Structure, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Unreliable Narrator

I think it's important, when discussing The Sorrows of Young Werther, to remember that any time the word "truth" enters the conversation, we begin to tread on unstable ground. Of course, by the nature of its structure, we can only know what Werther wants us to know (or, by the conceit of the novel, what he wants Wilhelm to know). However, we must approach the work with an additional level of uncertainty due Werther's dissolution from society. In other words, we must assume that Werther is not only an unreliable narrator, but an unreliable perceiver as well.

Truth?
What exactly is one discussing when one speaks about "truth" in a work of fiction? In daily life, we say something is true when it corresponds with some sort of empirically verifiable reality, a distal stimulus of which our experience can be nothing more than what our senses perceive. We verify the existence of these objects by comparing our perceptions with those reported by others. In this way we are able to coexist with others in a relatively stable world. However, in fiction we are often presented with facts by an omniscient narrator who exists outside of the events presented. In this case, we take the narrator's word as truth and the text becomes synonymous with the "truth" of the story.
When, like Werther, the narrator of a work of fiction appears in the story, we must account for the viewpoint of the narrator when we determine what objects exist in the "real" world of the work--in terms of Werther, what actions really took place. When asking a question such as, "do you think Lotte led Werther along?" We must take into account the fact that we are referring to this "real" world, which exists (A) beyond the words that Werther has written and (B) beyond the perceptions of the character Werther.
I believe that it is impossible to ascertain whether or not Lotte acted with impropriety, but we can say that in the realm of Werther's perceptions it may have seemed to be so. Throughout the novel, Werther repeatedly states his belief that he and Lotte are a perfect match, and that he cannot understand how cruel fate could keep them apart. Of course, like anyone in love, Werther has built a romanticized representation of Lotte, and their relationship, in his mind. The simple answer to Werther's complaint, "if we are perfect for one another, why doesn't she love me," can be answered by stating that perhaps they are not perfect for one another, and perhaps Lotte acts in a perfectly honest way-- you, Werther, just choose not to change your mental representation of her.
In this way, he perseveres, preserving his fantasy of love, too much of a spoiled immature whelp to allow himself to perceive reality as it actually exists. Thus, when the climactic scene occurs and he kisses Lotte, only to be rejected, his cognitive representation finally proves itself incompatible with reality. Still unable to change himself, Werther chooses suicide rather than adjustment.