“Unmoveable Relics”: The Farr Family and Revisions of Position, Direction, and Movement in Eudora Welty’s “Clytie”

Abstract

Eudora Welty’s story “Clytie” depicts the breakdown of the Farr family, whose rigid codes of behavior prevent individual movements or connections outside the controlled relationships of the family. The Farrs no longer have the financial clout or social power they had once as an important wealthy family of their town. The family consists of James Farr, the bedridden, comatose father; Gerald, the son who supposedly runs a furniture store but spends most of his time in bed; Octavia, the reclusive daughter whose wits have left her, according to the townspeople; and Clytie, the daughter who cooks, relays messages, and on occasion runs wildly through the town. Clytie is the only Farr who has not entirely given up association with people outside the family. When she runs through town, she examines faces and looks for a face that she lost long ago. She eventually commits suicide by holding her face in a rain barrel after concluding that her desire to connect with others cannot coexist with the Farr family rules. Throughout the story, the Farrs trap themselves and control each other; their restrained movements hinder them from functioning productively outside of their house or peaceably inside the boundaries of the family. First published in the summer of 1941 in the Southern Review, the story has only a few revisions for the fall 1941 A Curtain of Green publication. In “Textual Variants of ‘Clytie,’” W. U. McDonald, Jr., notes three substantive changes. These three revisions emphasize the positions taken by the members of the Farr family and their direction and movement in relation to each other. The changes demonstrate Welty’s concern for the nuances of the controlled movement and position of the characters within the space of the story. The first substantive revision deletes a movement made by Octavia, the perpetually angry sister who never leaves the house. The Southern Review version reads: “‘Gerald is awake now, and so is Papa,’ said Octavia, in the same vindictive voice—a loud voice, for she was usually calling. After a moment she turned and walked back up the dark stairs” (54). In A Curtain of Green, Welty deletes the final sentence that has Octavia turn around and walk upstairs, and the paragraph concludes, “for she was usually calling”