Der junge Goethe und Werther als briefschreiber

The purpose of this thesis is to compare three letters written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and a sample letter selected among letters written by the main character Werther from Goethe's authored book The Sorrows of Young Werther. This book is the pioneer of the enthusiasm period in German literature history and the most important letter-novel sample in world literature. In this context, the writing style Letter gained great importance as a literary genre in 18th century German literature and is analyzed terminologically in the first part of the thesis. This is followed by the literary analysis where the periodical characteristics and phases are examined. A brief overview is given of the history of Letter writing manuals which had come to the forefront especially in 18th century. Both as a communication method and a literary genre, Letter is analyzed based on its development and importance during the historical, social and sociological structure of the Enlightenment and the Enthusiasm period. In the second part, in regard to his biography, three letters written by Young Goethe in his private life are analyzed in regard to his writing styles. The first letter that Young Goethe wrote was in Baroque writing style addressed to Ludwig Ysenburg von Buri when he was fourteen years old. The second letter which Goethe wrote to his sister Cornelia Goethe who was living in Frankfurt, was written under the influence of his Prof. Christian Führtegott Gellert when Goethe was a sixteen-year-old student at Leipzig University. The third and the most important letter is the one he wrote to Ernst Wolfgang Behrisch who had been his friend and mentor in Leipzig. This letter manifested all the eccentricities of the Enthusiasm period and expressed his emotional state in a dramatic way. In the third part of the thesis, shortly the travel of Young Goethe from Leipzig to Frankfurt, afterwards his trip to Strasburg where he went to complete his education, his meeting with Gottfried Herder which is accepted as the commencement of enthusiasm period and at last the period he spent in Wetzlar where he went to complete his internship, are narrated based on his biography. Furthermore, in this part, the origin story of The Sorrows of Young Werther is narrated. Afterwards, a letter dated sixteenth of June from this novel is compared to the Young Goethe's letter addressed to Ernst Wolfgang Behrisch which was introduced in the second part. The similarities and the writing styles of both letters are examined. The conclusion provides the findings of the comparative letter study of Goethe and Werther.