23 pages • 46 minutes read
Eudora WeltyA Visit of Charity
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1941A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Marian
Marian is a 14-year-old girl intent on earning points toward Campfire Girl badges. She wears a red coat and a pointed white cap like “all the little girls were wearing that year” (137). She has straight yellow hair that hangs loosely around her face. Carrying a potted plant, she visits the “Old Ladies’ Home.” Before entering, she pauses to notice the “prickly dark shrubs” outside (137). As she proceeds slowly toward the building, she shifts the pot from hand to hand, then sets it down and removes her mittens to open the heavy door.
Upon entry, Marian tells the nurse who greets her she needs to visit an old lady. She doesn’t reveal the visit would provide three points toward her Campfire Girl score. The nurse asks if she knows any of the residents, and Marian says she does not but that any of them would do. The narrator says that she tucks her yellow hair behind her ear as she does when studying science. The visit is another rote task in Marian’s daily life.
Marian visits two elderly women in the home, and she’s stunned by their physical condition as well as the living quarters. She shows little compassion for the women. She escapes their room as soon as she is able, grabbing an apple she has hidden under the shrubs outside the building. Except for her momentary concern when one of the women cries, she is unmoved by their plight.
The Nurse
The nurse who greets Marian at the Old Ladies’ Home is the second character introduced in the story. She wears a white uniform and to Marian looks as if she is cold. Her hair is close-cropped and styled like a “sea wave” (137). Speaking in a masculine voice, she compliments Marian’s potted plant, calling it by its Latin name.
The nurse leads Marian down the hall to the room of the two old women. She pays no attention to the undulating linoleum flooring under their feet. Upon hearing a woman clearing her throat inside one of the rooms, the nurse decides this will be the one Marian visits. She examines her watch before knocking on the door. She propels Marian into the room, announcing her arrival by saying “Visitor” to the women. With one more shove of Marian into the room, she leaves and closes the door behind her.
Marian sees the nurse again as she’s leaving. She is reading Field & Stream at her desk. The nurse checks her watch again and invites Marian to stay for dinner. Marian doesn’t reply but instead bolts out the door.
The Woman
The third character introduced is one of the old women in the room the nurse chooses for Marian. She is never named, but the reader learns a good bit about her. Upon seeing Marian, “a strange smile forced her old face dangerously awry” (138). The narrator goes on to call it a “terrible, square smile (which was a smile of welcome) stamped on her bony face” (138). The smile appears to be a forced reaction to seeing the young girl.
Soon after Marian enters the room, the woman pulls Marian’s white cap off her head. Her hands are like bird claws, and she uses them to draw Marian into the room, saying “My, my, my” (138). She asks Marian if she has come to be “our little girl for a while” (138) before snatching the potted plant out of her hands.
After placing the plant on top of a wardrobe, the unnamed woman says the other woman in the room (Addie) is sick. She says Marian shouldn’t pay any attention to her. Addie tells her to shut her mouth. The unnamed woman then sits in a wicker chair, touching a dirty cameo pin on her chest. Later in the story, when Addie cries, the unnamed woman doesn’t seem to care. This is a crucial moment in the story, as it is the only time Marian shows concern for either of the women. The unnamed woman’s reaction breaks the connection between Marian and Addie. This break prompts Marian’s quick departure.
Addie
The fourth and last character introduced is Addie, the unnamed woman’s roommate. When Marian enters the room, she is lying in bed with a cap on her head and a bedspread pulled to her chin. At first, she says nothing to Marian and watches as the other woman grabs the plant out of Marian’s hands. When the unnamed woman declares the flowers pretty, Addie speaks her first words. She calls the plant a “stinkweed,” and Marian notices she has a “bunchy white forehead and red eyes like a sheep” (139). Addie turns to Marian and asks her name. Marian can’t remember her name, saying only that she’s a Campfire Girl. Addie cautions her to watch out for germs.
When the unnamed woman begins telling Marian about her childhood, Addie erupts. She says the unnamed woman never went to school, adding she never was even born. She goes on to say the unnamed woman has always been in the Old Ladies’ Home, and that she is a stranger to Addie. Addie wonders how anyone thought she could live in the same room with a “terrible old woman—forever” (141).
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By Eudora Welty
