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Property as Feminist Dynamic in Welty's Delta Wedding Essay examples

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Property as Feminist Dynamic in Welty's Delta Wedding

In our traditionally patriarchal society, primogeniture is the norm for inheritance of property. For anyone other than a first-born son to inherit the family estate is unusual. Even more unusual is inheritance by women, who in many localities were forbidden from owning property. Thus, the pattern of inheritance which Robbie notes in Delta Wedding is a significant departure from cultural norms. Eudora Welty depicts a domestic politic which represents a feminist dynamic departing from, yet not entirely escaping, patriarchy.

On the surface, women occupy a dominant role in the domestic politics of the novel. Robbie testifies to several ways in which this is true. First, …show more content…

Despite this clear delineation of an inverted power structure, the Fairchild women do not completely escape patriarchy. The system is still not truly matriarchal, as the women subvert male dominance without genuinely replacing it. "It was as if the women had exacted the place, the land, for something- for something they had had to give" (191). Presumably, this transaction represents an acceptance by the women of a conditional patriarchy. However, for all their authority in the "roost," the women do not maintain control over their trump card: the land. After exacting the land from the men, "they had let it out of their hands" (191). This voluntary subjugation undermines patriarchy without destroying it. By ceding their power, they place themselves in a position to more legitimately (according to the dominant culture) regain it. The Fairchild "women knew what to ask of their men. Adoration, first - but not least. Then, small sacrifice by small sacrifice, the little pieces of the whole body! (191). At the conclusion of this intricate game of domestic politics, the women are left in charge, but now at the impetus of the men. The women, who in their initial power suffered the men's presence, are now suffered to rule by the men who were their former guests. There is a caveat to this dynamic stated among the litany of property transfers. Miss Rowena gave Shellmound to Mr. Battle "before she ever

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