The image of American woman in William Carlos William's Paterson

Abstract EN

This papit seeks to demonstratethat William Carlos Williams's career as a medical doettir has aroused in him a deep concern and sympathy for the -niin ii of bis society.

The paper also aims at defining the "maladies" that proved detrimental to American women, such maladies that incite Williams to adopt an unprecedented pro-feminist positoln.

In his Palcrxon, he pathetically reflects the American woman's wrclrhed position in a capitalistic society.

Here Williams finds her inarticulate and marginal, suffering social and sexual inhibition, and above all financially Impoverished, ull nf which contribute Ui her spiritual and emotional barrenness and physical sterility.

He make* it clear thai age-old misogynism still persists even today.

The American woman, as the granddaughter of Puritanism, is made to fear her body' Williams's sympathetic concern for woman, however, goes far beyond his recognition of her suffering and t-MO beyond his affectionate care and material help.

He realizes that her voice should finally be heard and be made articulate, hence his poem dedicated to her.

He attempts to raise her t« the status of an epic hero In Paterson.

By incorporating an "idyll" of two lesbians in his, poem, Williams endeavours to assert that the lesbian has a perfect right to exist.

And by making the virgin and the prostitute an identity, Williams strives to eliminate the social differences among women themselves.

But most Important to Williams is his attempt to blow up the blockage separating men and women, and he can do so by declaring that men po\se\v feminine qualities in them, therefore, men and women are complementary.