Winesburg, Ohio

A snowstorm falls upon Winesburg. George Willard walks outside, thinking of Kate Swift, his former teacher, whom he had visited the night before. Kate has made several attempts to earnestly talk to him, though he does not understand what she’s trying to say. He assumes instead that she’s enamored with him.

George returns home and lustfully thinks of both Kate Swift and Helen White. Later that night, George is one of only four people still awake in Winesburg. He goes to the newspaper office to work on a story. Reverend Curtis Hartman sits in the bell tower of the church. Kate Swift steps out of her house in a spontaneous mood. Hop Higgins settles down at the New Willard House and considers retiring to a life as a ferret breeder.

Kate is known among her students as a stern and obtuse teacher, though she is sometimes prone to moments of infectious happiness. Because the town sees her as an old maid, she often leaves home in the night to wrestle with the fact that no one knows what a passionate soul she truly possesses. The closest she has come to impressing that passion onto someone else is with her former student, George Willard. In the past, she urged him to focus on living instead of improving his writing, so that he could better understand “what people are thinking about, not what they say” (131).

The night before, George had come to Kate’s house to borrow a book. Before he left, Kate spoke earnestly to him, reaching out for his hand. She kissed his cheek in the hope that he would immediately understand the importance of living before writing. They were both embarrassed by the gesture, prompting Kate to regret that George would never understand what she was trying to teach him until he was much older.

Kate visits George the following night at the newspaper office, hoping to offer him earnest advice once again. George embraces Kate, but Kate throws her fists into his face and runs away. George feels furious and confused. His confusion is exacerbated by Reverend Hartman’s sudden visit, during which he declares that Kate Swift is a messenger of God.

George returns home and lies in bed thinking of Kate Swift, as well as the minister’s words. He tries to make sense of Kate’s actions all night and realizes that he has failed to understand something important that Kate is trying to tell him.

Enoch Robinson grows up in a farmhouse outside of Winesburg. When he turns 21, he attends an art school in New York City, where he lives for the next 15 years. Enoch has ambitions to finish his art education in Paris, but his immaturity prevents his dream from coming to fruition. Even as an adult, he finds it difficult to grasp topics like finance and sexuality. One day, Enoch is hit by a car, which leaves him with a disability. He spends much of his time fraternizing with a group of artists who visit his room. The narrator stresses that Enoch’s room, which is “long and narrow like a hallway,” is central to his story (136).

Whenever Enoch’s friends visit, they talk passionately about art. Enoch feels reticent to share his thoughts with others because he dislikes the quality of his own voice. He imagines himself refuting his friends’ opinions about his work, suggesting that his pictures are about “something you don’t see at all, something you aren’t intended to see” (137). Most of Enoch’s pictures draw from memories of people he observed in Winesburg. He fears that no one will ever see what he wants them to see in his work. Eventually, he stops entertaining people in his room and locks the door. He invents imaginary friends to keep him company.

Fearing chronic loneliness, Enoch marries a classmate from the art school. They have two children. Enoch starts working as an advertising illustrator and becomes more proactive in local civics, but he begins to feel trapped by his own life. Despite his attempts to balance personal freedom and family life, Enoch decides to leave his family after his mother’s death. He gives his family his inheritance, and moves back into the solitary room with his imaginary friends.

Enoch is happy on his own. He holds on to his advertising job until he’s involved in an incident with a woman. When he returns to Winesburg, Enoch befriends George Willard because he notices George feeling sad about his sick mother. Enoch tells George the story of his life, building up to the incident that prompted his return.

The woman was Enoch’s neighbor, a violinist who lived down the hall. She occasionally visited Enoch and sat quietly with him each day. Enoch began to sense that something about the woman made the room feel too small for her. Enoch felt restless and wanted to kiss her. He couldn’t resist letting her in every time that she knocked on his door. Soon, he began to tell her about the people he imagined to keep himself company.

Enoch became so obsessed with getting the woman to understand him and his choice to remain in the room that on one night, he spoke feverishly about his own importance. The woman tried to escape, but Enoch barred her from leaving. He started smashing things in his room and, when he looked at the woman, he saw that she finally understood what he wanted to convey. Enoch immediately became conscious that the woman would know all there was to know about him and take advantage of it.

Enoch pauses his story and instructs George to leave. George insists on knowing what happened next. Enoch reveals that he had cursed the woman away, screaming so loudly that he ensured the woman would never come back to him again. When she left, Enoch felt all the people he had invented leaving with her. In Winesburg, Enoch admits with horror that he is no longer in the “warm […] friendly” room, but “all alone” now (144).

Belle Carpenter, the daughter of bookkeeper Henry Carpenter, develops a combative personality as a response to her father’s pettiness. Over time, Belle’s personality overpowers her father’s. Henry comes to fear her retribution for the terrible way he treated Belle’s mother.

Belle often walks with George Willard, though her heart secretly belongs to Ed Handby, a saloon bartender. Ed and Belle are afraid to be seen together because they come from different walks of life. Ed previously possessed a fortune from the sale of his uncle’s estate, but he spent it on gambling and debauchery. Ed wants to marry Belle, but feels unsure how to ask. Belle allows George to court her to satisfy her need for affection since she cannot get what she needs from Ed. In Ed’s eyes, George represents the only obstacle to his life with Belle.

One evening, George goes out for a walk. He feels frustrated by his friends who refuse to take his opinions about gender dynamics seriously. While walking, George playfully acts out a military inspection. He speaks at length on the need for order, which makes him realize his need to understand orderly things. He distinguishes himself from his friends and realizes that he can only appreciate his ideas in solitude.

George walks through the part of town where the day laborers live. He’s delighted by his own insights about the neighborhood, inspired by one of the books he has recently read. The more he walks around the laborers’ quarter, the more he realizes how set apart it is from the Winesburg George has known all his life. Frightened by a barking dog, George runs off to a vacant lot. Amazed by the vastness of the night sky, he begins to speak “brave” words aloud to elicit their poetic meaning: “Death […] night, the sea, fear, loveliness” (150). He yearns for the presence of a woman to witness the beauty of the world alongside him and feels inspired to visit Belle. George is usually suspicious that Belle is using him for reasons he cannot discern. Now that his splendor makes him feel incapable of being used, he proceeds without caution.

Before George arrives, Ed visits Belle and threatens to hurt them both if he ever catches George and Belle together. Ed watches Belle’s house from nearby and catches sight of George approaching. George and Belle go for a walk and George boldly shares the recent ideas that have made him feel bold. He encourages Belle to see him as a man.

Although Belle is hardly paying attention to him, George becomes convinced that Belle will give herself to him. He reaches for her shoulder and they kiss. He whispers the words “lust and night and women” to channel their power (152). He takes her to a clearing and kneels before her, when Ed suddenly interrupts their encounter. Ed throws George to the ground and tells Belle that she isn’t worth his time. George tries to retaliate but keeps getting thrown back by Ed. George hits his head on a tree root, and Ed and Belle leave together.

George walks home humiliated and angry at Belle. He remembers the profound moment he experienced in solitude and listens again for the silence that emboldened him. He finds his way back to the neighborhood where he experienced his insights but turns and runs away. The neighborhood, he feels, has lost all of its splendor.

Elmer Cowley struggles to put shoelaces into his shoes. He takes the shoe off and finds a hole in his stocking. Just then, he sees George Willard, whose office is right across from Elmer’s store, looking about absentmindedly. Elmer becomes furious at the thought that George will record everything that happens in the store for the newspaper.

Cowley & Son’s store has a reputation for selling both “everything and nothing” (155). Elmer’s father, Ebenezer, imprudently purchases stock from every traveling supplier who comes his way. Elmer scares one supplier off with a revolver, insisting that they won’t make any more “queer” purchases for the attention of anybody. Confronting his father afterwards, Elmer makes it clear that he wants to show George Willard that they aren’t strange, but ordinary just like everyone else.

Elmer goes for a walk outside town, ending up at the farm where he grew up. He sees a farmhand his father used to employ named Mook, whom he remembers being “half-witted.” Mook characteristically uses laundry-related expressions to communicate his surprise. Elmer vents his frustrations about inheriting his father’s odd reputation. He feels scrutinized now that he lives in town, a stark contrast to the remote life he used to live on the farm. It feels strange to him that he can’t express his frustrations with the people of Winesburg. When Mook fails to respond to his rant, Elmer sends him away. He only chose to tell Mook how he was feeling because he wanted to confide in someone he considered “queer” as well. Finally, he resolves to stand up to George and tell him how he really feels. Only then does Mook respond that he feels “washed and ironed and starched” (161).

Elmer visits the Winesburg Eagle office and tells George he wants to talk outside. Elmer tries to work out what he’s going to say to George but gets distracted thinking about George’s work for the newspaper. After a while, he fails to express himself and tells George to go back to his office.

Elmer walks alone in frustration for several hours, then gets the idea to retrieve part of his father’s hidden savings so that he can leave Winesburg for Cleveland. He hopes to become obscure among the citizenry, so that he will no longer feel odd. He visits the New Willard House and has George meet him at the train depot. When George arrives, Elmer once again fails to express himself, falling back on Mook’s laundry-related exclamations. He angrily gives George the money he had stolen to return to Ebenezer. He then strikes George down before hopping aboard a passing train. He congratulates himself for showing George that he isn’t so “queer” after all.