“Manic” a closer look at Wing Beddlebaum and Dr. Parcival

“Manic” a closer look at Wing Beddlebaum and Dr. Parcival

When the word “manic” is used in conversations as a buzz word in today’s society, with most people viewing this concept in the contexts of what they have been exposed to the most, that of manic depressive. This immediate jump to a depressive state is what we, in the United States, have been conditioned to associate the word with. If someone is described as being manic everyone will add the word or words depressed or depressive. However, the individual word of “manic” is described in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as “adjective, affected with, relating to, characterized by, or resulting from a mania”. So what is the meaning of the word “mania”? This word is used as a noun and is defined by Merriam-Webster’s as “excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity, disorganization of behavior, and elevation of mood; specifically: the manic phase of bipolar disorder, excessive or unreasonable enthusiasm, the object of such enthusiasm. It is here that we see the true meaning manic and how it is a central part of the context of Whinesberg ,Ohio.  

Manic is not just a depressive disorder by is also the physical hyperactivity that is seen in "Hands." Here Wing Biddlebaum talks with his hands when he is in the presence of the boys, even playing with their hair. Here we see that wing is displaying the hyperactivity of his hands but also what he views as the need to have the boys as a means to have his hands communicate. This communication through Wings’ hands can be viewed as an excessive enthusiasm for touch or an outlet for hyperactivity. But after things turn bad he moves to Winesberg and tries to find an outlet for his hands hyperactivity. There is a reference in Winesberg about Wings hands and how he holds the record for the most berries ever picked. Here we see that the hyperactivity is being channeled by Wing to be something that is productive. Yet, Wing retreats into his home, partially because of his manic fear of what his “hands” might do and the fear of how these hand will lead him astray again. This fear, as Sherwood Anderson states: “he still hungered for the presence of the boy, who was the medium through which he expressed his love of man, the hunger became a part of his loneliness and his waiting” is caused by the hands that he has attached to his arms. These hands are a pair of instruments that has been the root of all his ills, yet it is through his hands that he felt he was the most complete. This love/hate relationship that Wing struggles with every day is also part of his manic personality.

Another manic personality living in the town of Winesberg, OH is that of the personality of Dr. Parcival. When we meet him he is sitting in his office waiting. With the fact that he has so few patients we wonder what is his problem. Coming to town and getting into a fight does little for his reputation as a doctor (someone that society views as having a higher moral code). We learn that Dr. Parcival has a habit of writing his thoughts on small slips of paper and crumbling them up into tight balls. These thoughts could be viewed as a manic behavior or as a compulsion. As a manic behavior, Dr. Parcival tends to write thoughts that are bothering him on the papers and the act of making the balls is a vent for an overactive behavior. These thoughts he has, he method of dealing with them is to write them out, form tight balls and then he continues the formation of tight compressed “pills” as his outlet for this over activeness. The compression and the use of his hands that he uses to compress the paper create his “self-medications” of what is his affliction.

Sherwood Anderson created two individuals that utilized their hands as a part of the affliction of the manic personality. He also demonstrates that even thought he was writing in the early 1900s he understood that there was more to people than what they were showing as their public face. Anderson introduces issues that were not talked about and most certainly not a topic that was written about in his time. With his “diagnosis” of the different people he created in Winesberg,OH, I would venture a guess were in some ways people he encountered or versions of his own identity.