Gratitude, Greed, and Grace in The Robber Bridegroom: Eudora Welty’s Intricate American Parable

In The Robber Bridegroom, Eudora Welty combines characters and motifs from several folk and fairy tales in the proverbial American melting pot to form a new creation that is both comic romance and serious parable, profoundly illuminating the perennial conflict between good and evil, grace and greed. The deceptively simple appearance of this intricately designed work mirrors the dual identity of the robber bridegroom, Jamie Lockhart. Through ingenious use of symbolism and suggestive allusions, Welty subtly develops moral and psychological dimensions in characters who at first glance may seem no more than fairytale stereotypes. As in Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, the action of The Robber Bridegroom moves from a relatively civilized society into a green world, a mysterious place where the complications of the plot are first intensified and then unraveled, resulting in permanent effects within the more conventional society. Similarly, the happy conclusion is made possible because of the heroine’s courage, forgiveness, and love.¹

Welty carefully selects and arranges assorted details from her various sources in order to help convey themes concerning the far-reaching consequences of a single action, the power of forgiveness, the difficulty of breaking away from a destructive lifestyle, and the value of love in contrast with material possessions. The myth of Cupid and Psyche, its variant “Beauty and the Beast,” and the Grimm’s tale also called “The Robber Bridegroom” are the most obvious ancestors of Welty’s novella, but Grimm’s “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” “The Brave Little Tailor,” “The Fisherman and His Wife,” and “The Little Goode-Girl” are also alluded to. Equally relevant yet overlooked as possible sources are the ballads “Tam Lin” and “The Gypsy Laddie,” whose heroines, as we shall see, have much in common with Rosamond of The Robber Bridegroom. The legendary keel-boatman Mike Fink, the Harm bandits of Mississippi’s early history, and a tribe of displaced Indians are unexpectedly blended with ingredients from European folklore into a distinctively American concoction that paradoxically retains the flavor of a traditional fairy tale.

The innocent Mississippi planter Clement Musgrove might at first be mistaken for the protagonist. In the opening chapter, Clement takes shelter at an inn where his life is saved by a mysterious young man named Jamie Lockhart. Like the brave little tailor or the heroine Molly Whuppie (whose tale is included in Jacobs’s English Fairy Tales), Jamie has the forethought to protect himself and Clement from violence at the hands of Mike Fink. Safely concealed in the closet, Clement and Jamie watch while the drunken keelboatman mercilessly beats the sacks of sugar cane they have placed under the bedclothes. The next morning Mike Fink is comically terrified upon seeing his fellow travelers alive and well. Assuming them to be ghosts, he leaps out of the window and runs away. Clement gratefully invites Jamie to visit his home and meet his lovely daughter Rosamond. These circumstances are reminiscent of “Beauty and the Beast,” except that the Beast usually spares the father’s life on condition that he bring him his beloved daughter, whereas Jamie has saved Clement’s life not from himself or for Rosamond’s hand but from a third party. Furthermore, Clement is quite unaware that Jamie regularly disguises himself with berry stains and lives as a robber bandit. Significantly, Welty always refers to the bandit persona as the disguise, implying that the respectable “prince” seen by the innocent Clement is Jamie’s true self.

The tale’s focus then shifts to the relationship between Jamie and Rosamond, a relationship in which greed is ultimately overcome by grace. Clement’s beautiful daughter is always patient and cheerful despite harsh treatment from her evil stepmother Salome. Rather like Snow White’s stepmother, the jealous Salome sends Rosamond out to pick herbs, closely followed by Salome’s mercenary henchman Goat. Attracted by Rosamond’s singing in the forest, Jamie Lockhart happens to meet her first in his bandit guise. Not realizing she is Clement’s daughter, he robs her of her fine clothing but allows her to return home otherwise unscathed. That evening, Salome steals...