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How Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther Led to a Rare Suicide Cluster ‹ Literary Hub

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In January of 2007, a strange thing started occurring in Bridgend, South Wales—young people started hanging themselves. By December of 2008, a total of 26—mostly teenagers—had taken their own lives in the traditional Welsh community. Speculation ran rampant as to what was causing this suicide epidemic: Was it a suicide cult? Some sort of internet effect? Or just depressed teens feeling trapped in a gray and economically depressed former mining town? Although rare, suicide “clusters” are not unheard of and are considered a classic social contagion effect. This type of suicide social contagion has also been called the “Werther effect,” named after Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. That novel, published in 1774, narrated the story of a young, sensitive, and passionate artist named Werther. Werther falls in love with a woman named Charlotte, who is engaged to an older man, Albert, whom she eventually marries. Charlotte does share strong feelings for Werther, but knows that their

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