Goethe and His Sister: Some Literary Vicissitudes of a Relationship

The relationship between goethe and his sister, Cornelia, has been referred to by students of his life as somewhat strangely close or unusually intimate. Both Brion (1982) and Freidenthal (1965) refer to Goethe's tendency to seek out “sisters” in his love relationships. The tie between the two has figured as an essential component in a pathography by Theilhaber (1929). Eissler (1963) in his insightful study gives the relationship a central and balanced place. My own focus will be principally on some literary vicissitudes of the relationship, which emphasize what I consider an important leitmotiv for Goethe — the ideal and idealized woman who exerts a beneficial and ennobling influence on the man and who can then redeem him, and its counterpart, the woman as desirable and yearned for, yet through her passivity or blindness ultimately giving only illusory encouragement and, in the end, unable to save the man from disaster.

First, we should note some burdens for the English-speaking reader in evaluating Goethe's vast literary output. We are outside the German cultural orbit. His works are often difficult to obtain in translation, and his magnificent gifts of eloquence — particularly in the lyric poetry — are not easily translatable. There has been and is an extensive empire of Goethe research and scholarship, spread through time and space which seems to have worked over every conceivable