with all due respect

Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, 1948

re·spect·a·ble

ri' spektəbəl
regarded by society to be good, proper, or correct; of some merit or importance

What does it mean to be respectable, or to have respectability? In Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, the concept of respectability is questionable. 

Within the work, Wash Williams, the telegraph operator of Winesburg, was a man of respect: "When Wash walked through the streets such a one had an instinct to pay him homage, to raise his hat or to bow before him" (Anderson 122). These actions resembled those conducted for a man or woman of high status, or having a quality that ranks them deserving of reverence. However, Wash is also associated with "a huge, grotesque kind of monkey, a creature with ugly, sagging, hairless skin below his eyes and a bright purple underbody" (Anderson 121). Despite being described as extremely ugly and dirty, he is also said to be courageous, as well as the best telegraph operator in the state. In this case, Wash's respectability is based on his confidence and his skillful abilities rather than his appearance. 

It appears that Wash has two different ideas of respectability. As he narrates his falling-out with his wife, his words make it seem as though he's lost respect for her: "'...I didn't want to touch them or her. I just sent her home to her mother and said nothing. There was nothing to say'" (Anderson 126). She was not, therefore, what would be determined as "good, proper, or correct." However, despite this, he treated her like a victim of the circumstance. It was clear that he felt lonely and betrayed after his wife had cheated on him, but he also tried to take all the blame off of her: "'I hated the men I thought had wronged her'" (Anderson 127). Instead of getting angry of her actions, he actually paid her all his savings and the money for the house. In addition, he became aggressive against her mother instead of her. Disregarding her affairs, Wash seemed to still hold some sort of respect or deference for her.

The only time that respect was explicitly included in the "Respectability" story was when Wash was at his wife's house: "'I sat in the parlor of that house two hours... Their house was stylish. They were what is called respectable people. There were plush chairs and a couch in the room" (Anderson 126). Respectability at this point of the story has a more superficial feel than previous implications. Wash described them as "respectable" simply by their home, or by their appearance of being "respectable". This could also be similar to the meaning of "sophistication" in the story entitled "Sophistication." Within that story, George Williard was concerned of acting sophisticated and manly in front of Helen White, even though it made him act in a manner that was unnatural and phony. In fact, the definition of sophisticate is "to make impure, adulterate; to cause to become less natural." Despite their appearances of sophistication, both George and Helen were both still young and wild, eventually regressing to "excited little animals" (Anderson 242). The concepts of respectability and sophistication within Anderson's work are treated as superficial qualities, only associated with individuals who act fake.