Literary lives
First writer to depict modern individualism
Randeep Wadehra

There lived in the desert a holy man /To whom a goat-footed Faun one day /Paid a visit, and thus began /To his surprise: "I entreat thee to pray /That grace to me and my friends may be given, /That we may be able to mount to Heaven, /For great is our thirst for heav'nly bliss." /The holy man made answer to this: /"Much danger is lurking in thy petition, /Nor will it be easy to gain admission; /Thou dost not come with an angel's salute; /For I see thou wearest a cloven foot." /The wild man paused, and then answer'd he: /"What doth my goat's foot matter to thee? /Full many I've known into heaven to pass/ Straight and with ease, with the head of an ass!"

THIS poem, Legend, exemplifies an effective mix of satire, philosophy and easily comprehensible imagery; it gives us some idea of the man hailed as Germany’s all-time great philosopher-poet. A practitioner of law, he is also acclaimed as a scientist, dramatist and novelist. Considered as "the manifest centre of German literature", Goethe is undoubtedly one of the most versatile literary figures in the world.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on August 28, 1749, in Frankfurt am Main into a well-to-do middle-class family. His father, Johann, was a government official.

Goethe's poetry gives a modern perspective of man’s equation with nature, history, and society. His plays and novels show a penetrating comprehension of human character. His critiques, his vast correspondence, and his poetry, and other literary creations have positively left an indelible impact upon the writers of his own time and upon the literary movements which he inaugurated and led. One such famed movement was known as Sturm und Drang (storm and stress), the forerunner of the German Romantic Movement.

Goethe's most complex and profound work, Faust, in two parts, was the effort of his entire lifetime. Written over a period of 60 years — the second part was published after his demise — it is often described as a document of his moral and artistic development. The work is a chef d'oeuvre of world literature and is widely accepted as the ultimate achievement of the great poet’s long life. It is not only a re-interpretation of the legend of the medieval scholar-magician Johann Faust, but also a metaphor for human life in all its details. The drama in verse is noted for "its emphasis on the right and power of the individual to enquire freely into affairs both human and divine, and to work out his or her own destiny". This accounts for its universal reputation as the first great work of literature depicting the spirit of modern individualism.

Some of his other noted works are the novels Die Wahlverwandtschaften and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre; an account of his Italian trip, Die Italienische Reise; and the attempt to combine East and West in a collection of exquisite poetry West-`F6stlicher Divan.

Goethe's six-volume autobiography, Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (later on translated as Memoirs of Goethe), depicts his upbringing as a sort of disordered affair. Perhaps this proved to be a catalyst in the development of his "synthesising mind". At 16, Goethe enrolled with the university in Leipzig, then a leading cultural center. Here he wrote his earliest poems and plays. His early plays included a one-act comedy in verse, Die Laune des Verliebten (The Lover's Caprice, 1767), and a tragedy in verse, Die Mitschuldigen (The Fellow-Culprits, 1768). In 1770 at the university in Strasbourg, the philosopher and literary critic Johann Gottfried von Herder introduced him to the works of Shakespeare. He also became acquainted with the dramatic works of his generation’s Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

At Strasbourg, two friendships left a lasting effect on his works. One was with Friederike Brion, a pastor’s daughter who became an archetype for feminine characters in his several works, including for Gretchen in his poetic drama Faust. The other friendship, which proved to be the most intellectually stimulating experience of his youth, was with von Herder. Thanks to Herder, Goethe became distrustful of the influence of the principles of French Classicism, including those of the three dramatic unities which the French Classical school had adopted from ancient Greek drama that dominated the German literary scene at the time.

Goethe received a licentiate in law at Strasbourg and during the next four years practiced law with his father and wrote two works that brought him recognition in literary circles. In 1775, he was invited to the court of Karl Augustus in Saxe-Weimar, where he spent most of the remainder of his life. During his early years there he composed alluring verse addressed to Charlotte von Stein, a married woman seven years his senior. He also devoted his time to scientific studies as well as to discharging his obligations as a court official of substance. In 1790, he wrote Versuch, die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erkl`E4ren (Essay on the Metamorphosis of Plants), which, up to a point, presaged Darwin's ideas on organic evolution. Goethe was also the author of a monograph on optics, Beitr`E4ge zur Optik (Contribution to Optics).

During a two-year stay in Italy from 1786 to 1788, Goethe decided that writing was his true calling, leading to his most important literary and scientific achievements. He sired an illegitimate child from young Christiane Vulpius — who inspired some of his erotic poems — in 1789. To legitimise the child, Goethe married Christiane in 1806. The socio-political upheavals like the French Revolution and the various German states struggling against Napoleon for independence, as well as various efforts at German unity did not in any manner slacken his intellectual evolution. The period between 1805 and his death on March 22, 1832, was extremely productive from the literary output perspective.

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