THE DEATH OF DIONYSOS - ETD - Vanderbilt University

From the larger standpoint of the novel, such attention to one’s self is not to be
confused with narrow selfishness or with the greedy pursuit of pleasure or wealth. We
have only to recall the aunt of Serlo and Aurelie, the step-mother of Therese, or even
Wilhelm’s old friend Werner: all of whose narrow self-interest leads to compulsive
behaviors and to an unattractive person and personality. What they lack is an aesthetic
self-consciousness that might organize and lend coherence to their person and personality.
The example of Werner even shows up late in novel, as though to make just that point.
Skinny, bald and pale, Werner is described as “ein arbeitsamer Hypochondrist”, what we
today would call a workaholic (499). Wilhelm, on the other hand–even if his self-
confidence has taken a beating since he met the impressive Lothario and his impressive
friends–elicits words of admiration from his always busy and profit-driven friend: “‘Deine
Augen sind tiefer, deine Stirne ist breiter, deine Nase feiner und dein Mund liebreicher
geworden. Seht nur einmal, wie er steht! wie das alles paßt und zusammenhängt! Wie
doch das Faulenzen gedeihet!’” (Ibid.). [“‘Your eyes are more deep set, your forehead is
broader, your nose is more delicate and your mouth is much more pleasant. Look at how
you stand! How well everything fits together! Indolence makes one prosper’” (EAB 306,
my italics).] Given that activity or Tätigkeit is the superlative value of the Tower,
Wilhelm despairs more than once over his meager accomplishments and qualifications.
The reader, identifying as expected with the hero, may at times share that confusion and
despair for his sake. But the opening chapter of Book Eight stands as a reminder that,
despite the trail of errors that Wilhelm has made and will make even to the closing lines of
the novel–he has developed beautifully; for in the course his theatrical apprenticeship, he
has acquired an aesthetic self-consciousness. Friedrich’s closing comparison of Wilhelm
to the biblical Saul, who looking for a donkey found a kingdom, refers not just to
Wilhelm’s seraphic bride, Natalie. Wilhelm had mistakenly set out to become an actor,
but in the course of his error he received an aesthetic education.
The proximity of Wilhelm’s aesthetic development to Schiller’s Über die
ästhetsche Erziehung des Menschen (Of the Aesthetic Education of Man) should come as
no surprise. Goethe undertook the revision and completion of his old Wilhelm Meister
fragment during the early years of his friendship and collaboration with Schiller, and
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