Romeo and Werther: Crazy In Love

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Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is an Elizabethan tragedy Goethe’s book The Sorrows of Young Werther is an important novel of the Sturm und Drang movement which is promoting the Romantic’s philosophy in Germany. The play and the novel, both feature a male protagonist. The resemblance does not stop there. Exploring their similar characteristic one can say they both fall in love at first sight, they both idealized their beloved one, isolated themselves from their families and damn their souls.
First deep remark one can make about what Werther and Romeo has in common is their relationship with the subject of their insatiable love has multiple point in common. Werther fall in love with Lotter the second he saw her so as Romeo who fall in love with Juliet at the first sight. They both do not know anything at all about the women at the moment they acknowledge to themselves, they are in love with Lotte or Juliet. Romeo kisses Juliet before he even questions her identity. He affirms the first time he ever sees her that Juliet is holy and his lips are like the hands of a pilgrim. The imagery is really strong to describe this love born a few second ago. Just like Werther, at the same instant he described Lotte as an angel did not really know anything about her. The image of her is enough to convince him she is a saint and she posses all the quality an angel possesses. "An angel! -ROT! - Every man says that about his beloved, does he not? And yet I am unable to tell you how, and why, she is perfection itself; suffice to say that she has captivated me utterly. "( Goethe 36). Werther is later convinced Lotte is perfectly designed for him because they have some point in common. Werther is so happy to find out she reads the Vicar of Wak...

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...omeo both damn their souls for following another entity rather than God.
In conclusion, Romeo and Werther shares similar facts in their stories. They fall in love the same way, just the sight of their beloved makes them fall in love. The first conversations confirm their beliefs. They concentrate the purpose of their lives on these women, cut themselves from the world and replace God by the women both seen as perfect human beings. Their conduct and thought process rush them towards the act of damning their souls. All for love.

Works Cited

Tantillo, Astrida Orle. "The Catholicism Of Werther." German Quarterly 81.4 (2008): 408-423. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. The Sorrows of Young Werthe. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Signet Classics, c1998. Print.

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