The thesis deals with the idea of suicide in Romantic philosophy and literature, using Johann
Wolfgang Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther as an example. First, the foundations
of Romanticism are presented and the time and situation in which the novel was written are
highlighted. This is followed by a more detailed presentation of the author, his creative process
and the real events that led him to write the novel in question. The characteristics of the
Romantic novel in general are then outlined, together with how the novel in question, which
has raised a great deal of dust because of its description of the suicide of the protagonist, a
typical representative of the split Romantic man, has influenced Romantic culture. The
Romantic split between the subjective and the objective, the role of nature and the role of man
in it, which are also important for understanding the Romantic, and more specifically Goethe's,
understanding of antiquity, are also presented on the basis of Werther and the archetype of the
Romantic man. In the central philosophical part, the thesis attempts to interpret and illuminate
Werther's suicide on the basis of the theories of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schiller, in
particular through their assessments of specific suicides. The work emphasises the importance
of pietism and the role and transformation of religion in Romanticism, in particular the
transition from Christianity to the abstractly transcendental. The work then focuses on the love
triangle and Werther's love for Lotte, questioning her guilt for his death and placing her as a
woman in a socio-historical context. The suicide and the role of women in The Sorrows of Young
Werther are further compared with the suicide of Gustave Flaubert's realist heroine Emma
Bovary. Finally, the suicide theory of Èmil Durkheim, through which Werther's suicide is
interpreted and characterised, and the reality of the Werther effect through the analysis of David
D. Phillips are described.
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