“Feeling” is the descriptor of “reason” By looking at the way Werther talks about his emotions in relation to Charlotte, one can be seen that “feeling” is precisely what alters “reason”. The two are not separate; they have to go together. This is similar to the relationship between verbs and adverbs. An adverb cannot describe anything other than a verb. The adverb is what determines how the verb will be performed. Likewise, feeling determines how a person will reason. Werther's descriptions of how he feels about Charlotte are indicators of how he will deal with his situation. Since he feels pain from this love, he also reasons painfully. It could be said that by committing suicide, he simply acted on his emotions and feelings, and therefore did not use reason at all. However, Werther's feelings only strengthened his reason. If he had positive feelings, he might have done something equally drastic, but in a happy, rather than depressed, way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In The Sorrows of Young Werther, Werther foreshadows his own death by telling how sad and sorrowful Charlotte's absence makes him feel. He is describing how his reason will develop in the future. For now, though, all the reader can see is just that description. Werther states: “Sometimes I am unaware whether I really exist. If I don't find sympathy in these moments, and Charlotte doesn't allow me to enjoy the melancholy consolation of wetting her hand with my tears, I feel forced to detach myself from her. To put it in simpler terms, he's saying that sometimes he's not sure he exists, and in those moments, if there's no one to feel sorry for him, and he can't console himself by crying on Charlotte's hand, then he'd rather not be there at all. This almost puts Werther in a selfish light. It's as if he's saying that if things don't go his way, then he doesn't want to live. It's as if everything always has to be perfect. These selfish feelings lead to a selfish alteration of his reason. This quote also shows him as naive because he cannot see that things can be imperfect. Another way Werther describes how he will reason is dramatic. Suicide is a very big and bold statement, just like what Werther says about Charlotte: “The consolation that Charlotte can bring to an invalid I feel in my heart, which suffers from her absence more than many poor creatures who linger on a sick bed." Again, to rephrase, what Werther is saying is that he has experienced firsthand how Charlotte can comfort a feeble-minded person and without her suffers more than a person who is on death's door. Not only is this very dramatic and another indicator of how he will react later, but it also points to his selfishness and naivety. To say that a dying creature cannot suffer more than he is is self-centered. The naive part of his statement is that he talks about death as if he knows what it feels like and therefore can compare it to something. His dramatics cause him to overlook these facts. Aside from his selfishness and naivety, as already mentioned, Werther prefigures his death by talking about how sad Charlotte's absence makes him feel. But his greatest moment of foreshadowing in the book comes when he says, “Where am I going? I'll tell you in confidence. I'm forced to stay here for another fifteen days, and then I think it would be better for me to visit the mines of.... But this way I'm only deluding myself. . . ”. He is not sure where he is going, which can be considered similar to death. For those whobelieve that humans have an inner self that goes away when we die, there is no certainty of what happens to the human soul after death, if anything happens at all. Werther says he feels obligated to continue fighting for Charlotte's affections for a while longer, but then he will need to return to the real world. But then he says that he is "deceiving himself", as if he knows deep down that he will never go back to not loving Charlotte again. The same can be said of death. Once a person's body, or in the case of Werther's suicide simply a person, has committed itself to dying, there is no going back. You can't flip a switch to put things back the way they were before. This statement foreshadows his suicide as it can be read as a description of death. Another point this quote raises is that Werther is not as naive as one might think. Even though there's a lot he doesn't know, he knows enough about himself to say his mind won't leave Charlotte. Werther continues: “. . . The thing is, I want to be close to Charlotte again, that's all. I smile at the promptings of my heart and obey its dictates." He fails to see that the heart is the source of these descriptors of reason. It is as if the brain provides pure, impartial reason that will find the safest and most effective solution, and the heart is a machine that provides feelings to alter that purity. You cannot simply obey one rather than the other. They work in pairs and, if anything, choosing to obey only feelings will do nothing but harm. Werther's death is not only caused by his depression over Charlotte, but it is also caused by his failure to deal with the situation in a healthy way. . Charlotte, on the other hand, knows exactly how to deal with this situation and proves it by saying: “We talked about the pleasures of dance. "If it is a sin to love him," said Carlotta, "I am ready to confess that I value it more than any other entertainment. If anything disturbs me, I go to the piano, play an aria that I have danced, and all is well again directly" . . . ”. She doesn't act on the first negative thought that comes to mind. When she feels like something is bothering her, she does what many people might do today and turns to music to calm herself. Prevents negative thoughts to prevent negative reasoning. This shows that he is aware of this “adverb-verb” relationship between his feelings and his logic. Werther then continues: “ . . . You, who know me, can imagine how steadily I gazed into his rich dark eyes during these observations, how my very soul rejoiced at his warm lips and his fresh, luminous cheeks, how I lost myself entirely in the delightful meaning of his words, so much so that I barely heard the actual expressions." It's almost as if Charlotte is the Enlightenment and Werther is Romanticism. Werther is so mesmerized by Charlotte that he doesn't understand her point. He sees that Charlotte likes piano and dancing, but is focusing more on things like her eyes and lips. She cannot see Charlotte engaging in these activities because they are neutralizing to her. They tone down the drastic descriptors that certain events can bring out to improve his reason. It's as if there is a spectrum for reason and feelings to indicate whether one is high or low or not. Charlotte's music brings her back to the healthy center, while Werther's worry and infatuation bring him further and further down every day. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay Goethe Werther's The Sorrows of Youth helps explain the complicated relationship between feeling and reason. Many may think that the two are separate, just as people think of the.