A Feminist Interpretation Of Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter

Eudora Welty is an outstanding writer of American southern Renaissance.In her major works,she portrayed many heroines and paid great attention to the psychology,behavior and the living situation of women.This thesis analyzes the three heroines in her The Optimist's Daughter.The three heroines are Becky,Laurel and Fay.They differ in character,destiny and behavior,which reflects Welty's feminist views.A large number of scholars have researched on Welty and her works,but most of them aimed at the themes,writing techniques and the life of Welty.There are also some researches that are about feminism in Welty's works,but they mainly focus on a single heroine's character.A comprehensive study of Welty's feminist thought is yet to be done.Therefore,this thesis interprets all the three female characters as a whole and finds that their characters,their ways of life and their destinies correspond to the development of feminism.The thesis concludes that Eudora Welty is a great feminist writer and she has her own attitude towards the women issues.