Rebekah Metz

November 16, 1999

A World Of Innocence

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow, born In Richmond, Virginia, published her first book in 1897, when she was twenty -four years old. Virginia, the first of Ellen Glasgow’s great tragicomedies was thus significantly a story of innocence. She wrote about, pure womanhood raised in pure ignorance, married off for the purest of motives, came to pure disaster ( Geismer 259-261). This novels kept to this note; they recorded a long succession of frozen and unreal marriages. The classic wife in Ellen Glasgow’s novel is a woman perfect in energy and grace, rich in quiet affection, successful hostess, an admirable mother but never a lover. She describes her husband as energetically as she inspires him to rise their world; she preserves his place in the community and keeps him from enjoying it; Virginia is so good that she bores him and so possessive that she absorbs him (Geismar,262). In this book it deeply describes the lifestyle of the women and men in this era and how the women were strong and powerful while the men seemed like faded characters non existence in this world.

When the novel first starts , we are introduced to a character called Virginia. She is described as a being beautiful, graceful, like many of the characters of this time, greedy of money and wealth. The women in this book are powerful, take charge of the household and the money. Virginia is one that cares about her appearance, her looks but this necessarily is not her only concern. She did indeed wanted to look nice, dress well and be respected, but her real desire was to over take her love for Oliver and marry him. She enjoyed the finer things in life but they were not a must for her survival. When Virginia and Oliver were to be married it was Virginia’s mother who wanted only the best wedding gown for her daughter. It was her mother who wanted Virginia to have the prettiest gowns, clothes, and accessories, when Virginia moved away. Virginia saw that looks and appearance where important but however they were not crucial to her happiness in life, her happiness was merely only Oliver.

These novels usually center around women, the pattern of growth found in the males appears far simpler. Since the men are generally weaker than the women, their development often seems distorted. The involvement of Oliver makes the reader realize how useless and chiveral Oliver’s character is. Oliver did not like to follow the "in crowd" and not go along with everyone else. He refused to work under his uncles belt, an in return was kicked out of the house. Many would see Oliver as a strong character at this point because he stood up for what he believed and did not want to work with the railroads, instead he wanted to make something out of his life. But if his character is looked at realistically it shows how naive Oliver is , he has no money, no job, no where to stay and he lets his sense of pride stand in his way. Oliver marries Virginia so that he now has an excuses as to why he should become a writer and support his family. Oliver does what he wants to do , he only cares about himself. If he really loved Virginia he would get a real job and support his family so that money would never be an issue in their house hold. Even when Oliver’s uncle came to offer him a job again he refused it, saying he did not need handouts from anyone that they would make it just fine.

One can easily see that Virginia would sacrifice anything and do all that she possibly could for her children Lucy, Harry, and Jenny. Oliver, himself was not very happy or fond of the thought of children and literally did not want to have anything to do with the children. Oliver felt that his duty of a father was to provide for them, and make Virginia’s life less stressful. Oliver may have thought he was doing his role but in reality he was useless. He hardly made enough money to even support them. Virginia had to scrounge every penny, in order for her family to have food to eat. Virginia was the type of mother that would sacrifice anything for the children. Her children were her life, her reason for existence’s, her love. She would always made sure that they plenty to eat, they were happy and had all that they needed and desired. She cared only for the children and not that of herself. She stopped caring about her looks and her clothes, and practically for Oliver, they all become second priority to her in life. One reason Oliver resented the children so much was because he had to take the back burner of importance. One thing that Oliver never realized is that Virginia resented him because he had borrowed money and made money and living a greater challenge. Virginia had enough to deal with the children let alone figure out how to save more money that her idiotic husband had lost. Oliver also resented the fact that Virginia did not take the time to fix herself up anymore, she would let herself get run down, never resting, wearing nice clothes or even trying to remotely to fix herself up as she used to do when they were first were married. Virginia resented Oliver for not having the time or desire to spend any time with the children. He had the time to create the children but that’s the only involvement he wanted with the whole ordeal. He had all the time in the world to create these plays and writings. One prime example would be when Virginia was to see Oliver’s show he had produced but she could not leave her children alone for one night, the thought nearly killed her, they had never been left before.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Virginia was a perfect replica of an ideal mother. She truly loved and cherished each of child, but she truly loved Harry the middle child the most. She would always claim that a boy just needed his mother so, and she would go to the ends of the earth for this child. Oliver would always criticize her and say that the young lad was only using her, Harry just wanted her undivided attention. Virginia was suppost to have traveled with Oliver to see an opening of one of his plays reluctantly she did not want to go. Oliver was very furious she would not go left without her Virginia sacrificed a lot that night not going with her husband but she knew she needed to stay with her beloved Harry. Thankfully she did because Harry was stricken with Diphtheria and near his death. The pang that rose inside of Virginia when she found out her flesh and blood was so terribly stricken with illness was more than she could bear. She sacrificed herself, her health, the rest of her family to be with Harry. For days she sat beside his bed watching , praying, hoping he would get better and not die. During this time Virginia realized that her only concern or desire in life were her children. Through this circumstance both Harry and Virginia grew closer together realizing that neither one could life without each other.

Throughout the course of time Oliver and Virginia’s children had grown up and were successful because of Virginia. She had done everything in her power. She had provided for them like no other mother could have done. But now she was left with an empty house and no one to help out. She felt that she literally had no desire because her children were not there. Lucy was now married living with children and to busy to write or come to see her. Jenny was away at college wrapped so tightly in her new world she still had Harry though, even though he was off at college, he still wrote to her every Sunday, Harry Tredwell was the mother trapped son of Virginia (Geismar, 234).

As if life was not bad enough for Virginia she finally found out that Oliver did not love her anymore and that he no longer was going to come home to her. He felt that Virginia really had no more feelings for him either. Virginia did not act like it really affected her at all that Oliver was never coming back. He had been non existence for such a long time in her life she learned to face reality and went on about her life. If she really did love him she would have had fought for him like she would have for the children. Jenny and Lucy had the audacity to not even care or help their mother out at all. She had hurt her children in the long run, she cared so much for them, did everything for them but she did not teach her children how to care about someone in return to sacrifice for them. Sacrifice may only be seen by a mother and the love she has for her children. As Virginia lived her life she began to realize she really had nothing to live for , her only desire in live was her children and that they were happy in live. She had Harry her love of her life. In the last sentence of the book it says; Dearest Mother, I am coming home to you. "Harry" (Glasgow 526). Harry was Virginia’s saving grace, she had always been there for him and know he would be the one to sacrifice his life for her . He in turn was taking on the role that Virginia once had , and he was coming home to her rescue.

The earlier stories about the state of Virginia were written at a time when novels in dialect were very popular. However, these books were written at a time when all American novels ended happily as a polite matter of course. Ellen Glasgow’s Virginia truly shows and expresses the lifestyle of that time and how strong the female character were and how they handled life.

Work Cited

Geismar, Maxwell. Ellen Glasgow: The Armor of the Legend . Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985. 219-283.

Glasgow, Ellen. Virginia. Doubleday, Page and Company, New York City, New York, 1913.