In “Hands”, we are introduced to a character, Wing Biddlebaum, who is very quiet, keeps to himself, and exhibits anti-social behavior. After the incident in Pennsylvania, we find that although Wing Biddlebaum “did not understand what had happened he felt that [his] hands must be to blame” (Anderson 57). His lack of understanding of what was los

Another key phrase is again in the description of his isolation. For over twenty years, Wing has remained isolated. Freud states that “after a lapse of time [mourning] will be overcome and we look upon any interference with it as inadvisable or even harmful” (Freud 165). In the twenty years that Wing has lived in Winesburg, there has been little or no interference in his life, let alone his sadness. However, recovery is one of the key features of mourning versus melancholia.

“… A profoundly painful dejection, abrogation of interest in the outside world, loss of the capacity to love, inhibition of all activity, and a lowering of the self-regarding feelings to a degree that finds utterance in self reproaches and self-reviling, and culminates in a delusional expectation of punishment” (Freud 165).

Looking through “Hands” we see many references to Wing Biddlebaum’s hands as part of his method of communication. Communication is controlled by the conscious part of ones psyche. Wing hands have gone from being the part of the Ego that one uses for tools and other work to being totally absorbed into the part that controls communication. Repeatedly throughout the short story, the narrator points out that Wing, in his current state of mind, had hands that were “forever striving to conceal themselves in

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