The Sorrows of Young Werther and Ourika - Essay Example

The Sorrows of Young Werther and Ourika The sorrows of young Werther and Ourika, by Claire de Duras, help shape their identity. As shown by these two epics, the genre of romanticism creates an art and literature deeply built on suffering, pain, and self-pity (Sollors 227). The sorrows of young Werther and Ourika primarily center itself in exploring characters self-injury and delusion, most emanating from their depression from knowing who they are in the social stratification. Social class harbored by these two characters, trigger to their depression lifestyle, since they do not know where they belong. The sorrows of Young Werther and the novella Ourika demonstrates the struggle with social class. Moreover, their non-acceptance in society contributes more into their feelings (Sollors 140). For example, the manner with which the society responds to their feelings is what shapes their identities. As a result, this glue forces Werther and Ourika to develop extreme emotion, depression, so to say. The sorrows of young Werther and Ourika, by Claire de duras share the trait of depression in shaping their identity; however, Ourikas depression has much negative impact on her identity. First, both the two characters live in a society that extend discrimination on them, hence compounding to their stressful life. The French society that Ourika resides in inflicts much depression in her life ‘… you not mad in love with Charles, could easily bear up with being negress’. Ourika’s skin color is the source of her pain while Werther’s deluding of himself that he is in love with the beautiful girl only to suffer severe disappointment at the end ‘I buried my face in my handkerchief, and hastened from the room, and was only recalled to my recollection by Charlottes voice, who reminded me that it was time to return home’ (Sollors 105). In the case of Ourika, her caretaker does good enough to ward off that tag of racism in her life. The Marquise emergency is what makes Ourika come into terms that she does not belong there. This causes a stint in her perception, a reason behind her down in the dumps living (Sollors 155). Within these two stories, the aspect of love plays a big role in causing more depression. It is out of it that they end up knowing more of their identity than they had. In the dual stories of Werther and Ourika, they seem to have an obsessive type of love for the companions they abide together. As Werther said ‘My heart bade her a thousand times adieu, but she noticed me not. The carriage drove off; and my eyes filled with tears’. Reading carefully through the two stories, one has an insight that, both characters identity crisis leads to their stressful acts. In Ourika’s predicament, she is a slave, finding herself in France from Senegal and subsequently growing in a higher-class French family. Social stratification, the biggest source of depression, downs in her life, hence the birth of her despair. The statements of marquise that ‘she is black, dependent, despised, without resource and fortune, and all alone’, serves as the eye-opener to Ourika. This is the reality that dawns on her hence she becomes depressed (Sollors 89). The perception that she has nothing to look forward to, since she was black and does not belong there parallels with Werther’s situation as a well. Both of the two characters find no hope in their situation, after experiencing a good start, only for that to fade away and leave them stressed up. Moreover, Claire de duras stories depict the psychological complex tales that fully bring to light the extreme internal mental conflict that an individual, in the predicament of Werther and Ourika, would undergo. Their depressive status is a climax of their conditions (Sollors 190). The author combines sympathy and tragedy in both stories as the culminating evidence to the long-suffering. The sorrows of Young Werther emerge due to his stay in Wahlheim village and the simple ways of the peasants in it, where Lotte, resides. The introduction of Lotte to Werther’s life, just like Ourika’s caretaker, marks the itinerary of the life of depression for the two characters ‘"Dear fountain!" I said, "since that time I have no more come to enjoy cool repose by the fresh stream’. The beautiful young girl taking care of her siblings following their mother’s demise and the reality that Lotte has Albert as her lover reflects again their stressful life journey. Ourika does not view herself as a disappointing black, having a good relationship with her caretaker, who even describes her as ‘an angel’ in black skin puts her hopes high. Her eavesdropping on the Marquise earth shuttering conversations destroys her psyche. From seeing herself as a proud black girl, she discovers herself as filth in front of other’s eyes and this is the itinerary of her depression. Like Werther, Ourika shares the stint of identity and this gives leads them to depression. The route of depression for Ourika seems to begin with a marquise statement on her status. The ideas about oppressive expectations surround her stories and this causes her much depression. For example, Ourika, out of frustrations, she internalizes the power structure in the dominant culture to such an extent that she even tries to change into being white (Sollors 201). The author tries to highlight the helplessness and entrapment felt by those who were under the colonial regime. There is great embarrassment, as the character fulfilling his tragic providence by falling victim to extreme self-deception. For many, this story developed as a simple and even hackneyed, but some large extent, the situations which unfold to Ourika attracts more of sympathy and self pity. She finds herself unable to appreciate and find pride in who she is after marquise embarrassing remarks ‘who will marry a Negress’. Ourika’s state of depression renders her too delusional. For example, Ourika does understand the reasoning behind marquise words after so much praise from her caretaker in all those years, and this causes him great pain. His frustration builds up, the reason as to why she had to indulge in emotional melancholy. One would arguably see this as an extension of Ourika’s struggle to deal with this racism stint in her life. As the author asserts it, everyday served as a torturous reminisced on who really she was. It reminded her of the unworthy identity, she once was proud of in the eyes of the caretaker. The frustration grows a big burden hence she is hospitalized. This fate of Ourika aligns to Werther’s predicament that one among the three should die to resolve the solution of their problem. They resolve to these acts, highlighting their height of these character’s depression (Sollors 160). After she raises her hopes, and pride through learning how to ‘sing through the teachings of best voice coaches, printing tactics by famous artists, and her accomplishment in many languages’, she exalts her personality high. This hit a record down low when the consciousness of her race lights up after the secret marquise conversation. Her conviction that the color of her skin could not be a disadvantage came to reality. The Marquise statement that Ourika’s raising to the status she does not belong to, through Mme de B., remains a frustrating disgrace contributing to her depression. Like Werther, she is not happy any more, and to her surprise, the Marquise blatantly puts to her that no one would dare marry a Negress. This transforms to Ourika suffering from psychological reaction, racial melancholia, as the author puts it, ‘… and must I receive remorse too into my desolate heart? Ourika must know the bitterness of every sorrow. She must drink of the cup…’. The choice of a Madame de bs son to cut Ourika out of his marriage proposal heightens the depression the latter suffers. She goes through a spiral of trauma and melancholy that is so deep that she almost dies of it. Recurrence of her frustration later leads her into the same situation, hence forcing her to meet the doctor ‘… this, is it this which has devoured my heart! This desire to hold my place in the chain of beings, this longing for the affections of nature, this dread of solitude, were they but the regrets of a guilty love’. She dies as a young nun in the hands of the doctor just like the way Werther commits suicide, an egoistic suicide, where a person kills himself to make other people feel sorry, as Durkheim describes it (Sollors 145). The case of young Werther and Ourika describes the tides of a society, as a mixture of people living together and sharing customs, laws, and ways of life. Due to the social stratification, certain societies, at specific eras, one would find it difficult to reach self-actualization in the other status, like in the case of Ourika and Werther’s frustration, hence depression seals their fate. Work Cited Sollors, Werner. Neither Black nor White yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2000. Print. Read More