answers. Without abandoning the sublimely empathic style that had earned him such respect, Goethe introduced his new Classical aesthetic in plays like "Iphigenie auf Tauris" (1787) and "Torquato Tasso" (1807). Both works addressed the problem of language and the relationship between the author and the world, while simultaneously asserting man's freedom to determine his own course. Despite his exploration of Classical ideals, Goethe never abandoned his allegiance to the Romantic. Instead, he introduced the piney scent of reason into Romanticism's garden of heady perfumes. Goethe's lifelong attraction to both the emotional and the logical is embodied in his masterpiece, "Faust" (1832). The author toiled for 50 years to create the perfect tragic hero, one whose quest for knowledge and understanding ultimately destroys him. It is befitting that the play was published posthumously; "Faust" incorporated all of Goethe's stylistic and thematic tendencies, leaving behind a monument to its author's combination of exalted learning and love of all that's fundamentally human.
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