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1、 Sherwood Andersons View of Women in Winsburg, OhioSTUDENT: HOU LipingTUTOR: XU Conghui （Lecturer）GRADE: Grade 2008MAJOR: English Education DEPARTMENT: English Education DepartmentCOLLEGE: Faculty of Western Languagesand LiteraturesMay, 2012Sherwood Andersons View of Women in Winsburg, OhioHOU Lipin

2、g Abstract: In Winesburg, Ohio，Sherwood Anderson depicts for us women in a group in Winesburg, the small town in American Midwest after industrial civilization in the early of 20th century . This paper will deeply analyze the female characters in Winesburg, Ohio and the authors view of women, and wi

3、ll discuss the reasons for the woman characters into “freak”, thus explore the way for women realize to themselves and build the harmonious woman-man relationship.Key words: Winesburg, Ohio; woman in a group; view of woman1. Introduction American literature begins with the orally transmitted myths,

4、legends, tales, and lyrics which are always songs of womens view. In Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson dispressed his view of women after industial civilization. So will introduce Sherwood Anderson and Wineaburg, Ohio in the fellowing.1.1 Sherwood AndersonSherwood Anderson （1876-1941） was born in C

5、amden, Ohio. In1883 the Andersons settled in Clyde，Ohio. It is a small town in the heartland of America that later served as a model for Winesburg. Although he received a spotty education and never finished high school，Anderson possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and always imagined a glorious futur

6、e for himself. A year or two after his mothers death in 1895，he journeyed to Chicago. Anderson became an advertising copywriter in the summer of 1900 in Chicago. He satisfied his growing interest in creative writing and often turned out essays, sketches, and stories in his spare time. Following his

7、marriage in 1904 to Cornelia Lane, Anderson became head of a mail-order firm in Cleveland and subsequently established his own business in Elyria, Ohio. The successful book Winesburg, Ohio was written in 1919 and thus the 1920s was a productive and rewarding period for Anderson. In the summer of 192

8、1 he traveled to Europe and met James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Ford Madox Ford, and the more of Andersons naturalistic impressions of American life in tales and poems, the Triumph of the Egg, was published in the fall of that year. Thereafter devoting his energies exclusively to writing, Anderson

9、produced two more novels- Marry Marriages（1922）and Dark Laughter（1925）, his only bestseller- as well as two more collections of stories，Horses and Men（1923） and Alice and the Lost Novel（1929）. Andersons literary reputation declined in the 1930s .He produced two flawed novels-Beyond Desire （1932） and

10、 Kat Brandon （1936）, which embodied his beliefs about both the failure and the promise of American life. Late in February of 1941 he sailed from New York on a trip to South America with his fourth wife but taken ill aboard ship, Sherwood Anderson died of peritonitis in a hospital on March 8, 1941. H

11、is final work, Sherwood Andersons memoirs, appeared posthumously in 1942.1.2 Winesburg, Ohio An American Modern Work Winesburg, Ohio as one of his novels and collection of tales is the one which established Sherwood Anderson as a talented modern American author. Since its first appearance in 1919, t

12、he collection of “individual tales but all about lives in some way connected” has been continuously in print and translated into more than twenty languages, acclaiming a timeless classic with generational and universal themes. The diversity of themes and the pioneering style made Winesburg, Ohio a r

13、ich source for literary criticism. It is studied mainly as a naturalistic work, one of the earliest post-World War I avant-garde works because of its exploration of the grotesque and of the modern man in modern society. It is taken as a work of balding roman by such critics like Edwin Fusels and Car

14、ol Baker who find George Willards journey toward maturity and manhood and his subsequent escape from Winesburg to be its center. But David D. Anderson demonstrates that George Willards role is secondary to the people about whom each story centers. he says, “to each of the grotesques he appears to be

15、 what that individual wants him to be,” and he also suggests that we reader must understand the individual characters and their human experience in order to fully understand the book.The significance of Winesburg, Ohio also lies in its modern techniques. In this book, Anderson broke away from the tr

16、adition of gentility that had dominated fiction writing in the United States. The story concerns an inward reality that focuses on the psychology of individual in a small American town, which demonstrates an awareness of the implication of Sigmund Freud, particularly reflected on the change of women

17、s psychology.2. Womens Life and Struggle in the TownIn Winesburg, Ohio women suffered from both non-communication and the social patriarchy, the later even hurt the tender souls more severely. Either as mothers daughters or wives, women didnt been understood and respected by their male counterparts,

18、 not to mention love or sympathy. The general social background was the transition from the quiet pastoral age to the noisy industrialized world, and both men and women were overwhelmed by machines. At that age, men were confused by the huge power of machines, and they felt threatened by the industr

19、y, therefore they were unable to love women. As Jiang Lixiang has observed in her essay, womens priority is to love and be loved; but in front of the coming machine age,” machines imprisoned men and men are humiliated and no longer enjoy their creativity and confidence, hence losing control in their

20、 relationship with women”（2005:3）. What is worse, the male-centered social tradition made most men treat women as inferiors, among the towns inhabitants there was some sort of male-domination, and the tragic thing is that most women accepted the discrimination without self-awakening. The general pic

21、ture of the living condition of the women was a gloom one. As mothers, the women failed to express their love and hope for their children, they did not get understanding and closeness from their children in return. The typical mother-son relationship was described between Elizabeth Willard and Georg

22、e Willard. The author repeatedly stressed that “there was a deep unexpressed bond of sympathy, based on a girlhood dream that had long ago died” （WO, 40）. As wives and lovers, the women again got little understanding and love from the men. In the social environment, men treated women merely as sexua

23、l partners, they vented their lust but returned little love and respect. Elizabeth Willard was a good example.As a whole, womens living condition in the town of Winesburg was depressing. Non-communication and the male-centered social tradition made a most harsh environment for the women to thrive. T

24、he women characters suffer from human isolation more severely than their male counterpart, yet under the writers pen, some female inhabitants have displayed great intelligence and wisdom about life. In the next part, discussions of these enlightening and tragic elements in those womens life will be

25、given in detail.2.1 Elizabeth Willard A Dream Girl and Silent MotherElizabeth Willard is generally taken as a defeated mother and wife-her son never came close to her during her life thought he did understand the mother and tried to express the common dream them, and her husband resented her existen

26、ce. when Elizabeth was a young girl, she was full of energy and she cherished fantastic dreams; she wanted to live an ideal life and she tried to love others and to be loved in return, just Like the cats （Death） “creeping into the door of the bakery”. But in front of reality her dream was smashed to

27、 every bit, she got no love and her struggle for ideal life failed completely. The author portrayed her bitter life as such:” some obscure disease had taken the fire out of her figure. Listlessly she went about, doing the work of a chambermaid among beds soiled by the slumbers of fat travelling man”

28、 （WO, 39）. It is such a life that literally mirrors a living death. What is even worse, she had to bear her husbands, resentment and abuse: “Tom Willard tried to put the wife out of his mind. The presence of the tall ghostly figure, moving slowly through the halls, he took as a reproach to himself.

29、When he thought of her he grew angry and swore. As he went spruce and business-like through the streets of Winesburg, he sometimes stopped and turned quickly about as though fearing that the spirit of the hotel and of the woman would follow him even into the streets. Damn such a life, damn it! he sp

30、uttered aimlessly” （WO, 39）. Life failed her thoroughly, and she tasted the bitter of reality just like the cat being tracked and hated by the baker.As a young girl, Elizabeth dreamed of joining some company and wandering over the world, seeing always new faces and giving something out of herself to

31、 all people: “She tried to talk of the matter to members of the theatrical companies that came to Winesburg and stopped at her fathers hotel, she got nowhere. They did not seem to know what she meant, if she did get something of her passion expressed, they only laughed. Its not like that, they said.

32、 Its as dull and uninteresting as this here. Nothing comes of it” （WO, 46）. She was eager for adventures in life but she found no proper way for expression; in confusion and disappointment she released her restlessness in relating herself with the travelling salesmen staying in her fathers hotel, she walked with the travelling men, “ always they seemed to understand and sympathize with her,” and understanding is what the girl wanted so badly, but the truth is that those men themselves got