speechlessness

     Selective Mutism (SM) is often restricted to children, and the symptoms vary greatly, ranging from those who are completely mute, and those who speak to some people, though depending on the occasion. Overall, SM is defined as a childhood anxiety disorder, and it typically stems from moments of deep distress in the earliest moments of childhood or is part of the genetic makeup of the child, thus being something that can be hereditary. According to Dr. Shipon–Blum, “children and adolescents with Selective Mutism have an actual FEAR of speaking and of social interactions where there is an expectation to speak and communicate.” However, there are also children who become mute in the sense that they have gone so long without verbal communication that they have, in a sense, forgotten how and instead resort to forms of nonverbal communication.

     Amidst the varying forms of anxiety present in Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, Selective Mutism also seems to make an appearance, specifically in the tale of “Godliness: Part III”. Regarding Louise Bentley, her silence—or Selective Mutism—seem to stem from aspects of fear. For Louise, the anxiety produced by living with her father, compounded with the knowledge that she is not welcome there, and then grown by the lack of acceptance she receives upon moving in with the Hardy family, leave her with the near impulsive reaction to simply not speak at all. Indeed, Louise seems to stop talking altogether: “[She] gave up all hope of getting on a friendly footing with the Hardy girls and went to her own room as soon as the evening meal was at an end” (38). After this pronunciation, there are moments in which Louise dreams of speaking, but fails to do so, until she is with her father’s handyman on the way home—though this moment also gives her anxiety. As for the Hardy family, the only further communication the reader sees between the girl and any other member of the household comes in the form of a note to John Hardy, which reads: “I want someone to love me and I want to love someone.” When John Hardy offers to love her, though in a way which she does not want (physically rather than emotionally), and she does not know how to explain to him her inner turmoil, no further speech is written until after the birth of their son, David, when Louise explains to her husband that her cruelty via neglect is warranted because “[i]t is a man child and will get what it wants anyway….Had it been a woman child there is nothing in the world [she] would not have done for it” (39). Thus, Louise seems to apply to the idea of Selective Mutism through the ideas of speechlessness resulting from fear and anxiety in situations brought on by an emotionally traumatic experience(s) during her most developmental years of childhood.

Bibliography:

Anderson, Sherwood. "Godliness (Parts III). Winesburg, Ohio, Electon Press, pp. 36 – 40.

Dr. Shipon–Blum, Elisa. “What Is Selective Mutism.” Selective Mutism Anxiety Research & Treatment Center, Smart Center, selectivemutismcenter.org/whatisselectivemutism/.