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The Erotic Economy of Ellen Glasgow’s Barren Ground: How Success Almost Spoiled Dorinda Oakley by Dianne Bunch Although Barren Ground is Ellen Glasgow’s most critically acclaimed novel, less attention has been paid to the novel’s overall meaning than to Glasgow’s poignant portrayal of her protagonist, Dorinda Oakley. In his biography of Ellen Glasgow, E. Stanley Godbold concludes that “Dorinda Oakley could have been created only by an embittered and cynical woman” and that “more than any other character in her novels, Dorinda Oakley is Ellen Glasgow” (137). These provocative statements dare us to take a closer look at Glasgow’s novel Barren Ground in order to decide for ourselves just what Glasgow’s character actually shares with her creator. In Glasgow’s somewhat enigmatic 1933 preface to the Old Dominion edition of Barren Ground, she does sympathize with Dorinda’s dilemma; however, I believe that she also establishes a clear demarcation between author and character, saying, “ Though I wrote always toward an end that I saw . . . Dorinda was free” (viii ). Moreover, when Glasgow states that Dorinda “exists wherever a human being has learned to live without joy, wherever the spirit of fortitude has triumphed over the sense of
The Southern Literary Journal – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Dec 1, 2001
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