INTELLECTUAL DISCOURSE, AND, INDEED, language as a system, depends on representation. Representation involves presenting something that stands for something else, something that is absent or eclipsed by the substitute presented in its stead, e.g., an icon or a word. Because what is eclipsed in a representation must return as a term of reference, this word is not a misnomer, as it may seem to be. Otherwise we could not speak of a substitute or an eclipse. These terms affirm the presence of what their referents are supposed to replace. As a result, every representation is a misrepresentation, as has often been pointed out. Knowing this, Goethe both employs substitution and subverts it by foregrounding and multiplying cases of representation, among other ways. In Stella: Ein Schauspiel für Liebende, substitution is thematized, with what purpose and effects it will be part of our purpose here to show. We will go on to examine the function of substitution in Goethe's creation of literary characters as confessional representations of himself.

In this early play about polyamorous love, Stella discusses with Cäcilie, Fernando's lawfully wedded wife, the difference between an “Ersatz” and an “Entschädigung,” and does so in an almost professorial way. Cäcilie says to Stella that “Geschäftigkeit und Wohltätigkeit” may take the place of romantic love in the lives of “unglückliche liebende Herzen” (FA 1.4:547).