Livvie by Eudora Welty Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Livvie by Eudora Welty - Term Paper Example (Allen, 1999, p.35) The story in question, Livvie, has won both critical as well as popular acclaim. The story, in essence is the resurrection of the main characters life, from the realm of death. This is reflected in the outer atmosphere, where the season transits to spring. The story revolves around the nuptial life of Livvie, who is married to a much older man, Solomon. Although the married life provides some personal security and regularity, it lacks in passion. This makes her feel that she is entraped in the relationship. One of the people whom she meets outside her domestic setting is Cash, the young farm worker, who offers Livvie an escape from the boredom of her marriage. But thereby, she takes the risk of abandoning the safety and security provided by the husband and entering an outside world where passion may be discovered at the cost of losing orderliness. While this sort of conflict had been well-explored and presented by many feminist writers of the last century, Eudora Weltys offering is not so much distinguished by the narrative method but by the storys thematic structure which is â€Å"far more complex and subtly adjusted to the ambiguities of actual human experience" (Claxton, 2005, p.78). The story is also remarkable for the motifs it employs to depict the inner spiritual journey. As Welty has stated in interviews, she took inspiration from medieval texts such as the Book of Hours for the writing of the story. For example, the Book of Hours emphasis on seasonal changes is analogous to to the cycles of human life that is pondered over in Livvie. There is also a similarity between the characterization of Livvie and the historical fictional character Persephone, in that both characters journey forth to the surface of the earth, and avert death through the renewal of spring. (Allen, 1999, p.35) In Livvie, Welty also subtly mocks the respectable Christian image of Solomon, who is portrayed as an old man with