THE DEATH OF DIONYSOS - ETD - Vanderbilt University

Friedrich Schiller, had likewise observed with satisfaction Wilhelm’s new “Selbstgefühl”
in Book Eight: a new sensibility of self–today we would say “self-esteem”–that alone
might qualify him for marriage to Natalie and inclusion among the mostly aristocratic
Society of the Tower. 2 Schiller was right. The Wilhelm who objects to being treated like
a child is not the same one who once was crushed over the appearance of a manlier rival
for the love of Mariane and its favors. Even more striking is his resilience in the face of
possible personal guilt in the fate of Mariane, and even of Mignon. 3
Strangely, the whole question of guilt on Wilhelm’s part in other’s misfortunes
represents something of a black hole in critical response to the Lehrjahre. In addition to
Mignon and Mariane, we have only to remember the absurd but nevertheless sad
consequences of his Platonic romance with the countess, and it becomes clear that Goethe
himself did not go out of his way to spare his protagonist any occasion for remorse. His
immunity to guilt must therefore lie in Wilhelm’s consciousness. A rare exception to an
otherwise general silence on this matter is a recent study by Stefan Blessin, who stresses
the radically modern ethos and world view that prevail in Goethe’s novels. 4 While he
absolves Wilhelm of any direct responsibility for the deaths of Mignon and others in the
Lehrjahre, Blessin acknowledges an exception in the case of Mariane:
2 Schiller is referring specifically to Wilhelm’s indignant objection to the manipulations or
machinations of Jarno and the Tower in his life. He writes to Goethe: “Ich gestehe, daß es mir
ohne diesen Beweis von Selbstgefühl bei unserm Helden peinlich sein würde, ihn mir mit dieser
Klasse so eng verbunden zu denken, wie nachher durch die Verbindung mit Natalien geschieht.”
[“I confess that without this proof of self-esteem in our hero, I would be embarrassed to imagine
him connected as closely to this circle as later is the case with his (marriage) tie to Natalie.”] See
letter to Goethe of July 5, 1796 (HA VII, 638).
3 Wilhelm berates himself in Book Eight for having neglected Mignon: “Ich zog das liebe Kind an,
seine Gegenwart ergötzte mich, und dabei hab’ ich es aufs grausamste vernachlässigt” (504).
[Wilhelm to himself: “You took charge of the poor child, her companionship delighted you, and
yet you have cruelly neglected her” (EAB 308).] Nevertheless, this self-recrimination represents
his new social conscience– the need to send her to school–rather than any sense of personal
responsibility for her.
4
See by Blessin, Goethes Romane: Aufbruch in die Moderne (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh,
1996).
x