In T.S. Elliot’s Poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the speaker illustrates the struggle for self expression and how the separated failure to express oneself leads to a disconnection between the individual and the community. One of the many factors that made an individual a grotesque in Winesburg, Ohio was that the characters, other than George Williard, could not self express the truths that were filled in their lives and when they tried it only ended in falsehood. Anderson even says  “The Book of Grotesques”, “It was the truths that made people grotesques. The old man had quite an elaborate theory concerning the manner. It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood”. For example, in “The Strength of God”, Reverend cursed himself for seeing Kate Swift smoke a cigarette and nude on her bed, but once he came to terms that maybe he is not a totally awful person, he instead went the radical way and said that Kate Swift must then be the instrument of God if what he did was not bad. In other words, he took the truth that he is not an awful person, and then connected it to a radical belief that because he is not bad than Kate Swift must be a sign from God that is trying to reach him.  He then tries to express it with George Williard, saying on page 92, “I smashed the glass of the window. Now it will have to be wholly replaced. The strength of God was in me and I broke it with my fist.” George then forever on believes that the Reverend had gone mad, and now any connection George will have with him will end with him thinking he is nuts rather than understanding Reverends expression. It is also easy to say that Reverend will never have the same connection with anybody the same way ever again, because he sees something extraordinary (“God”) and the people around him do not see it.

In T.S. Elliot’s poem, the speaker has issues speaking and connecting, like the Reverend, as well. He even makes an illustrated scene between lines 90-98 that explains the utter frustration he has with communicating his thoughts like a normal person, “Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,/Would it have been worthwhile,/To have bitten off the matter with a smile/To have squeezed the universe into a ball/to roll it toward some overwhelming question”. The speaker also makes an allusion to Michelangelo, and his perfect David. Though these woman gush about him and speak about how perfect he is, the speaker has a different sight than the rest of them, just as Reverend believes he sees God in a different viewpoint as well. The speaker even expresses how lamely the women admire Michelangelo on lines 35-36, “In the room the woman come and go/Talking of Michelangelo.” His inability to see perfection the same way woman do hurts his connection with people, therefore creating a boundary between truth and relationships. 

                In my Formal Literary Analysis Essay, I was considering the idea of writing the paper on the fact that Anderson makes an allusion to Greek mythology through his characters, first starting with George Williard.  After much research I concluded with four different heroes for George:

11)      Orpheus

22)      Jason

33)      Perseus

44)      Achilles

But the only issue I had with these five heroes was this: none of them fully represent George Williard. Actually, as I refreshed my memory, I realized they all symbolized a different part of George Williard. And in a way, they all make him up as a whole. Orpheus (one of my personal favorites), for example, spent the majority of his life falling in love with women (while at the same time going on quests and other adventures that also made him a legend), but once the true love of his life, Eurydice, was killed (by a serpent snake, to be matter-of-fact) he was determined to rescue her from the Underworld. Thankfully, he was a music prodigy because he was the son of Apollo (the God of Music), and Hades believed his music was so powerful that Hades decided that he could bring Eurydice back, but only if he does not look back on his way back toward the Upper World. Sadly, he looked back just as he rose to the surface and Eurydice was taken away. After that, people shunned him and threw him into bushes while throwing rocks and sticks at him.

How could this ever connect back to George Williard? Though George was very determined to leave, he also yearned for a woman, just as Orpheus had. Though there was no specific “woman” until the end when he was officially with Helen, he believed that a woman would be his key to leave Winesburg. Sadly, these women kept slipping away from him, or did not seem like the right one, so he took the hard road (like Orpheus had). Once he believed he could actually win Belle Carpenter’s heart, it was ripped away from him. He ended, just like Orpheus, to be thrown into the bushes, physically abused, and then left with no love.

The second hero I saw in George Williard was Jason, a prince who was determined to get his father's kingdom back after it was taken over. He was most famous for his voyage of the Golden Fleece, which was what he thought would be the "key" to get his father's kingdom back. Jason, like George Williard, had to go through many tasks to get to the Golden Fleece (or whatever it was that was believed would get him out of his hopeless state), like dealing with women who were not the right women to accompany him for his destiny, sacrificing teammates (or emotional parts of himself) for the greater good, and being forced to prove the people around him wrong.

Perseus, another noble hero, was a son of a mortal woman and Zeus. A mortal woman had been told a prophecy that her son would kill her parents, so she was forced to be locked into a dark tower with only a small window for her to look out of. When Zeus arrived, she was desperate and lonely, so he gave her a child. (The mother sounds an awful lot like Elizabeth) Perseus, after getting out of the tower, was forced into the sea and swept away after her parents discovered the baby, feeling alone and not meant to be where he landed. Throughout the next few years, he was tormented for not being “manly enough”, and took up a quest from a “tall” woman (Athena). After fighting many distorted creatures, like Gorgons and Medusa, he finally ended with the love of his life, Andromeda.

 Lastly, Achilles shares a lot of George’s story. He was destined to leave his home for Troy (or, in other words, where his “fate” was, like George’s fate to be a journalist).  His mother feared that he would die there though, so she dipped him into the River of Styx to make him impossible to kill. The majority of his body was invincible, but because he was still mortal he had one weak spot in the side of his ankle (the one part that made him human; love, vulnerability, sadness, etc) which would kill him if he was pierced. Throughout his journey, he was forced to kill through many people to get to live his life. These people were often times thresholds, just as George had many thresholds that he had to “kill” to get out of Winesburg. 

"Suicide’s Note"

The Calm,

Cool face of the river

Asked me for a kiss.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

                Hughe’s beautiful (yet tragic) poem is simply a terrible dilemma between death and life. Though the poem only consists of the four lines, he chooses to use spiritual aspects rather than a person. Because of his use of “river” and “calm” he is able to capture a type of tranquility that is unusual to see in an angst piece.  He manipulates the idea of death and the addictive curiosity that pulls many people toward the next stage of life: death. Many of whom that have read this poem may also find allusions between Greek Myths. The River of The Styx, a classical setting of the underworld, symbolizes the consequences of death (lost dreams, sacrifices, the things that people were never about to finish in life, etc). The River of The Styx is meant to be perceived as a force that was tempting but dreadful. Giving the river a “kiss” would make the soul become apart of the Underworld and would never be able to go back into the living realm. It would be, in other words, death.

                Also, unlike the mythology allusion, a river is known to go “on and on” and never stops. This is ironic, since the piece is about suicide and ending a life. This, therefore, could symbolize a goodbye note to suicide, saying for it to “go away”. Because of the kiss toward the river, the speaker no longer wants to die. The speaker wants to continue on his/her road in life, following the stream onward.

                The tone has a romantic taste to it. “Kiss”, which in many ways could have a connotation of giving the speaker away or awakening death, adds a peaceful tone. Adding to the romantic tone, normally, a river is not calm. Typically, it is hitting the rocks and splashing around its surroundings. The ability for the river to be calm toward the person shows an attempt of sympathy or possibly shows how the speaker does not see it as a bad force. The description of calm proves the positive view the speaker has for the “river”.

                A river in many novels and poems symbolizes a mirror.  “Rivers” in novels and poems are found frequently to reveal the true identity toward the speaker. Commonly, it gives the speaker a realization of identity and discovers, just by looking into it, what truth is hidden within themselves. Also, the diction use of “face”, rather than “surface”, brings upon an idea that the river is not just a geological setting, but in many ways could be a metaphor toward a person. “The cool face of the river”, the face being of a person, and the river being the sin the speaker is about to commit.

                Lastly, the shortness of the poem brings an abrupt end toward the speaker. If the poem was long, it would show a tremendous life to the speaker, but since it is short it makes the reader question whether or not that was truly the end of the speaker’s life or not. 

In chapter 18, in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Shelley uses a piece of William Wordsworth “Tintern Abbey” to illustrate Henry Clerval’s, Victor Frankenstein’s best friend, inner feelings and add in a piece of romanticism toward her work. In the introduction of the section where Henry Clerval came in, Henry first speaks about the inspiring sights he was experiencing and seeing while taking part in Frankenstein’s voyage. Though Clerval had been known for a while before this point of the book, this scene was more of the clearer moments of Clerval and Frankenstein’s friendship because Clerval, for the first time, shares his own “tragically beautiful” emotions. He tells Victor, “I have seen the most beautiful scenes in our own country…but there is a charm in the banks of this divine river that I never saw equaled.” Though he continues in his loving persona by complimenting his country, he admits to Victor that even he feels incomplete and unsatisfied with what he has, and wishes to see more. Mary Shelley says afterword, quoting William Wordsworth:

“The sounding cataract

Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colours and their forms, were then to him

An appetite; a feeling, and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, or any interest

Unborrow’d from the eye.”

William Wordsworth brought out the same message. Though the speaker may be satisfied in his life, the speaker will never be “full” without experiencing the beautiful nature that the speaker is experiencing at that exact moment. Being familiar with the feeling makes the speaker long for who he once was, though holding onto who the speaker is at the present moment. It also questions the speaker’s innocence versus maturity. By the line, “haunted him like a passion” the speaker is questioning who he was when he was younger, and when he had less knowledge and possibly more naive. The beautiful outlook also haunted the speaker with the person the speaker once was. Clerval relates to this because though he does not make the same mistakes as Frankenstein, Clerval is infamous for making the “right choices” that Frankenstein does not. Clerval must have made his own mistakes when he was younger, causing him to be sure what the right choices in his problems are. The scene brings Clerval back to that, forcing him to reminisce over the nature that forces him back to his younger state.

                Also, Shelley uses this to bring in a dose of romanticism. Though her novel was written as, for the most part, a gothic novel, she was inspired by many romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth. Bringing in this section of Wordsworth’s poem does not only add to Clerval’s character, but in the nature of the book and her era. It also noted that she brings this quote in while being in a calm scene, rather than a rough excillirating scene. She wants to capture the moment of peace and tranquility.