小城畸人

小城畸人

Short Summary

Winesburg, Ohio

begins with a sort of prologue, in which an old writer imagines all the people he has

known as

concerned with a single resident of Winesburg. The first, entitled

a recluse with remarkable hands that he cannot control, who has fled from false accusations of molesting

a boy in another town. The second,

edical man who

marries one of his young patients, only to have her die six months later. In the third,

Elizabeth Willard, the mother of the book's central character, George Willard, who is a young reporter for

the local paper. Elizabeth is a sick woman, trapped in an unhappy marriage, and she imagines herself

locked in a struggle with her husband for influence over the next story,

eccentric Doctor Parcival imagines that a lynch mob is after him, and tells George Willard the secret of

life:

the fields and sleeps with a girl named Louise Trunnion, only to feel guilty about it afterward. The next

four stories, all lumped under the heading

imagines himself a Biblical figure chosen by God. His daughter, Louise Bentley, receives no love from

him, and stumbles into a loveless marriage. Her son, David Hardy, is sent to live with his grandfather on

the old man's farm, and Jesse takes the boy out into the forest in search of a message from God. He

finds no message, however, and succeeds only in traumatizing the boy so much that David runs away

from Winesburg forever.

In

successfully courts a woman whose father and brother are notorious thugs. The following story,

considers him) left Winesburg years ago and has never returned.

Williams, the filthy, ugly telegraph operator in Winesburg who despises women because of his wife's

infidelity and his mother-in-law's treachery.

Seth Richmond who feels that he does not belong in Winesburg. At the end of a long evening with Helen

White, the daughter of the Winesburg banker, he tells her that he plans to leave town for good.

description of the perfect woman. In

into lust by the sight of Kate Swift, a local schoolteacher. His temptation passes when he sees her, one

snowy night, praying naked.

attraction to George Willard--her simultaneous desires to teach and embrace him

--and her sudden guilty

flight from his office, which leaves him confused.

Winesburg to New York, where he populates his apartment with imaginary friends, only to have them

move out when he tries to tell his female neighbor about

out walking one night and has what he thinks is an epiphany. He tries to tell Belle Carpenter, the girl he

has been seeing, about it, but another one of her suitors beats him up, and the magic of the evening slips

away.

Winesburg and George Willard because he thinks that the town considers his family to be odd. The story

ends with Elmer beating up George and hopping a train out of town. In

named Hal Winters asks another farmhand named Ray Pearson for advice about whether to get married,

causing Ray to reflect on his marriage, which he does with disgust.

young man named Tom Foster and his first experience with drunkenness.

In

toward death. She dies, finally, and George decides to quit Winesburg forever. In

,

and Helen White go out walking together on the night of the county fair, and run around like children as

evening falls on Winesburg. Both are moving on from their small town, as Helen is going to college, and

in the final story,

life there

Characters

George Willard

-

A young man who works as a reporter in Winesburg, Ohio. Despite the fact that he is

one of the least developed of the major characters, he occupies the central role in the book. As a result

of either chance meetings or other people's decisions to confide in him, George is the figure who links

many of the novel's disparate stories together.

Wing Biddlebaum

-

A sensitive ex- schoolteacher who was accused of molesting one of his male pupils

in a town near Winesburg. His hands are amazingly dexterous, but he has difficulty controlling them, and

they tend to wander where they don't belong.

Doctor Reefy

-

An aging doctor with a declining practice. He marries a young female patient, but she

dies after less than a year. He also develops a close relationship with Elizabeth Willard during her last

months.

Elizabeth Willard

-

George Willard's mother, and Tom Willard's wife. She lives in the family's run-down

boarding house, where she is constantly ill and has become an invalid. She displays desperate

impotence in her dealings with other people, including her husband and son.

Tom Willard

-

George Willard's father, a middle-aged man with frustrated political ambitions.

Doctor Parcival

-

A doctor who enjoys chatting with George and hinting about a criminal past. He

suffers from paranoia, believing that the secret of life is

Louise Trunnion

-

A local girl with whom George Willard has one of his first sexual experiences.

Jesse Bentley

-

A wealthy farmer, and a deeply religious man with a brutal, Old Testament sensibility

and tendency to terrorize his family.

Louise Bentley

-

Jesse Bentley's daughter. A lonely woman with a vicious temper, she is estranged

from her father, and marries young out of a craving for love. Her marriage is not a success.

David Hardy

-

Louise Bentley's son and Jesse Bentley's grandson. He goes to live on his grandfather's

farm while an adolescent, and ends up terrorized by his grandfather's religious zeal and desire to make

contact with God.

Joe Welling

-

The agent for Standard Oil in Winesburg, he is a man who seizes on strange ideas and

talks about them for hours on end. He is compared to a volcano, outwardly calm but always ready to

explode with some strange fascination.

Alice Hindman

-

A woman in her twenties who once felt deep love for a man who eventually left

Winesburg behind. She is now gradually and unwillingly becoming an old maid.

Wash Williams

-

The Winesburg telegraph operator. A fat, filthy man, he despises the

world --particularly women, whom he calls

Seth Richmond

-

A sensitive, deep-thinking young man, and a friend of George Willard.

Tandy Hard

-

A young woman whose first name comes from a drunkard's speech about the perfect

woman.

Curtis Hartman

-

The successful, popular minister of the Presbyterian Church. He struggles with the

sexual temptation of peeping in at Kate Swift's window while he writes his sermons.

Kate Swift

-

A Winesburg schoolteacher. She sees a

encourage it, but she is also looking for love, and briefly allows him to embrace her in the newspaper

office.

Enoch Robinson

-

A man from Winesburg who moves to New York and, in the grip of terrible loneliness,

becomes slightly unhinged and populates his apartment with imaginary people.

Belle Carpenter

-

The daughter of a bookkeeper, she goes on walks with George Willard and even

kisses him-- mainly, however, to arouse the jealousy of the man she really wants, a local bartender

named Handby.

Elmer Cowley

-

The son of a store owner. He feels terribly out of place in Winesburg, as if everyone is

laughing at him, and is prone to hysterical outbursts. Two of these outbursts are directed at George

Willard, who is intrigued by Elmer's personality.

Ray Pearson

-

A married farm hand, about fifty years old, with a good reputation. He works alongside

Hal Winters.

Hal Winters

-

A farm hand who works alongside Ray Pearson, and who has a reputation as a

one,

Tom Foster

-

A quiet, likable boy who moves to Winesburg from Cincinnati. He decides to get drunk

one night, and finds it a remarkable experience.

Helen White

-

A local girl, who is romantically connected to both Seth Richmond and George Willard.

Study Questions

What role does George Willard play in

Winesburg, Ohio

?

Answer for Study Question 1 >>

Winesburg, Ohio

sits uneasily on the divide between a novel and a collection of short stories. Although

each of the sections in the book stands on its own, they all center on the Ohio town of the title, and they

overlap one another in various ways. George Willard unifies the book, appearing in fifteen out of the

twenty-four stories, sometimes as the main character, but more often as a confidant--someone to whom

unhappy, alienated people such as Wing Biddlebaum and Wash Williams can relate their troubles. In

these stories, he is a listener, standing in for the reader--a conduit through whom the reader receives

other people's stories. As the book progresses toward its end, George moves out of the shadows and

develops into an adult, leaving behind the superficialities of youth. By the end of

Winesburg, Ohio,

he is

ready to leave his home town behind, and with his departure the reader leaves as well.

Discuss the role of religion in

Winesburg, Ohio.

Answer for Study Question 2 >>

Out of the many stories in Anderson's book, two in particular focus on the relationship between God and

man.

particularly of the way God communicates with man. In

as a kind of Old Testament figure, the founder of a

f.

he is chosen by God to prosper greatly, and anxiously looks for a sign of divine favor. He thinks he finds

this sign in his only grandson, David Hardy. But when Jesse attempts to confirm God's gift, by taking the

boy out into the woods and waiting for a sign or a miracle, the boy feels only fear, as if

dangerous person

Reverend Curtis Hartman feels that God has abandoned him by allowing him to be grippe

d by sexual

temptation. In a moment of utter despair, however, Hartman is allowed a glimpse of the divine (or so he

thinks) in the praying figure of the very woman who has been the source of his temptation. The contrast is

clear: Jesse Bentley looks desperately for God and finds nothing, while Curtis Hartman is on the verge of

abandoning God when he has a miraculous vision.

How is marriage portrayed in

Winesburg, Ohio

?

Answer for Study Question 3 >>

There are noticeably few happy people in Anderson's Ohio town, and even fewer happily

married

people.

In particular, his female characters are largely trapped in unpleasant, sterile marriages, yearning

desperately for love. Elizabeth Willard hates her husband, for instance, while Louise Bentley bitterly

regrets her decision to get married. Jesse Bentley's nameless wife dies in childbirth, succumbing to poor

health induced by her husband's slave-driving management of their farm. The men, too, such as Ray

Pearson in

to stand by their wives. Wash Williams endures the infidelity of his wife and develops an abiding loathing

for all women. The only happy couple seems to be Doctor Reefy and his much younger wife in

Pills

fleeting, and marriage becomes something to be endured rather than enjoyed.

Discuss the portrayal of women in

Winesburg, Ohio.

Compare and contrast Seth Richmond and Elmer Cowley, particularly in their attitudes toward Winesburg

and George Willard.

Discuss the role of loneliness in the book. Who is lonely? Who isn't?

Are there any happy characters in

Winesburg, Ohio

? Who are they? Defend your answer.