ABSTRACT
Mignon is both the most loved and the most maligned figure in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre — perhaps, indeed, in Goethe's entire oeuvre. Her characterization is unsurpassed in its sensitivity, yet her presence and story remain deeply problematic for many readers. It will be a contention that her association in the novel with the idea of the secret anticipates a cast of mind more typical of the very late Goethe: a concern, namely, with the limitations of human understanding. The secret acquires particular prominence in Goethe's last works: the first maxim in the collection 'Aus Makariens Archiv' at the end of Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, for example, opens thus: 'Die Geheimnisse der Lebenspfade darf und kann man nicht offenbaren'. The assumption that Mignon can be accurately represented is symptomatic of the characters' increasing confusion in this episode of the means and the ends, of art and what it seeks to represent.
