Werther and Charlotte's first meeting turns an ordinary trip to a country ball into the beginning of Werther's consuming attachment. The episode is told in Werther's letter to Wilhelm: its social arrangements and courteous introductions give way to a private intensity that makes Charlotte's prior engagement, disclosed during a dance, feel to him like a sudden personal reversal.

Setting and Arrival

Werther had been invited by S—, a district judge, to visit his country retreat, but had neglected the invitation. He finally went because a group of young people planned a ball nearby. He had agreed to escort a pretty, agreeable but, in his judgment, commonplace young woman, and arranged to collect her and her aunt along with Charlotte. On the drive, the aunt warned him that Charlotte was already engaged to a worthy man who had gone away to settle his affairs after his father's death and would inherit a considerable estate. Werther heard the information without interest; he had not yet connected it with the woman he was about to meet.

At the house, as the sun set behind the mountains and heavy clouds gathered, Werther went inside while the party waited for Charlotte. Six children, ranging in age from eleven to two, surrounded her in the hall. Dressed simply in white trimmed with pink ribbons, she was slicing a rye loaf and distributing supper according to each child's age and appetite. Her attention moved among the children as they waited their turns, ate, or went to inspect the visitors and carriage. Charlotte explained that she had forgotten their supper while dressing and finishing household duties, and that they preferred to receive it from her. Her care for them was not a staged introduction: it delayed her departure and gave the meeting its first defining image.

The Encounter and the Ball

Charlotte's affectionate manner and voice immediately absorbed Werther's attention. He approached the youngest child, Louis, who initially drew back; at Charlotte's prompting, the boy took Werther's hand, and Werther kissed him despite his dirty face. Charlotte called him her cousin, a playful form of welcome rather than a claim of close kinship. Before leaving, she placed her sister Sophy, about eleven, in charge of the younger children and asked her to greet their father when he returned from riding. A six-year-old protested that Sophy was not Charlotte, and that the children liked Charlotte best. Charlotte also allowed her two eldest brothers to ride with them a short distance through the forest, after they promised to sit still and hold fast.

At the ball, Werther's attention remained fixed on Charlotte even when conversation turned to books and dancing. She spoke approvingly of The Vicar of Wakefield and other works, and said that when anything troubled her she went to the piano and played an air to which she had danced. Werther became so absorbed by her expression and speech that he described himself as leaving the carriage as if in a dream, scarcely registering the illuminated ballroom or its music. When the dancing began, he admired the wholehearted ease with which she moved through an English country dance. During a pause she ate oranges Werther had managed to secure; each slice she courteously offered to someone else stirred his jealousy, exposing how quickly admiration had become possessive feeling.

The Engagement Revealed

The decisive disclosure came during the third country dance. A woman who knew Charlotte raised a warning finger and twice spoke Albert's name. Werther asked who Albert was. Charlotte, after they had been separated by a figure in the dance, told him that Albert was the worthy man to whom she was engaged. Werther already knew of the engagement from the journey, but until that moment had not attached the fact to the woman who had so suddenly become precious to him. The knowledge unsettled him enough that he lost his place in the dance and caused confusion; Charlotte had to guide him back into position.

The storm that had been gathering interrupted the ball. Lightning grew stronger, thunder rose above the music, and the frightened guests withdrew to a room with shutters and curtains. Charlotte arranged the chairs in a circle and proposed a game. Her composure and initiative in the unsettled gathering extend the first impression formed in the hall: she appears attentive to other people and able to restore order, while Werther registers each detail through the heightened force of his own response.

Later Significance

The encounter establishes an asymmetry that subsequent events make painful rather than resolving: Charlotte's engagement is stated clearly from the outset, but Werther experiences the revelation as if it were new because his attraction has already taken hold. His response to Albert later reveals the continuing strain. When Werther tries to intervene on behalf of a former servant accused of murdering a man, Albert supports the judge's refusal to bypass legal procedure. Werther urges the judge to let the prisoner escape, then leaves in anger when the request is rejected. Although he recognizes on reflection that Albert's position is correct, he admits in a memorandum that he cannot be just toward him and experiences him as an inward torment. This later conflict is distinct from the ball, but it shows how the early disclosure of Albert's place in Charlotte's life becomes part of a lasting emotional rivalry, even when their disagreement concerns justice rather than courtship.