Winesburg, Ohio

by

Sherwood Anderson

George Willard Character Analysis

The protagonist of Winesburg, Ohio. George Willard’s coming-of-age from an adolescent boy to a man serves as the central plot arc, and his interactions with the novel’s myriad characters link the interconnected stories together. The son of Tom and Elizabeth Willard, George is a reporter for the local Winesburg Eagle newspaper. This role, combined with the tendency of older townsmen to seek him out as an endeared confidante, gives him a rich knowledge of the town and its people. A sense of uncertainty and confusion plagues George throughout much of the novel as he matures and navigates a variety of personal and interpersonal challenges. He has many friends and casual acquaintances in Winesburg, as several of the town’s older men (such Wing Biddlebaum, Doctor Parcival, and Wash Williams) attempt to mentor George and impart their beliefs about life and love onto him. Younger peers like Seth Richmond and Elmer Cowley are envious of George’s sense of purpose and the status he holds in the Winesburg community. George also has a number of romantic relationships throughout his adolescence that range from shallow and purely sexual (as with Louise Trunnion and Belle Carpenter), to confusing (as with Kate Swift), to deep and meaningful (as with Helen White). Throughout the narrative, George struggles with whether or not to branch out and leave Winesburg to start a new life. He has an especially complicated relationship with his mother Elizabeth, a depressed, sickly woman who is extremely possessive of him. Elizabeth dies just as George turns eighteen and this trauma solidifies George’s decision to embark on “the adventure of life” in a new city. The novel ends on a note of optimistic possibility for George’s future as he finds closure, matures into a grown man, and leaves his past in Winesburg behind.

George Willard Quotes in Winesburg, Ohio

The Winesburg, Ohio quotes below are all either spoken by George Willard or refer to George Willard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Coming of Age, Independence, and Manhood Theme Icon
).
2. Hands Quotes

“You must try to forget all you have learned,” said the old man. “You must begin to dream. From this time on you must shut your ears to the roaring of the voices.”

Related Characters: Wing Biddlebaum / Adolph Meyers (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
4. Mother Quotes

The hotel was continually losing patronage because of its shabbiness and she thought of herself as also shabby. Her own room was in an obscure corner and when she felt able to work she voluntarily worked among the beds, preferring the labor that could be done when the guests were abroad seeking trade among the merchants of Winesburg.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Elizabeth Willard, Tom Willard
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

George Willard had a habit of talking aloud to himself and to hear him doing so had always given his mother a peculiar pleasure. The habit in him, she felt, strengthened the secret bond that existed between them. A thousand times she had whispered to herself of the matter. “He is groping about, trying to find himself,” she thought. “He is not a dull clod, all words and smartness. Within him there is a secret something that is striving to grow. It is the thing I let be killed in myself.”

Related Characters: Elizabeth Willard (speaker), The Narrator (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:
5. The Philosopher Quotes

“If something happens perhaps you will be able to write the book that I may never get written. The idea is very simple, so simple that if you are not careful you will forget it. It is this—that everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified. That’s what I want to say. Don’t you forget that. Whatever happens, don’t you dare let yourself forget.”

Related Characters: Doctor Parcival (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
11. A Man of Ideas Quotes

“Let’s take decay. Now what is decay? It’s fire. It burns up wood and other things…This sidewalk here and this feed store, the trees down the street there—they’re all on fire. They’re burning up. Decay you see is always going on…The world is on fire. Start your pieces in the paper that way. Just say in big letters ‘The World is On Fire.’ That will make ‘em look up.”

Related Characters: Joe Welling (speaker), George Willard, Doctor Parcival, Wash Williams
Page Number: 90-91
Explanation and Analysis:
17. The Teacher Quotes

“If you are to become a writer you’ll have to stop fooling with words,” she explained. “It would be better to give up the notion of writing until you are better prepared. Now it’s time to be living. I don’t want to frighten you, but I would like to make you understand the import of what you think of attempting. You must not become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what people are thinking about, not what they say.”

Related Characters: Kate Swift (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:
18. Loneliness Quotes

His room began to be inhabited by the spirits of men and women among whom he went, in turn saying words. It was as though everyone Enoch Robinson had ever seen had left with him some essence of himself, something he could mould and change to suit his own fancy, something that understood all about such things as the wounded woman behind the elders in the pictures.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Enoch Robinson
Page Number: 157-158
Explanation and Analysis:
19. An Awakening Quotes

“There is a law for armies and for men too,” he muttered, lost in reflection. “The law begins with little things and spreads out until it covers everything. In every little thing there must be order…I must myself be orderly. I must learn that law. I must get myself into touch with something orderly and big that swings through the night like a star. In my little way I must begin to learn something, to give and swing and work with life, with the law.”

Related Characters: George Willard (speaker), Kate Swift
Page Number: 170-171
Explanation and Analysis:
24. Sophistication Quotes

The eighteen years he has lived seem but a moment, a breathing space in the long march of humanity. Already he hears death calling. With all his heart he wants to come close to some other human, touch someone with his hands, be touched by the hand of another. If he prefers that the other be a woman, that is because he believes a woman will be gentle, that she will understand. He wants, most of all, understanding.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Elizabeth Willard, Helen White
Page Number: 224
Explanation and Analysis:

There is something memorable in the experience to be had by going to a fair ground that stands at the edge of a Middle Western town on a night after the annual fair has been held. The sensation is one never to be forgotten. On all side are ghosts, not of the dead, but of living people…One shudders at the thought of the meaninglessness of life while at the same instant, and if the people of the town are his people, one loves life so intensely that tears come into the eyes.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 229-230
Explanation and Analysis:

He began to think of the people in the town where he had always lived with something like reverence. He had reverence for Helen. He wanted to love and be loved by her, but he did not want at the moment to be confused by her womanhood…In that high place in the darkness the two oddly sensitive human atoms held each other tightly and waited. In the mind of each was the same though. “I have come to this lonely place and here is the other,” was the substance of the thing felt.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Helen White
Page Number: 230-231
Explanation and Analysis:
25. Departure Quotes

The young man’s mind was carried away by his growing passion for dreams. One looking at him would not have thought him particularly sharp. With the recollection of little things occupying his mind he closed his eyes and leaned back in the car seat. He stayed that way for a long time and when he aroused himself and again looked out of the car window the town of Winesburg had disappeared and his life there had become but a background on which to paint the dreams of his manhood.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Helen White
Page Number: 236
Explanation and Analysis:
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George Willard Quotes in Winesburg, Ohio

The Winesburg, Ohio quotes below are all either spoken by George Willard or refer to George Willard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Coming of Age, Independence, and Manhood Theme Icon
).
2. Hands Quotes

“You must try to forget all you have learned,” said the old man. “You must begin to dream. From this time on you must shut your ears to the roaring of the voices.”

Related Characters: Wing Biddlebaum / Adolph Meyers (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
4. Mother Quotes

The hotel was continually losing patronage because of its shabbiness and she thought of herself as also shabby. Her own room was in an obscure corner and when she felt able to work she voluntarily worked among the beds, preferring the labor that could be done when the guests were abroad seeking trade among the merchants of Winesburg.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Elizabeth Willard, Tom Willard
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

George Willard had a habit of talking aloud to himself and to hear him doing so had always given his mother a peculiar pleasure. The habit in him, she felt, strengthened the secret bond that existed between them. A thousand times she had whispered to herself of the matter. “He is groping about, trying to find himself,” she thought. “He is not a dull clod, all words and smartness. Within him there is a secret something that is striving to grow. It is the thing I let be killed in myself.”

Related Characters: Elizabeth Willard (speaker), The Narrator (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:
5. The Philosopher Quotes

“If something happens perhaps you will be able to write the book that I may never get written. The idea is very simple, so simple that if you are not careful you will forget it. It is this—that everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified. That’s what I want to say. Don’t you forget that. Whatever happens, don’t you dare let yourself forget.”

Related Characters: Doctor Parcival (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
11. A Man of Ideas Quotes

“Let’s take decay. Now what is decay? It’s fire. It burns up wood and other things…This sidewalk here and this feed store, the trees down the street there—they’re all on fire. They’re burning up. Decay you see is always going on…The world is on fire. Start your pieces in the paper that way. Just say in big letters ‘The World is On Fire.’ That will make ‘em look up.”

Related Characters: Joe Welling (speaker), George Willard, Doctor Parcival, Wash Williams
Page Number: 90-91
Explanation and Analysis:
17. The Teacher Quotes

“If you are to become a writer you’ll have to stop fooling with words,” she explained. “It would be better to give up the notion of writing until you are better prepared. Now it’s time to be living. I don’t want to frighten you, but I would like to make you understand the import of what you think of attempting. You must not become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what people are thinking about, not what they say.”

Related Characters: Kate Swift (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:
18. Loneliness Quotes

His room began to be inhabited by the spirits of men and women among whom he went, in turn saying words. It was as though everyone Enoch Robinson had ever seen had left with him some essence of himself, something he could mould and change to suit his own fancy, something that understood all about such things as the wounded woman behind the elders in the pictures.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Enoch Robinson
Page Number: 157-158
Explanation and Analysis:
19. An Awakening Quotes

“There is a law for armies and for men too,” he muttered, lost in reflection. “The law begins with little things and spreads out until it covers everything. In every little thing there must be order…I must myself be orderly. I must learn that law. I must get myself into touch with something orderly and big that swings through the night like a star. In my little way I must begin to learn something, to give and swing and work with life, with the law.”

Related Characters: George Willard (speaker), Kate Swift
Page Number: 170-171
Explanation and Analysis:
24. Sophistication Quotes

The eighteen years he has lived seem but a moment, a breathing space in the long march of humanity. Already he hears death calling. With all his heart he wants to come close to some other human, touch someone with his hands, be touched by the hand of another. If he prefers that the other be a woman, that is because he believes a woman will be gentle, that she will understand. He wants, most of all, understanding.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Elizabeth Willard, Helen White
Page Number: 224
Explanation and Analysis:

There is something memorable in the experience to be had by going to a fair ground that stands at the edge of a Middle Western town on a night after the annual fair has been held. The sensation is one never to be forgotten. On all side are ghosts, not of the dead, but of living people…One shudders at the thought of the meaninglessness of life while at the same instant, and if the people of the town are his people, one loves life so intensely that tears come into the eyes.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard
Page Number: 229-230
Explanation and Analysis:

He began to think of the people in the town where he had always lived with something like reverence. He had reverence for Helen. He wanted to love and be loved by her, but he did not want at the moment to be confused by her womanhood…In that high place in the darkness the two oddly sensitive human atoms held each other tightly and waited. In the mind of each was the same though. “I have come to this lonely place and here is the other,” was the substance of the thing felt.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Helen White
Page Number: 230-231
Explanation and Analysis:
25. Departure Quotes

The young man’s mind was carried away by his growing passion for dreams. One looking at him would not have thought him particularly sharp. With the recollection of little things occupying his mind he closed his eyes and leaned back in the car seat. He stayed that way for a long time and when he aroused himself and again looked out of the car window the town of Winesburg had disappeared and his life there had become but a background on which to paint the dreams of his manhood.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George Willard, Helen White
Page Number: 236
Explanation and Analysis: