Love and Marriage in Winesburg, Ohio
... such as in “Mother,” “Godliness,” “Surrender,” “Adventure,” “Respectability,” and “The Untold Lie.” The only relationship that is somewhat happy is the one in “Paper Pills” which is very ironic because the only happy couple of Winesburg can enjoy their happiness but for a short time. The reason why people seem to get married in this novel is because they are lonely and they desire company, comfort, and love. Women specially, want to be loved. Once people get married, they realize that loneliness cannot be fought with marriage. Even after marriage, people are unhappy and lonesome. Love does not suffice to hold a marriage or a relationship together and even though some of the couples spend years together, they do not become closer, instead, they are driven apart. Men in this novel stereotype women as being the worst kind of grotesques. Wash Williams from “Respectability” calls women “bitches” and in “Surrender,” women are described as neurotic and over-sensitive. On the other hand, women are jaded due to their loneliness. They are “wanting love more than anything else in the world and not getting it” (p. 62). Perhaps love and marriage are two elements that Anderson did not believe in, and he critici...