Gottfried Wolfgang

The main character of "The Adventure of the German Student" by Washington Irving is Gottfried Wolfgang. As the title suggests, he is a student from Germany, “a young man of a good family.” He is rigorously involved in his studies: he is a loner, intense, and increasingly paranoid that an “evil influence” is hanging over him, waiting for the right moment to snatch him. This isolation and fear have “had an effect on both mind and body.” According to the narrator, his preoccupation with his studies is not unusual for the time; scholarly debates of politics and philosophy appear to have been products of the time period and setting. To break out of his fear of evildoing, his friends and family suggested he complete his studies elsewhere. He spends time in Paris during the French Revolution—the setting is without the “gaiety” typically associated with Parisian living. Wolfgang remains a loner, absorbed in his thoughts, and begins fantasizing about an unknown, beautiful woman. When he eventually encounters this woman one stormy night, he invites her to get out of the weather and stay with him. He promptly declares his devotion to her only to discover she is dead: she had been guillotined the day before. Wolfgang spends the rest of his days in a “madhouse,” terrified that his fear of an evil spirit snagging hold of him has come true. 

The Woman

The other main character of the story is the young woman who Wolfgang envisioned before meeting her. He is afraid to talk to women in real life, but has imagined this woman’s existence before ever seeing her. She showed up in his dreams at night as well as occupied his thoughts during the daytime. In typical student fashion, Wolfgang spends hours imagining female faces and forms—doing so to an unrealistic extent. Wolfgang actually encounters this mystery woman in person. Sitting by the guillotine one stormy night, she is distraught. She tells him she has no home and no friends, and gestures to the guillotine. Wolfgang brings her home and notices her attire: she is wearing all-black garments with an ornamental necklace—it is a black band with diamonds. He believes her to be of the higher class, hence her displacement amidst the Revolution. Overcome by his feelings toward her, he pledges himself to her. She, too, admits to feeling drawn to him and pledges herself to him forever. In the morning, Wolfgang discovers she is the corpse of a woman who had been guillotined the day before. This drives him mad, and he spends the rest of his life in a “madhouse.”

The Narrator

In typical Washington Irving fashion, the story is told to us through someone else who swears by the reality of the content. The narrator, unnamed, claims to have heard it directly from Wolfgang: “The student told it me himself. I saw him in a madhouse in Paris.” The narrator is only described as having a “haunted head,” perhaps as a result of the eerie tale he shares.