The Representation of Mental Illnesses in Eudora Welty's Short Stories

Abstract

In my thesis, I attempted to investigate the 20th-century problems among women in South-America. Women were under social pressure that was almost impossible to fulfill. I used Eudora Welty's short stories to analyze the causes of these social expectations. Eudora Welty writes about mentally handicapped characters. These characters' mental states are influenced by the Southern 20th-century idealized roles and my intention was to write about the effects of the social pressure. I also wrote about the role of women in the 19th-century because their history is important to mention in order to interpret the 20th-century situation and Welty's short stories.