ter, Elizabeth Willard is resented by her husband and has lost all affection from him. The only presence of love in her at this time is focused on her beloved son, George Willard. Anderson writes "She wanted to cry out with joy because of the words that had come from the lips of her son." This happens when George Willard tells his mother that he is going to leave Winesburg. Elizabeth is unable to articulate her feelings of interest and love to her son, and perpetuates the barrier of communication between them. The reason that Anderson expresses this type of relationship is because Anderson had the same unarticulate relationship with his mother (Anderson, David 155-170).Anderson conveys isolation and loneliness through other ways. In some of the tales, there is a prevalent sexual atmosphere. Anderson thought of sex both as the beginning and end to love. When George Willard takes Louise Trunnion's hand in his own in "Nobody Knows," George is anticipating sexual conduct. Although George thinks that it is just sex, Anderson is conveying that there is an opportunity for love. This opportunity for love could eliminate loneliness and isolation. The theme of inhibition is expressed through the youth in Winesburg. Inhibition has three major areas of cause and experience that are listed as follows: the problem of growing up, the frustration that comes when people try to express themselves and are responded to with harshness, and the problem of social opportunity. These problems are the causes of the presence of the grotesques in the novel. The people became grotesques when a disastrous experience happened at the exact moment that they were trying to express love and feeling. In "Respectability," Wash Williams faces the frustration of inhibition when the mother of his unfaithful wife sends his wife into the room naked. Wash Williams is destroyed by this action and becomes a grotesque. When Kate Swift flirts with George Willard in ...
