The Optimist's Daughter: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Optimist's Daughter" is a novel centered around Laurel McKelva Hand, a mid-forties widow and accomplished fabric designer who returns to her hometown of Mount Salus, Mississippi, to confront her family's past following her father's eye surgery and subsequent funeral. The narrative intricately explores her relationships with key figures, including her father, Judge Clinton McKelva, a retired judge who embodies optimism despite his deteriorating health, and her stepmother, Wanda Fay Chisom McKelva, a self-centered and insensitive woman whose behavior complicates Laurel's grief.
Significant memories of Laurel's mother, Becky McKelva, who passed away many years prior, surface as Laurel grapples with loss and reconciliation. Becky is remembered through letters and recollections that reveal her complex relationship with both her daughter and her husband. Supporting characters, such as Major Rupert Bullock, an old friend of the judge, and Miss Adele Courtland, a neighbor and former bridesmaid, provide additional layers to Laurel's journey of reflection and healing.
Ultimately, the novel delves into themes of memory, familial bonds, and the process of coming to terms with the past, culminating in Laurel's emergence from a period of mourning to a renewed sense of self, ready to return to her life in Chicago. This exploration of character dynamics and emotional depth makes "The Optimist's Daughter" a poignant examination of resilience in the face of loss.
The Optimist's Daughter: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Eudora Welty
First published: 1969; enlarged, 1972
Genre: Novel
Locale: New Orleans, Louisiana, and the fictional Mount Salus, Mississippi
Plot: Domestic realism
Time: The early 1960's
Laurel McKelva Hand, a widow in her mid-forties and a successful fabric designer living in Chicago. Slender, stable, and with “her hair still dark,” she is the optimist's daughter of the novel's title. She has flown to New Orleans to be with her father for his operation to repair a damaged retina. She reads to him during his initial recovery and then returns to her family home for his funeral—and to sort out some of her own past. Much of the novel and many of its memories are filtered through Laurel's consciousness, especially back at Mount Salus after the funeral, where Laurel recalls her mother and her own early years. Laurel is surrounded by death—her husband, her mother, and now her father have all died. Once she has put memory and death in their proper places in the past, however, she finally survives and triumphs. In reaching some sort of resolution with Fay, her stepmother, Laurel makes peace with her home, and she can return to Chicago.
Judge Clinton McKelva, Laurel's father, retired from the bench and living in Mount Salus, Mississippi, with his second wife, Fay. At the age of seventy-one, the judge develops eye trouble, but as he tells Dr. Courtland, his surgeon, he is “an optimist” and has survived much, including the death of his first wife, Becky. He also has an untapped reserve of patience, but being forced to lie still after his delicate eye opera-tionistoo much forhim,aswellasforhisselfish wife,Fay. The judge dies when she tries to rouse him. At his end, he apparently has lost hope. He doted on Fay, as neighbors in Mount Salus say, although no one, including his daughter, can understand why.
Wanda Fay Chisom McKelva, the judge's second wife, a silly and insensitive gold digger from Texas. Fay thinks of no one but herself and actually hastens the judge's death when she tries to get him to move too soon after his operation. Her insecurity (she has married above herself and knows it) is matched only by her meanness and hysteria. She is best at “making a scene,” which she does even at the funeral. She has no passion or imagination, as Laurel finally realizes.
Becky McKelva, Laurel's mother and the judge's first wife, dead some twelve years but a powerful memory and a force in the novel. Laurel discovers her mother's letters and reconstructs Becky's childhood in West Virginia and her returns there after her marriage. The parents regularly read to each other and wrote to each other when separated, but Becky's last, sick years scarred both of her survivors. It is Becky's death that Laurel relives back in Mount Salus, and it is one of the events of her life she must consign to the past.
Major Rupert Bullock, a friend of the judge since childhood and the man who organizes his funeral. The major gets drunk and, worse, invites Fay's family (even Fay does not want them to be present), who disrupt the funeral with their crude manners. The major lives through his friends.
Miss Adele Courtland, a Mount Salus schoolteacher and the McKelvas' next-door neighbor. Miss Adele was one of Laurel's bridesmaids years before and still loves Laurel and the memory of her mother. Like the other women who flock around Laurel at Mount Salus to help her through the funeral and afterward, Miss Adele loved Laurel's mother and has trouble relating to Fay.
Missouri, the faithful black housekeeper of the McKelvas in Mount Salus.