Writing a Term Paper
Loneliness
Loneliness is a cliche that we can feel lonely, even particularly lonely when we
are in a crowd. Many philosophical writers, poets and literary masters have a
history of loneliness associated with them through one form or the other. This
may be one of the reasons for their masterpieces. In this paper I am going
to discuss such a literary piece in which loneliness is depicted through
characters. The literary pieces I have selected; one is a short story from the
book “Winesburg, Ohio”, written by Sherwood Anderson called Loneliness, which is
a story of Enoch Robinson. The other is a sonnet written by Percy B. Shelly, the
Ozymandias.
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In the story Loneliness, Enoch Robinson goes to New York as a young man and
falls in with a circle of artistic types. Ultimately, although, he grows irk of
them, as he holds a kind of childish vainglory that makes him incapable to
endure other people, he grows lonely after a while and gets married, in an
attempt to lead a routine, reputable life. But his self-centeredness crucifies
his marriage, and eventually his wife leaves him. She thought of him as a bit
insane. After she left, Enoch moves back into his own apartment and engages
himself with his large, ever-growing collection of imaginary friends. For a long
time he is happy, but finally something goes wrong. Enoch meets a woman in his
apartment building who comes to visit him. Once he tells her of the "people" who
live in the room with him. However, when she leaves, all the illusory people
accompany her out the door, and never returns. Again he is left alone and tells
his story years later to George Willard having to Winesburg.
The title of "Loneliness," given to Enoch Robinson's story, could be applied to
most of the stories in Winesburg, Ohio. The title acquires a particular
poignancy in this case, however, because Enoch once had the kind of fellowship
that his fellow townsfolk aspire so strongly, only to see it slide away. By
limning the fellowship of illusory, phantasmal people, Anderson may be implying
that the only cure for loneliness is in the world of one's own mind. But, it is
a frail, temporary cure, since Enoch's visions are easily shattered by
communication with the real world. His mist of unreal friends keeps him company
only when they are the most significant things in his life. A real life touch,
his female neighbor begins to matter to him, his companionship vaporize. When he
tries to combine the real and unreal worlds by telling the girl about his bunch
of illusory friends, his phantasm leave him, after the girl out the door.
Enoch's resultant loneliness is perchance worse than that of any other Winesburg
dweller, since he lives with a constant sense of loss, of a deceased paradise.
Winesburg, Ohio, is Sherwood Anderson's most famous book, an unusual work,
partly novel and partly collection of short stories. Its stories are
interconnected accounts that focus on various inhabitants of Winesburg. The book
opens with a upright device of moods: the section entitled "The Book of the
Grotesque," in which a anonymous old writer has a night vision of human beings
who chase various "truths" to an extent that they become "grotesque." These
illusions foreshadow the lives of the inhabitants of Winesburg. From the Old
Testament father Jesse Bentley, to the defiled, corpulent, reclusive Wash
Williams, the charaters of Anderson's Winesburgers are all anywise grotesque.
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Nearly all of these deformations originate from alienation and loneliness.
Certain Anderson's characters are entirely cut off from human contact, like
Enoch Robinson, who fills his New York apartment with illusory friends. Over and
again, characters reach out to other people, expecting to overcome their
loneliness through love or friendship and over and again, they are discontented.
Happiness is a scarce material in Winesburg. Anderson finds sadness, alienation
and hopelessness in what one might assume a kind, more pure place, the rustic,
beautiful setting of an archetypal, American, small town. The actuality of
social norms, nevertheless, forces the towns populous, and public belief
ascertains a strong force in shaping beings.
The sonnet of Oxymandias by Percy B. Shelly was written in 1818. The "Ozymandias"
is perhaps better known as Remises II, ruler of Egypt in the 13th century BC.
The poem has been comprehended in a number of distinct ways, but all focus on
the irony in Ozymandias' declaration that the "Mighty" should "look upon my
works, and despair". Immense conflict, irony and derision appear when it is
said, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and
despair!" Nothing beside remains."
This dissenting implication indicates that once there was a vast kingdom which
ahs now disappeared from the face of the earth and now loneliness prevails not
only on the place but its inhabitants who used to rule and are now under the
fate of dust. The sonnet indicates that neither the property nor the king is
immortal. The artist well read the king’s frown and sneer of cold command and
"mocked" them. And lastly, the king and his power are gone but the artist’s work
remains. "lone and level sands stretch far away". “Of that colossal Wreck,
boundless and bare”
This symbolizes that perhaps the sand is vaster now than the empire was.
Breaking the word of "Ozymandas" in the original Greek, we come to know that Ozy
comes from the Greek "ozium," which means to breath, or air and Mandias comes
from the Greek "mandate," which means to rule. Therefore, Ozymandias is simply a
"ruler of air" or a "ruler of nothing" (Joe, 2002). Probably, King of Kings
spoken of in the poem is actually nature itself as nature never vanishes and
nature symbolizes the immortality not portrayed by the Remises or any other
individual or possession. The Remises declares, "Look on my Works, ye Mighty,
and despair!" Yet "nothing beside remains". So "the mighty" should not gloom as
Ozymandias intended. Yet, they should despair because they will have his fate of
unavoidable emptiness and loneliness in the sands of time.
It illustrates the greed and pride that drives great rulers, greed and pride. In
Shelley's time this passion might be found in Napoleon, or in King George III of
England. The poem elucidates the idea that the modern world is parallel to the
world of Ozymandias as the passions still “survive” and leads to loneliness
(Joe, 2002). The two examples are similar in a sense that both are the followers
of passion for recognition and both are the sufferers of devastation and
emptiness.
Works Cited
Kelly, Joe. Mighty Works in Shelley's "Ozymandias" (2002)
Madden, Frank Exploring Literature
Anderson, Sherwood , “Wisenburg, Ohio”. See www.sparklenotes.com
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