SOURCE: "Eros and Thanatos in William Dean Howells's 'Editha'," in American Literary Realism, Vol. XII, No. 2, Autumn, 1979, pp. 283-87.

In the following essay, Bellamy examines the roles of idealism and rhetoric in Howells's "Editha."

William Dean Howells's belief in the pernicious influence of idealism is never so obviously and appropriately dramatized as in his anti-war short story "Editha."¹ The story of the young idealistic woman who sends her lover off to the wars is only too familiar. So also is the outcome of Editha's foolish attempt to make a dragon killer of her George. George not only does not come back; his death is rather casually mentioned as a minor detail of the first skirmish. It is tempting to accept the desire for heroics evident in Editha as a sufficient explanation for the enthusiasm for war which pervades her society. There are, however, less obvious, but no less...