It may seem unlikely that Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther influenced Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights: he wrote a confessional novel; she wrote a Gothic novel, as did her sisters, Charlotte (Jane Eyre) and Ann (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall).

But Goethe’s novel, an international best-seller, must have influenced the Gothic writers, as did Daniel Defoe’s confessional novel, Roxana, published in 1724, the rowdy, rollicking confessions of a-deserted-wife-turned-courtesan. How could the Gothic writers, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth, Horace Walpole, the Brontes, Jane Austen, Sheridan Le Fanu, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Emily Bronte not have read Young Werther?

And it is easy to see Goethe’s influence on Bronte’s wild prose. Both Werther and Bronte’s Heathcliff pursue women who are off the market, so to speak.. Werther dances all night with Lotte and then learns she has a fiancé. Lotte is flirtatious with Werther, but shifts her attention to her fiance Albert when he returns home from a business trip. From here it is a downward trip for Werther psychologically.

On the other hand, Bronte’s Heathcliff is madly in love with Catherine, his childhood playmate and presumed adolescent lover. But In the kitchen of Wuthering Heights, he overhears Catherine say that Heathcliff “is more my self than I am,” yet she plans to marry wealthy Linton, for the comfort and, as the housekeeper thinks, because she can control him.

In Book 2 of The Sorrows, Werther is depressed and has suicidal thoughts. He writes to Lotte: “..this broken heart has often thought of – killing your husband! – or you! – or myself!…” He turns his repressed rage and violence against himself. Ironically, Lotte gives him his suicide weapon, Albert’s pistols. Albert insists that she hand them over – he has no fears for Werther – and though she is fearful she not protest.

Heathcliff’s primary mood is rage, and he seeks revenge, even after leaving Wuthering Heights and coming home rich. Catherine is still at the center of his life, and his contact with her at Linton’s house is passionate, in the style of Albert and Lotte’s, though Heathcliff and Cathy obviously have sexual feelings for each other. He sees Catherine a few times against Linton’s wishes, and again before she dies in childbirth. Later, Heathcliff goes so far as to dig up Catherine’s grave, only to discover that she has not decomposed. Is she a bit of a witch?

Both Werther and Heathcliff are torn up by decisions made by women. Heathcliff’s rage and depression inspire him to destroy everyone Catherine loved, while Werther destroys himself. Both men are involved in complicated triangles.

Two harrowing narratives, both frame stories, and though Werther is stable compared to Heathcliff, both are full of rage. The novels are written in different periods, but linked by a long lineaage of confessional and romantic Gothic literature. Werther’s love would seem realistic, if he could have let it go. But Bronte caps every character’s weirdness with Heathcliff, who I hope was not based on Branwell, he brother, though I have read that he was.