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.lukewarm reviews.Many early reviews of the bookEthan s frustrated wishes that he were more than tended to allude to the writer s work of the 1930she is echo those of the Scottish lord, as his response and 1940s as a substitute for more direct criticismto Mary s mildly expressed disappointment in of the recent novel.Notices were relatively briefEthan s reserve parallels Macbeth s reaction to the and straightforward, but only a few reviewers reallymore direct and pointed criticisms of his lady.Like cared to call Steinbeck s new book serious writing.Macbeth, Ethan is tantalized by the predictions of a A few early analyses focused on the presence offortune teller, the ubiquitous Margie Young-Hunt, mythic elements and Steinbeck s uses of natural-and her promise to Mary that Ethan will be her for- ism.But other early critics were troubled by Stein-tune plays a large role in Ethan s decision to act.beck s seeming inability to decide if the work was aEthan is further tantalized by the wishes and hopes moral teaching or a satire of modern man, and theyof his daughter Ellen, who cruelly wonders when found the combination of mythical elements toothey will be rich, and whose sleepwalking caresses confusing.of the family talisman serve as an epiphany for her Virgilia Peterson, in her review of The Winter offather.Together, the three women approximate an Our Discontent in the New York Herald Tribune,appropriately disjointed reworking of the Weird Sis- called it a novel worth scrutiny simply because ofters of the Scottish play in their effect on Ethan.the author s previous work, although like manyAn even more obvious reworking of Shakespeare other critics, she found it ultimately inferior to hisexists in Ethan s reconfiguring of his relationship to other books.Peterson stated that Steinbeck is aDanny Taylor, whose patrimonial meadow Ethan writer with two literary faces, one gleeful, asmust usurp in order to establish himself as the shown in TORTILLA FLAT and Cannery Row, and thefinancial leader of New Baytown.Ethan s fond nos- other outraged as shown in The Grapes of Wrathtalgia for their boyhood days does not prevent him and IN DUBIOUS BATTLE.Peterson further suggestedfrom following through with his plan.At the same that Steinbeck shows an angry and moralistic facetime, Ethan knows he will be visited by Danny s in The Winter of Our Discontent.Although sheghost, much as Macbeth is haunted by Macduff, credited Steinbeck for exposing the incontrovert-and his sense that the tidal waves washing over him ible fact that American honesty is losing reputa-will overwhelm him parallels not only the end of tion, Peterson pointed out that the author failedRichard III, but the end of Macbeth, as well.All of to present his characters as realistically as he did inthese allusions are perhaps part of what led Stein- previous works.For example, Peterson found the 254 The Winter of Our Discontentauthor s portrayal of Ethan Hawley, a man of argued that typical of Steinbeck s later work, Theinnocence and principle, to be naïve and unac- Winter of Our Discontent indicates Steinbeck sceptable.Similarly, a book review in Time com- shift in emphasis from broad social issues to indi-plained that the novel contains little passion and vidual moral concerns.As George has recentlythat the writer s moral anathema was nothing but pointed out, The Winter of Our Discontent indeed late-middle-aged petulance. speaks with a clear moral voice, a voice concernedCritics who viewed the story in the book as fable not only with our moral development as individu-rather than reality tended to appreciate the mes- als, but with the ability of those same individualssages conveyed by Steinbeck.Peter Harcourt was to provide a light by which others may see theone of the few early critics who valued Steinbeck s way. According to George, The Winter of Ourfables in The Winter of Our Discontent.Writing for Discontent deserves far more attention than it hasthe English Time and Tide, Harcourt contends that been given to.Steinbeck is more concerned with the social conse- More recently, the Internet has made availablequences of a corrupted individual, whose moral various forums for lay readers to respond to Stein-corrosion spills over and begins to spoil the lives of beck s work; a surprising number of them paypeople around him. From this perspective Har- attention to The Winter of Our Discontent.Perhapscourt views the novel as expressing Steinbeck s less surprising, they are receptive to the critique ofcontinued faith that our society needs to retain corrupted morality and appreciative of Ethan smoral goodness so the light of life can continue aspirations and his despair.Steinbeck s decision toburning. Writing from a similar standpoint, Eric avoid an apocalyptic ending is commended by sev-Keown of the English Punch calls the book a study eral of these popular critics.of an innocent whose character is corrupted by theSYNOPSISdiscovery that graft is easy. Harold Gardiner, writ-ing in America, regards the novel as a story that Part 1concerns the moral decay of a good man.(I)In addition to its teaching on morality, other On Good Friday, Ethan Allen Hawley, the poor butcritics noted that The Winter of Our Discontent may proud member of one of New Baytown s oldest fam-offer readers some sociological perspective to ilies, opens the grocery store that was once hisreflect on the rapid changes in mid-20th-century before he lost it due to his own mismanagement
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