The Optimist's Daughter

“Before blooming is the wrong time to prune a climber.”

This quote, spoken by Judge McKelva, is an example of the double meanings Welty often imbues in her word choices. The climber refers to Fay, who hasn’t yet become who she has ambitions to become. Trying to cut her back or stop her before she’s reached the apotheosis of her newly acquired position in Mount Salus society, is an unwise choice. The irony is that the Judge, blinded by denial, is the character who says this; the line is spoken by the one person who would never see its symbolic meaning.  

“What happened didn’t happen to the outside of his eye, it happened to the inside. The flashes, too. To the part he sees with […]”

In referring to the “part the Judge sees with,” or in his case, should see with, this quote spoken by Dr. Courtland goes beyond the physical mechanics of an eye. The quote implies that the problem with his vision or his “seeing” has been going on for a long time. His blindness to reality has been a growing disease, and the doctor hopes that the surgery will get at the deeper issues that exist in the layers beneath one’s exterior.

“It seemed to her that the grayed-down, anonymous room might be some reflection itself of Judge McKelva’s ‘disturbance,’ his dislocated vision that had brought him here.”

The “grayed-down” room is a visual representation of the unspecified and mysterious element in the Judge’s character that doesn’t shine. It is muted by denial and delusion, by the lack of an ability to see.