Ethel Wilson's The Fog, Hurry Hurry, and The Window

Style in literature is essential to create proper perception from the reader. This is equally as important as establishing appropriate tone. For this propose Ethel Wilson compliments such standards in her works “The Fog”, “Hurry, Hurry” and “The Window.” Wilson’s stylistic techniques are unmatched in uniqueness or assessing human nature versus physical nature. In the fore mentioned texts, Ethel Wilson composes her style from elements of symbolism, motif and character development to flourish understanding of the central idea of responsibility in the human mind when hidden behind nature.

Character development in a protagonist is crucial to building themes and the overall intent is discovered through the main character. Wilson approaches the concept of the protagonist in an interesting manner, deciding to not conclude with the protagonist leaves the reader with a lack of pity and perhaps some confusion. Likewise, the protagonists in her plots are isolated, forgotten or consequently dead. In “Hurry, Hurry” the main character, Miriam is first portrayed lonely with only the companionship of her dogs. The setting attributes to isolation through the fragment “No people anywhere.” (Hurry, Hurry) this demonstrates how Miriam is all alone in the vast tranquility of nature. In contrast, the last paragraph in “Hurry, Hurry” does not imply anything about Miriam therefore it leaves the reader confused and the protagonist suppressed. Mr. Willy, from “The Window” is the principal character who is similar to Miriam. Mr. Willy asserts his loneliness through his feelings of being “small and alone” (The Window) therefore exposing how isolated his character is. However, the conclusion in this story does end with the leading character, th...

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...ile forms an image of her character. By comparing her eyes with marbles the reader can construct that Mrs. Merkle was expressionless and had cold, glazed hard eyes. For every instance that Mrs. Merkle is mentioned the phrase is repeated, in the last occurrence to excuse her from not crying for the loss of Mrs. Bylow. Wilson’s adaptation of a motif in her writing shapes the character’s conscience based on their emotional reactions to a situation.

Ethel Wilson’s exercise of brilliant literary techniques services the reader to comprehend the underlying message in her writing which is nominally responsibility of the human conscience when masked in nature. With application of clever symbolism, motif and character development, Wilson makes the reader question to what extent one should be responsible to through exploration of the human mind when manipulated by nature.