The Optimist’s Daughter (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eudora Welty
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The early 1960’s
- Setting: New Orleans and the fictional town of “Mount Salus,” Mississippi
- Principal Characters: Laurel McKelva Hand, Judge Clinton McKelva, Wanda Fay Chisom McKelva, Major Rupert Bullock, Miss Adele Courtland
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: 1960’s, Memory, Parents and children, Surgery or surgeons, Fathers, Mississippi, New Orleans, Death or dying, Judges, Funeral rites or ceremonies
- Locales: New Orleans, LA, Mississippi, Mount Salus, MS
The Novel
“Is it the Carnival?” asks Fay, as she and Laurel ride through New Orleans in a taxi. It is Mardi Gras, though hardly a festive occasion: The two have just left a hospital where, less than an hour earlier, they witnessed the death of Judge McKelva, Fay’s husband and Laurel’s father.
Fay’s incongruous question typifies the uncomprehending, inadequate, and inappropriate responses to life by many characters in The Optimist’s Daughter. The world of these characters is a microcosm of the larger world glimpsed through carnival-week New Orleans,...
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