Dialect and Dramatic Monologue of Curtain of Green

Dialect and Dramatic Monologue of Curtain of Green

Eudora Welty is not merely a brilliant writer, she is a brilliant and gifted storyteller. A product of the South's rich oral tradition, Welty considers the richness of local speech to be one of the greatest gifts that her heritage has to offer (Vande Kieft 9). Southern speech is characterized by talking, listening, and remembering. Welty, a great listener, based many of her stories on bits of dialogue overheard in her everyday life. However, Welty makes the most of the southern propensity for talking. Her stories are rich in dialect and often take the form of dramatic monologues, as in "Why I live at the P.O." and "The Petrified Man."

Southern speech is primarily narrative and frequently takes the form of tall tales, folk tales, and local legends. This holds true in Welty's writing, in which one will not find mere conversation, but the telling of a story. Often with Welty, the story is not told through the narrator, but rather by the characters (53). It is through this structure that the dramatic monologue appears. In Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O.," the postmistress of China Grove, referred to only as "Sister," is systematically alienated from her family following a fight with her sister, Stella-Rondo, whom she accuses of stealing and running off with her boyfriend, Mr. Whitaker. As the two sisters compete for the support of the family, one by one the family members take up sides with Stella-Rondo, and Sister states her case to the reader. "Stella-Rondo hadn't done a thing but turn her against me from upstairs while I stood there helpless over the hot stove," rants Sister. "So that made Mama, Papa-Daddy, and the baby all on Stella-Rondo's side (Welty 102).

Welty, a true master of language, never received any form of formal education in the field of writing. She was educated through her surroundings, through listening and remembering. Welty's use of the Southern vernacular is an important element in every story she writes. One also might notice that it is nearly impossible to read one of Eudora Welty's stories without hearing it as well. Welty's written Southern speech is highly characteristic of how the language is actually spoken. It is the qualities of the spoken word that show through in Welty's writing and give it its poetic richness. Although Welty makes frequent use of dialectical spelling and pronunciation, it is through rhythm, idioms, and specified vocabulary that she is able to bring southern speech alive (Brooks 416).