Abstract
The article examines the forms and components of the sentiment of loneliness as experienced by widows living in an American metropolis. The forms include loneliness for the deceased husband as: an individual, an object of love, the person making the woman an object of love, a companion, someone whose presence organizes time and work, a partner in the division of labor, a source of status, and a source of life style. Loneliness is also experienced by widows because of strains in relations with married friends and of an inability to convert secondary relations into ones of greater depth. The very lonely are women socialized into passive membership in automatically encompassing groups, who now lack such relations. Other widows continue close relations or build new life styles solving many of the problems of loneliness.
Published Version
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