Charlotte and Albert’s marriage is disclosed not through a wedding scene but through its aftermath in Werther’s diary. The news confirms their union while exposing the painful arrangement Werther tries to accept: Charlotte is married to Albert, yet Werther believes he remains second in her affections.

Background and Expectation

Werther had been waiting for word that Albert and Charlotte’s wedding day had been set. He had prepared himself for that announcement by planning a solemn gesture: on the wedding day, he would take Charlotte’s portrait down from the wall and bury it with other papers he possessed. The plan shows how he anticipated the marriage—as a boundary that would require him to put away a visible emblem of his attachment.

Confirmation of the Marriage

On February 20, Werther addresses Albert and declares that Albert and Charlotte are now united. The entry gives no account of the ceremony, its date, or its circumstances; the marriage reaches the reader as a fact already accomplished. Werther’s remark that Albert had deceived him conveys the hurt of having waited for news of the wedding day and not receiving it as he expected.

Aftermath and Significance

The expected removal of the portrait does not happen. Werther decides to leave it where it is, reasoning that he still belongs to their society and occupies an uninjured place in Charlotte’s heart, though only the second place. That conviction is both consolation and torment: he can preserve the portrait because he believes Charlotte has not forgotten him, but the thought that she might forget would, he says, make him mad. The entry closes with farewells to Albert and Charlotte, turning their marriage into a private separation that Werther acknowledges without relinquishing his attachment.