30 pages • 1 hour read
Sherwood AndersonHands
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1919A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Wing Biddlebaum (Adolph Myers)
The main character of “Hands,” Wing Biddlebaum, is a profoundly lonely man. He still thinks of himself as an outsider in Winesburg despite having lived there for 20 years. Although he is only 40 years old, he has the appearance of someone in his sixties. Wing Biddlebaum’s character speaks to the distinction between Appearance Versus Reality: The narrator emphasizes Wing Biddlebaum’s nonthreatening appearance, which is important, given the accusations against him.
At age 20, Biddlebaum went by the name Adolph Myers and was a schoolteacher at a boys’ school in Pennsylvania. He was known for showing his students affection and cultivating their dreams. After a student made an accusation that Adolph Myers had touched him inappropriately, the teacher was driven out of town in the middle of the night by a lynch mob.
The narrator subtly insinuates that Wing Biddlebaum/ Adolph Myers is a gay man and that rural American society may have unfairly condemned him based on prejudice. The accusation against him “galvanized” the “strange, shadowy doubts” (7) already held by the community due to his reputation for being “so gentle that it passes as a loveable weakness” (6). Adolph Myers’s gentleness, fondness for his students, high voice, and fluttering hands mark him as an outsider within the community.
After being beaten and threatened with death by the mob of angry fathers, Adolph Myers changed his name to Wing Biddlebaum and went to live with his aunt in Winesburg until her death. He inherited his aunt’s house and works as a day laborer picking strawberries. In Winesburg, he continues to be treated as an outsider and a curiosity because of his fearful reclusiveness following the attack. His name “Wing” refers to the rapid movement of his hands and the narrative’s figurative presentation of him as “an imprisoned bird” (4), trapped by others’ perception of him as a social pariah. This imagery extends to the story’s final paragraph where he is presented as picking crumbs from the floor like a bird eating seed from the bottom of its cage.
Wing Biddlebaum’s hands are a central symbol of the text. They are the protagonist’s distinguishing characteristic and also the cause of his downfall. Described as “the hands,” rather than “his hands,” they are given agency, as if acting of their own accord. The narrative distance between Wing Biddlebaum and his hands adds to the theme of Alienation and Self-Estrangement and creates an ambiguity about the protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
As most of the action takes place in the past timeline of the story, Wing Biddlebaum does not develop as a character. Rather, the reasons behind his intense anxiety and fear of his own hands are revealed through the flashbacks to his previous life as Adolph Myers.
George Willard
George Willard is the only character to appear in all the stories in Winesburg, Ohio. George Willard is the son of Tom Willard, owner of the town’s hotel, New Willard House. He works as a reporter for the town newspaper, the Winesburg Eagle, and makes a habit of visiting the various “grotesques” in Winesburg, including Wing Biddlebaum. George Willard is a good listener and being a natural “reporter” puts him at the center of each of the stories.
Very little is revealed about George Willard’s background in “Hands.” Wing Biddlebaum is waiting for the young man to walk by his house and stop to talk, but George Willard does not show up that day. In the flashbacks of their previous meetings, George Willard is perplexed by Wing Biddlebaum’s fear of his own hands but does not push him to talk about it. His respect for and sympathy toward Wing Biddlebaum contributes to the narrator’s suggestion of the protagonist’s innocence. While the other townspeople view Wing Biddlebaum as odd, readers are more inclined to see George Willard, who is clearly an educated and reflective character, as a more credible judge of character. At the same time, George Willard considers Wing Biddlebaum’s behavior something of a mystery, emphasizing that he does not know anything about his friend’s past.
Henry Bradford
Henry Bradford owns a saloon in rural Pennsylvania. He has a son who was a student of Adolph Myers. When an accusation of molestation is made against Adolph Myers, Henry Bradford takes matters into his own hands and beats the teacher in the schoolyard in front of the children.
Henry Bradford’s anger as a wronged father is expressed through violence. His character speaks the only two pieces of dialogue from the entire climax: “I’ll teach you to put your hands on my boy, you beast” (7); and “Keep your hands to yourself” (8). In both cases, these words are reported as having been “roared” by the saloon keeper while kicking Adolph Myers in the schoolyard. The descriptions of Henry Bradford with “a rope in his hands” preparing to hang Adolph Myers (7), and his fists when he beats him, contrast with the descriptions of the protagonist’s sensitive hands. Henry Bradford’s hands are depicted as tools of violence, underlining the theme of Toxic Masculinity and Prejudice Beget Violence.
Although he is only mentioned by name once in “Hands,” Henry Bradford plays an important role in the story. First, he is the father to openly accuse and punish Adolph Myers for the alleged crime. Second, he represents the interests of the other fathers as an archetypal “man of the town” (7). He is likely also the leader of the mob of men who drive Adolph Myers out of town and threaten to hang him, thus forcing him to become Wing Biddlebaum.
Related Titles
By Sherwood Anderson
