• 28. Caroline to Luise Gotter in Gotha: Göttingen, 1 November 1781
Göttingen, 1 November 1781
|57| . . . Perhaps my understanding of friendship is also too broad — and I am including love here as well — but I doubtless will never really fall in love (for what I hitherto have thought was love was only self-deception, and it cost me precious little effort to renounce these fantasies); but were I indeed to marry, I would harbor only the most sublime friendship for my husband, and yet perhaps not as much as for my brother. [1] —
And let me tell you something else as well, something that is probably also the consequence of one of my more modest personal quirks: Were I completely my own master, and, moreover, could also live in decent and pleasant circumstances, I would much prefer never to marry at all and instead try to be useful to the world in some other way. [2] . . .
Notes
[1] Several passages in previous and coming letters suggest that Caroline entertained romantic notions about her half-brother Fritz; certain other individuals around her noticed this inclination as well. Back.
[2] The reference, of course, is to the broad exclusion of women from most professions that might realistically support “decent and pleasant” living circumstances. Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott