The concept of nature sounds rather simple, but its true definition has many different variations. Webster defines nature anywhere from “the external world in its entirety” to “the inherent character or basic constitution of a person or thing. ” From these definitions we can gather that the role of nature could range from ones reaction to the environment around them to deep seeded feelings in ones psyche. In this essay I will show how the simplicity of nature applies to Thomas More’s Utopia and Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther.
While representing the same general ideas, the part of nature plays differently in the plots of these two works. In 1516, Sir Thomas More wrote a book describing the ideal civilization. His writing describes an encounter with a man named Raphael Hythlodaeus, who was an experienced adventurer. After being introduced by a mutual friend, the character More and Hythlodaeus retire to a serene garden to discuss politics and the discovery of this ideal place called Utopia. Under the equator and on both sides of the line nearly as far as the sun’s orbit extends, there lie waste deserts scorched with continual heat.
A gloomy and dismal region looms in all directions without cultivation or attractiveness, inhabited by wild beasts and snakes or, indeed, men no less savage and harmful than are the beasts. But when you have gone a little farther, the country gradually assumes a milder aspect, the climate is less fierce, the ground is covered with a pleasant green herbage, and the nature of living creatures becomes less wild. (14) This passage is how Raphael describes his journey to Utopia, but the words have such significance. We can see by his astronomical description of distances that any such place exists at a remote corner of the earth.
At such a distance, not many people have seen or heard of the Utopian paradise. Raphael also makes a beautiful contrast when he tells of wild beasts and desolate wastelands gradually giving way to the tame, lush grasslands of Utopia. The underlying theme in what Hythodaeus says is the Utopian civilization is built on a land of immense natural beauty. What More describes as a perfect culture is made out of natures purest. Several hundred years after the release of More’s Utopia, a German author named Goethe wrote a book called The Sorrows of Young Werther.
This was considered a revolutionary text by most German’s of the time and earned Goethe a “superstar” status. Goethe’s text describes a period in the life of a young man named Werther. He falls hopelessly in love with a girl named Lotte and it proves to be his demise. In a letter to his brother Wilhelm, a blissful Werther describes the following. It is strange how, when I came here and looked down from the mountain onto the lovely valley, everything attracted me. There was the grove! Ah, could I but mingle with its shades! There was the mountaintop! Ah, could I but overlook from there the wide landscape!
The interlocked hills and familiar valleys! Ah, could I but lose myself in them! -I hurried here and there and came back, not having found what I hoped to find. Oh, it is the same with the distance as with the future! A vast, twilit whole lies before our soul; our emotions lose themselves in it as do our eyes, and we long to surrender our entire being and let ourselves sink into one great well of blissful feeling. Alas, when we approach, when There has become Here, everything is as it was before, and we are left with our poverty, our narrowness, while our soul thirsts for comfort that slipped away.
In this passage Werther shows his love for nature. Much like Raphael’s description of an ideal natural environment, Werther looks down from the mountaintop and sees what strikes him as a place of the greatest natural beauty. He makes reference to himself interacting with nature and its elegant simplicity. Werther wants to be a part of this beautiful landscape, but when he draws close the simple comfort slips away. In fact, some of the places Werther treasures most are places where nature predominates. He takes comfort in gardens and values the simplicity of the local spring.
I believe that nature plays a significant part in both the story and in Werther’s mind. It is vital to the understanding of this book to understand nature as it relates to Werther’s state of mind. Both of the aforementioned texts involve the presence of one or several gardens. These magical places of serenity and peace provide sanctuary for their inhabitants. The garden seems to prevail as an ideal place to sit and talk or to furthermore relax among nature. In truth, almost the entire story of Thomas More takes place in his garden.
After their initial meeting, the character of Thomas More and Raphael retire to More’s garden to discuss political views and share stories. In the time of this story, it could be seen as dangerous to express ones views publicly. In fact, More was executed for treason. This being said, the garden provides the perfect environment for free speech. The two gentlemen, without fear of persecution, can share ideas. For young Werther, gardens provide a much larger presence. They provide a great release, piece of mind and a place for him to relax and reflect on events in his life.
Werther begins his diary in the garden of the late Count M. He makes the following thought: The solitude in this heavenly place is sweet balm to my soul, and the youthful time of year warms with its abundance my often-shuddering heart. Every tree, every hedge is a nosegay of blossoms; and one would wish to be a cockchafer, to float about in that sea of fragrance and find in it all the nourishment one needs. (4) This one thought by Werther contains few words but expresses the man’s desires. He would be content to remain in the simple serenity of the garden forever. The first line of the quotation indicates that said garden soothes the young man’s heart and soul.
This is Werther’s comfort zone, much like others take comfort in the company of good friends or a moment of peaceful solitude. Werther indicates that he could find all the nourishment one needs in the confines of the garden. One of Werther’s excursions yields a quaint village, which he describes: The good landlady of the inn, pleasant and brisk for her age, provides beer, wine and coffee; and the best feature of all is two linden trees, shading with their spreading branches the little square in front of the church, which is framed on all sides by peasants’ cottages, barns and farmyards.
I have seldom found a place so intimate and charming. (13) While not representing a garden in the traditional sense, this village contains many of the same elements. Its close, simple knit structure represents a return to nature. The people of the village live simple lives and much of the turmoil in contemporary European life has no place there. This return to nature and the simple life is prevalent in Werther’s mind. The idea of a soothing hideaway, a comfort zone is again evident. He treats the simple people around him as good friends and they do not violate his comfort zone.
Werther finds this place very peaceful and uses it as a haven to read Homer and compose sketches. Both Utopia and The Sorrows of Yong Werther offer the idea of a return to nature as a solution to many of the problems presented in the text. In More’s book, the two gentlemen agree that there are definite problems in the social structure of Europe at the time. Each expresses his relative disgust, but it comes across as if no one would listen to a promising solution if it were presented on a silver platter. In Utopia, we can see a solution to the problems in Europe at More’s time.
The Utopians rotate shifts between country and city life. After a period of city life, families are rotated back to the countryside. One could say that they “return to nature. ” While laboring on farms, Utopian citizens work with nature and the land, gaining an appreciation for it. The metropolitan European had seemingly lost this appreciation. In The Sorrows of Young Werther, it can be argued that Werther progresses into insanity as the story elapses. Along that road to the inevitable, the young man makes some relatively sane and insightful thoughts.
One of his comments deals explicitly with a return to nature, a return to innocence. Oh, the times when I longed to fly on the crane’s wings, as it passed overhead, to he shores of the illimitable ocean, in order to drink from the foaming cup of the Infinite an elating sensation of life, and to feel, if only for a moment, in the cramped forces of my being one drop of the bliss of that Being who creates everything in and through Himself. (65) This statement could be taken one of two ways. The first would be to dismiss it as the remark of a madman, but I think that would be too easy.
To take Werther’s remarks as they are meant would be to recognize the legitimacy of his thoughts. The young man longs to be a crane, but the crane is irrelevant. What he is really wishing for is the freedom of such a creature. This freedom would allow him to soar above everything and experience the endless bliss of creation, of nature. Werther, much like More and Raphael, was tired of the way things were in regards to social responsibility. In response, More comes up with the dream of Utopia while Werther simply wants to be a free being of nature.
In my opinion, Werther is implying that it would be easier for all of us today to disregard to burden society puts on us and be one with nature. Overall, both books share the idea of an escape. In Utopia, More made a myth. He constructed a dream that was free of all the evils of his time. Citizens of this mythical place didn’t have to worry about things like war and famine. These people had made an escape from the world of corruption and despair to make a New World based on nature and equality.
If you will, this life took away the complications if European life and replaced it with simplicity. Werther wanted to escape the pain for his hopeless love for Lotte by escaping to a better place. He believed that a better place existed in death and that is why he went down the road he did. In his last dark days he expresses this morbid scenery. Love and loyalty, the most beautiful of human emotions, had turned into violence and murder. The great trees were without foliage and rimmed with hoarfrost; the lovely hedgeswere bare; and the snow-covered gravestones could be seen through the gap. 29)
Throughout his travels, Werther found many places where love and warmth grew strong. As he puts it these were the “most beautiful of human emotions,” but they don’t always last forever. As Werther revisited these places where he once found warmth and beauty, he now finds death, despair and betrayal. The warmth is gone and the bitter cold has come. Where Werther once saw love and life, he now only sees death. In the end, Werther could not find the basic simplicity needed to go on living. Nature is a great and complex entity.
It is also one of the simplest elements of life. Ever since the beginning of time there has been nature, so what better topic is there for writers to express simplicity? Utopia and The Sorrows of Young Werther were written hundreds of years apart, yet share a common thread. A common thread of nature could possibly be one of the universal themes in literature. It seems that the world we live in is constantly growing more complicated and complex. Often times we can lose track of ourselves in the big picture. We see people becoming numbers instead of names and faces.
