Through the stories so far that we have read in Winesburg, Ohio, all the main characters of the stories have been a grotesque. In this book, a grotesque is someone who lets an idea or truth of their life overcome them and become the only thing that they fixate on. The character who goes through the most change because of his grotesque may be Wash Williams a man who was so committed and so loyal to his wife which eventually lead to his downfall. Wash Williams is the only character so far who at some point treated his woman with respect, he did not have sex before he got married to her which shows incredible devotion towards her. The language of this story leads us to also believe that they did not have sex together at all which leads her to cheat on him with several men in town. There is a scene where his wife hands him the seeds to a garden while he does all the gardening. This symbolizes the fact that his wife is in control of his manhood or his “seeds” which sounds really gross. However, this shows that this relationship is almost flipped from the traditional married couples in the time period, where the woman is very submissive to the man. Wash after learning of his wife’s infidelity simply sends her home to her mother’s, now what is interesting is that he sends all the 400 dollars to her and when he sells their house to him, he sends that money to her. This shows how he is still submissive to her and even idolizes her. Next he receives a message from the woman’s mother saying that she wanted to have him come to her house. When he arrives he is presented with his former wife stark naked which enraged him, causing him to attack the woman’s mother.
This hatred for his mother and law was never resolved, as she died of a fever a month after this encounter. As this was unresolved, the anger towards her and her daughter, became a hatred towards all women. This hatred towards all women is a form of projection where he directs his anger towards all women because he is unable to resolve his feelings with his wife and her mother. Freud would view Wash’s passiveness and submissiveness as a form of an altered Oedipal complex where he possibly identified and sympathized with the mother rather than the father which caused him to get more feminine mannerism. I argue that Wash is the most grotesque out of all those we have seen, this is because Wash’s trauma has him do a complete 180 degree turn in his behaviors and his appearance. He seems to be the only character where what makes him grotesque effects more than just his mental ability.
I don't think Wash is idolizing his wife after her infidelity. Rather, I think he still loves her. At that point in his story, Wash doesn't speak of his wife with the hatred that he later shows. But he doesn't sugarcoat it either. He knows that she did an immoral thing, that's why he sent her back to her mother's house. That doesn't mean that he no longer loves her, or that he forgets about the bad.
ReplyDeleteI guess you could say that Williams is really *washed up*, huh? Puns aside, Wash Williams’s relation with women is a very interesting subject. Although very much a sexist in his description, Wash has reasons for his complete hatred of women. Given that he puts such blame on his wife for having the affairs and his mother-in-law to forcefully mend the situation in a very obtrusive and really weird approach, Wash only hates these two women. Wash really did idolize his wife, completely loving her and feeling absolutely betrayed once she had her affairs. Wash, like his namesake, tried to keep himself clean and pure by not having any sexual relations. Unfortunately, this caused his wife to ultimately betray him. The mother-in-law is certainly the most aggressive in their collective relationship, forcing both of them to settle this dispute by making her daughter have sexual relations with him. Wash attacked his mother-in-law, in an attempt to retrieve the assertion in his relationship with his wife, but he does not kill her. By not killing her, Wash does not feel fulfilled in resolving his anger, which makes him hate women in general, not having a single target to vent his frustrations.
ReplyDeleteI find it sad and ironic that the only man that seems to have a truly good nature towards women in the book ends up marrying one who does not appreciate it. His wife really takes him for granted. On the other hand, Wash definitely had some issues stepping up into the traditional dominant role of a an in the relationship. While this is kind of out-dated to us, it was definitely more common to see women have little to no power in a relationship at the time this book was written. Overall, their marriage was not a very good pairing.
ReplyDelete