STELLA HAS BEEN CALLED A “Pendant zu Werther …; die Figuren der Dreiecksgeschichte sind vertauscht” (MA 1,1:757), for while in Werther it was one woman between two men, in Stella it is one man between two women. Werther ends in the death of the protagonist, Stella does so only in a late, second version, no longer subtitled “Ein Schauspiel für Liebende,” but simply “Ein Trauerspiel.” Both works pose the question of the uniqueness of personalities and raise the possibility of one lover replacing or standing in for another. In Stella, substitution is thematized, as part of a demonstration that, just as Werther claims, every lover or beloved is unique and irreplaceable.

In this play about polyamorous love, Madame Sommer, as Cezilie is known until she and Fernando meet and acknowledge each other in act 3, arrives with her daughter Luzie at an inn managed by a robust Postmeisterin in the village where Luzie is to take employment with Stella, a young noblewoman. Cezilie has fallen into near indigence since she was deserted by her husband. Stella too is an abandoned woman, forsaken by the same man who had earlier left Cezilie, but, although still in mourning over the loss of Fernando and the death of their child, she is productively engaged in teaching peasant girls useful skills and then placing them in good houses. Coincidentally, Fernando, the partner absconditus of both adult women and Luzie's father by Cezilie, arrives at the same inn.