American Literature

The Roles of Women in Eudora Weltys  The Petrified Man

Written mainly in the form of dialogue, Eudora Weltys  The Petrified Man,  is  the gossip of two women, Leota and Mrs. Fletcher, during the early 1940s. Concentrated on the fragility and, at times, underlying pettiness of the casual relationships between the women of Leota and Mrs. Fletchers small world, the story illustrates the closed off world of women and the beginning changes to their roles in society. In the rise and fall of Leotas friendship with Mrs. Pike, as well as Mrs. Fletchers secret pregnancy, Welty shows the limitations of a womans role in society. At the same time, the portrayal of Fred and Mr. Pike as unemployed while their wives work to take care of the family, shows how roles were starting to be reversed in the relationship between men an women. In the contradiction between traditional and new roles for women, Welty attempts to find and illustrate the truth of her characters. Though set in the South, Welty does not limit her characters by regionalism but contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by women in straddling the line between the past and the future.

One of he most important components of Weltys story is the use of dialogue to make up the majority of the story. From the plot to the personalities of the individual characters, even those who are not actual participants in the conversation, she uses dialogue to not merely motivate the story but to create a story in the first place. The characters of Leota and Mrs. Fletcher are developed from the beginning with Leotas easy, ungrammatical offset by Mrs. Fletchers more prim and proper outlook on life. The non-dialogue is used as a compliment to the dialogue by helping to highlight Mrs. Fletchers high strung character as the opposite of Leotas laid back attitude. Wanting to know who has revealed her pregnancy to Leota, Mrs. Fletcher turns to the other beautician for answers. Leotas own assistance in getting Thelmas attention is a sharp contrast to Mrs. Fletcher and reveals the key difference of personality between the two women,
 Wheres Thelma Ill get it out of her,  said Mrs. Fletcher.

Just wait,  said Mrs. Fletcher, and shrieked for Thelma, who came in and took a drag from Leotas cigarette.
 Thelma, honey, throw your mind back to yestiddy if you kin,  said Leota    just cast your mind back and try to remember who your lady was yestiddy who happm to mention that my customer was pregnant, thats all. Shes dead to know  (2149).

More relaxed, and knowing her own guilt in misleading Mrs. Fletcher by not telling her right away that it had been Mrs. Pike, Leota radiates a calmer, homier exterior than Mrs. Fletcher. The archetype of a busy body hairdresser, Leota is an individual in her charm and ease with conversation. Mrs. Fletcher, more restrained by her seriousness and airs and is snobbish in comparison. In the understanding of the women that flows from their conversations, we begin to see that their personalities arent the only way they differ. They also are very different socially and in their marital status..

Marital status is very important in showing the differences between the women, not just if they are married but what their marriage is like. Welty shows part of this difference in her choice of the name that the characters are known by in the story. Mrs. Fletcher and Mrs. Pike are not only individual women but they are wives. They are representative of the traditional coupling and roles between men and women. Mrs. Fletcher always refers to her husband as Mr. Fletcher, just as Leota is sure to make the distinction of Mrs. Pikes married state by never referring to her by her first name. However, just as unmarried and married women vary in the eyes of society, so too do the individual experiences of marriage. Having met her husband at a library, Mrs. Fletcher implies a lack of romance in her marriage. In describing their meeting, Mrs. Fletcher unconsciously shows the traditional male-dominant idea of malefemale relationships,  I met Mr. Fletcher, or rather he met me, in a rental library,  said Mrs. Fletcher with dignity  (1153).  It would not do, in Mrs. Fletchers view of the world, for a woman to be looking for a man and in making the point that it was Mr. Fletcher who met her, Mrs. Fletcher is placing herself in a submissive contrast to her husband.

By contrast, Mrs. Pikes husband is much older than his wife and Mrs. Pikes motivations, whether romance or security, are never truly revealed. Instead, Mrs. Fletcher and the reader learn only about Mrs. Pikes relationship through the first adoring than critical eyes of Leota. As opposed to Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. Pike represents a kind of romantic view of marriage for Leota. In her eventual fortune, she fulfills what Leota desires but does not have. Its no mistake that we never learn Leotas last name. In part, at least in respect to Leota and Mrs. Fletcher, it is due to their relationship as customer and hairdresser as well as different social statuses. While their conversation may touch on the most personal of subjects, they lack an intimacy. More importantly, the difference in names reveals the differences between their relationships with the men in their lives. Though it is never stated outright, we can guess from the use of Leota and Freds first names only that they are not yet married,  Honey, me an Fred, we met in a rumble seat eight months ago and we was practically on what you might call the way to the altar inside of half an hour, said Leota in a guttural voice  (2153). Leotas impetuous nature and the whirlwind of her romance with Fred are a quick contrast to Mrs. Fletchers more traditional and boring relationship. There is the sense that Mrs. Fletcher doesnt even really like her husband. The balance of their traditional roles, as man and woman in 1940s society, is similarly different. Mrs. Fletcher is shown as nothing more than a bored housewife, while Leota is a businesswoman. She is not merely doing hair in her home but has a shop with employees. Fred on the other hand is a layabout who does not work but still Leota has some hope for what being his wife could mean for her future. Leota enjoys her job but she wants the security of a marriage, not a business. Leotas womens beauty parlor, a feminine space, doesnt only show the limitations for women in the business world but Leotas limited idea of her future.

For the women in the story, regardless of their freedom of conversation or personality, there are still the norms of society to be coped with. Leotas sense of a kindred nature in Mrs. Pike, is what draws her and then repells her from their quick friendship. In addition, the underlying competition between the two women that ends with Mrs. Pikes good fortune at winning the 500 reward, shows how limited their choices were in a society that looked at the careers of women. Even though Leota has a business and is, at least professionally superior to her friend, the concept of the working woman was one of necessity rather than leisure. Even as Leotas represents independence in her role as breadwinner in her relationship, her ideas of fortune are still based on the expectations of society. While she may work, she does not desire it to be her fate. In winning the reward, Mrs. Pike achieves the final mark in her accomplishments as a woman. She is wife, a mother, and now financially bolstered whereas Leota struggles to pass from stage to stage.

Mrs. Fletcher too is struggling with the expectations of her role as a woman. She is trying to hide her pregnancy from not merely the town but her husband, while attempting to be the traditional wife does not feel in herself the desire to be a mother,  Well I dont like children that much, said Mrs. Fletcher.   Well Im almost tempted not to have this one  (2150). For a woman who attempts to conform to societys expectations of women, Mrs. Fletchers confession reveals that even the most traditional of female roles is not what it seems. Despite the expectations of her husband and even Leota, who herself replies with a  Well  (2150) to Mrs. Fletchers dislike of children, Mrs. Fletcher does not wish to fill the role of motherhood. However, despite her protestations that  Mr. Fletcher cant do a thing with me  (2150) she nevertheless does little to change her fate,  if I really look that pregnant already  (2150). She is resigned to and trapped in the cycle of her own conception of the female role, knowing that she herself fails to fulfill the most important of archetypes but sees no way to fight against it. Therefore she ends up merely falling into the stereotype of the weaker sex in her manipulations of her husband,  If he so much as raises his voice against me, he knows good and well Ill have one of my sick headaches, and then Im just not fit to live with  (2150). She does not fight her husband with reason or logic, with her own desires, but instead uses his idea of her femaleness against him and keeps herself trapped.

In the end, there is no real escape for the women in the the story. Welty, does not attempt to look to the future of the past but concentrates her characters in their present. Despite their differences, they each exist within the expectations and limitations of their roles as women in 1940s society. While Leota operates a business, she yearns for the life of Mrs. Pike and in her jealousy, their friendship is undermined by the pettiness of competition. Mrs. Fletcher battles within herself, to maintain the image of proper wife and woman while suppressing her personal feelings on motherhood and marriage. They are each going through the motions of their life, caught between not only the images of the past and the possibilities of the future but more importantly the opposition between their inner and outer selves as women.