THE DEATH OF DIONYSOS - ETD - Vanderbilt University

place him close to the tragic trajectory of Goethe’s melancholic Werther. Blessin
recognizes the similarities that link the two protagonists but underscores their very
different fates. The difference, he notes, lies partly in Wilhelm’s character: he is “der
durchschnittliche Fall eines jungen Mannes” [“an instance of the average young man”],
whereas Werther had been infected with, and finally succumbed to a virulent germ of
genius (92). But it also lies in the world of the novel and in the author’s intent. Blessin
points out that Die Leiden des jungen Werther had exhibited all the fatalism or, in the
language of the Abbé, the necessity of drama. Wilhelm and Serlo similarly decide that
drama is governed by fate or Schicksal, but then they acknowledge, “daß man dem Zufall
im Roman gar wohl sein Spiel erlauben könne” (308). [“that in the novel Chance might
well be given free play” (EAB 186).] In Book One the Abbé describes chance (Zufall) as
the malleable stuff of life, from which man’s reason can influence the shape to his
existence. Wilhelm himself, however, never realizes such godlike sovereignty in the
novel. So the world of the novel must prepare him.
Blessin analyzes the way that chance and confusion (Verwechslung) make it
possible for Wilhelm to pursue his own ends, even with a mistaken understanding of the
world, and achieve satisfaction, even if the outcome is not in fact what he intended: “Das
Verständnis, das Wilhelm ausbildet und in dem er sich in erster Linie immer selbst
auslegt, mag noch so sehr an den Realitäten vorbeigehen, – es behält seinen eigenen Wert,
büßt nicht an Gewicht und Bedeutung ein” [“Wilhelm’s developing understanding, that is
primarily an interpretation of himself, can be ever so mistaken about reality, – it retains its
own value, lacks neither substance nor meaning”] (102). The world of the novel is
conveniently loose enough in its causal hinges for the hero to arrive at his goal, although
his judgments were mistaken, his choices misguided. This is not to say that what goes up
does not come down; mistakes in the Lehrjahre have their consequences. While he asserts
that no one else shares responsibility for the deaths of Mignon, the Harfner and Aurelie
(“[sie] haben sich ganz von innen aufgezehrt”; “[they] devoured themselves from
within”), Blessin acknowledges Wilhelm’s guilt with regard to Mariane (90). But for
various reasons, the most significant being Werner, Wilhelm does not learn the truth about
her until late in the novel; and by then both external circumstances and changes in
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