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Articles

Volume 06, Number 1 (1981)

Ethel Wilson's Characters

  • Paul Comeau
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1981-01-01

Abstract

Ethel Wilson's fictional world is one of peaks and valleys governed largely by chance and peopled by characters yearning for independence, at times even solitude, while simultaneously seeking to establish a firm link with the larger human community. Such a link remains elusive, though, because Wilson's universe is essentially unpredictable and disjointed, with no apparent moral or ethical foundation. The motivation behind her writing derives from the need to discover such a foundation amid the chaos about her. Her progress toward that discovery is mapped out in her characters, who range from the indifferent and immoral to the sensitive and forgiving. Thus, one can trace the emergence of a moral dimension in Wilson's fictional world as it is reflected in the development of her characters.