Through the parallel of the prisoner, Goethe shows that had Werther not killed himself, he would have been forced to murder Lotte and then been arrested and likely killed for his actions, if he did not commit suicide while awaiting trial. “He was so able to see things through the man’s eyes,” (109) because this is his alternate future. This incident shows that death and an unhappy remainder of life are inevitable for Werther regardless of whether or not he kills himself because either he will die by his own hand, so to speak, or he will watch himself turn on the person he loves and then be executed as punishment. The very inescapability of the situation further proves that the situation must be out of the control of the characters, especially those of Werther and …show more content…
He clearly articulates the idea that his death is necessitated by a force beyond his control in his letter on the twelfth of December. He claims to be “possessed of an evil demon” (111) that sometimes “takes a hold of [him]” (111). In this instant, Werther is able to express the externalization of his preceding madness and upcoming death. He describes this possession as an “unfamiliar tumult within” (111) which emphasizes the foreignness of these feelings and how they do not and cannot originate within himself as he has been experiencing them for over a year and they are still unfamiliar. Because the nature of these feelings is so foreign, they could not have possible originated from within Werther, and thus, as all other causes have been ruled out, must come as an uncontrollable result of his situation. In his letter on the fourteenth of December, Werther writes, “I alarm myself” (112) with reference to his “reprehensible desires” (112) towards Lotte. It further proves that his feelings must originate from outside himself. Ultimately there is no one in the novel that can rightfully be blamed for Werther’s suicide. The responsibility cannot reside solely in Werther or Lotte, nor can it be split between them in any way; the death is simultaneously the fault of everyone and no one. Goethe presents Werther’s suicide as the only possible