Goethe Lite
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first, exclaiming in a letter: “Fritz, she is not beautiful, she is not even pretty. I
say again this Sophie is empty-headed, moreover at twelve years old she has a
double chin—” (90). In addition to being rather ordinary-looking, Sophie can
barely write. At one point, early in their relationship, Sophie writes in a letter
that she “must write no more” (99). When Fritz inquires as to how he should
interpret this remark, Sophie’s stepfather, Hausherr Rockenthien, replies, “she
must write no more because she scarcely knows how to” (99). Sophie’s older
sister, Frau Leutnant Mandelsloh agrees somewhat tongue-in-cheek that
“Sophgen does not use ink every day” (100). When Fritz reads aloud to Sophie
from his manuscript Heinrich von Ofterdingen, (source of the romantic motif of
the “blue flower”), Sophie wants to know how Heinrich can “care about a
flower?. . . He is not a woman, and he is not a gardener” (112). Fitzgerald’s
Fritz sees past Sophie’s completely down-to-earth approach to life. For him she
is a contradiction, who “cares more about other people and their feelings than
about her own. But [who] is cold through and through” (113). Despite her
common appearance, extreme literal mindedness, and disinterest in reading and
writing, both Fritz and later on the same brother Erasmus who earlier decried the
relationship, fall in love with Sophie. Fitzgerald illustrates the apparent
contradiction and portrays the depth of Novalis’s feelings for Sophie, thus
making plausible his memorable third hymn, published after Sophie’s death:
“Einst da ich bittre Thranen vergoB, da in Schmerz aufgelost
meine Hoffiiung zerran, und ich einsam stand am diirren
Hiigel,. . . ” [Once, while I shed bitter tears, while my hope ran
out dissolved into pain, and I stood alone on the barren
grave,...”] (135).
Faustinas Kusse uses a fictional protagonist, Beri, to describe Goethe’s
first and second visits to Rome, fall and winter 1786-87 and then again that
summer. In this respect, the novel differs from Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower,
which relies entirely on historical figures. Beri is amused by Goethe’s antics and
convinces papal authorities to pay him to spy on Goethe. We learn through Beri
of Goethe’s doings in Rome, as in the scene where Beri follows Goethe and
Tischbein to the Vatican. Goethe himself describes his disappointment in the
mundane actions of the pope in his Italienische Reise: 3 November 1786. When
he observes the pope moving to and fro before the altar acting like a common
“parson,. . . the protestant original sin stirred and the familiar and mundane
sacrifice of the mass didn’t please me at all. . . I nudged my companion so that
we could be free of the vaulted and painted halls.”3 Ortheil’s account of the visit,
via Beri, is quite different. According to Beri, Goethe and Tischbein behave like
little boys, unable to stifle their “Schwatzen und Wispem” (40). Beri, Catholic
in contrast to Goethe’s Protestantism, is shocked by Goethe’s behavior.
Goethe’s gentle nudge to his friend Tischbein in the direction of the door
becomes “chattering and whispering,” and finally laughing out loud. Later, still
seeking Goethe’s secret, Beri gains access to Goethe’s rooms. Seeing some