The Insanity of Winesburg, Ohio

Winesburg, Ohio is a novel about a small town and the interesting characters that live in it.  Each character is important because they are all given their own unique personalities, however they are all connected through a few different threads.  The first connection is the most obvious; every character is from the small town of Winesburg, Ohio.  However, perhaps the most interesting fact is a link between all of the personalities.  This link is the mental insanity of every character.  Each person from this novel is to a certain degree of craziness that adds a distinct flavor to the novel.

Reverend Curtis Hartman is a strong example of the mental insanity of the natives of Winesburg.  He started out as a pure man preaching the word of God, but when he was faced with temptation he was led to insanity.  Curtis witnessed Kate Swift as she was laying in bed, but only saw her shoulders and “white” neck.  This white symbolizes the purity that she beholds.  This symbol is actually ironic in the context that it is in since Curtis is experiencing his first taste of temptation and the person who has tempted him is described as “white.”  Through his temptation and lust, he renounces God believing that he has failed the Holy Being for giving in to temptation.  The reason why this proves that Curtis Hartman is, in fact, insane is because of his overreaction and complete obsession with the event that transpired.  After he saw Kate in her bed, he lost his faith and soon not only gave in to temptation, but also fueled it.  He went to the window where he could spy on Kate every night and fantasized about her whenever she was not in his sight.  He was far beyond an obsessive nature and had reached the point of becoming a stalker.

Alice Hindman was driven to insanity through love.  She was smitten with Ned Currie and they had intentions to marry, however, Ned moves out of Winesburg, which leads to Alice’s downfall.  Alice and Ned had made a promise to each other that they would marry when Ned returned from the city.  Alice waited in Winesburg for Ned, but he never returned.  They wrote each other letters for a number of months, but soon dwindled off when Ned’s big-city life got in the way.  He moved on and lusted after other women, but Alice’s life remained the same.  She had been waiting in limbo, with every aspect of her life never changing, except her youth was the only thing to prove to her that time was still turning.  She refers to Ned as her “lover” rather than his actual name after he moves, which shows her insanity.  She still believes that Ned is her lover and will not accept any different; she has created her own reality in her mind to shelter herself from the actual reality.  To her it is better to know that Ned will someday return and they will be married, but in actuality he will never return and he has already forgotten about her.  She holds on to her reality, which strips her mind away from the truth.  She strips her clothes off of her body while running after the old man in the street, which is a metaphor for her mind ridding itself of the truth she has created; her mind is becoming clear.  After her “episode” on the street, she runs inside and cries.  This is to symbolize the reality hitting her after the fake-reality has been stripped away from her mind and now she can clearly see that Ned is no longer a part of her.