Winesburg, Ohio And Sherwood Anderson's Womanhood Vision

Published in 1919, Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio successfully laid bare the lives of a group of "grotesques" with deformed spirit and odd behavior of a small Midwestern town when the American nation was in the period of industrial ascendancy. In this collection of twenty-five related stories, there are thirty-three female characters, with approximately ten of them acting as protagonists. The writer vividly presented the agonies and frustrations of the female characters.This paper reviews the collective characteristics of female characters in Winesburg, Ohio. It concludes that no female characters- mothers, wives, lovers or little girls can escape from isolation and frustration throughout their whole life; while male characters, represented by George, have the opportunity to sophisticate and pursue a bright future. Anderson treats women in a much different way than men, making himself a patriarchal writer. In his works, it is men who dominate the world and women merely serve as a foil. In fact, influenced by patriarchy in the western world, Anderson developed a unique womanhood vision because women were relegated and despised by patriarchy and male dominance in the society. Though he later met many independent and confident women, they did not change his way of depicting female characters. In Anderson's opinion, by practicing crafts in old craftsmanship men get their creativity and self-esteem to control women. However, women's prior need is to love and to be loved, which makes men unable to concentrate on their creation. With the coming of the machine age in late nineteenth century, machines imprisoned men and men are humiliated and no longer enjoy their creativity and confidence, hence losing control in their relationship with women. It is women's responsibility to help...