Petrified Man

Mrs. Fletcher is Leota’s weekly 10 o’clock “shampoo-and-set” customer. Welty describes Mrs. Fletcher’s appearance in little detail, saying her hair is dyed with henna and that she has “hair-line eyebrows” and “wrinkled, beady-lashed eyelids” (1). Mrs. Fletcher’s weekly appointment indicates her appearance is a high priority for her—especially if she is willing to withstand the various pains and discomforts these treatments require. In the semiprivate booths of the salon, she feels “she [can] give her curiosity its freedom” and expects her fill of town gossip from Leota (1). Mrs. Fletcher exemplifies the hypocritical nature of gossip in that she feels free to indulge in it but is upset if any personal rumor is about her—as seen in her reaction to the rumor about her pregnancy.

Mrs. Fletcher presents herself as someone in complete control of her life, but especially of her husband. Though she never speaks the words aloud, she suggests that she was contemplating an abortion, but the rumor of her pregnancy now makes that impossible. The loss of control over this deeply personal and private matter exacerbates her pettiness and judgment, which only subside when she hears of Leota’s misfortunes.

Though her social class or status is never disclosed, readers can infer that Mrs. Fletcher lives a comfortable life to afford weekly hair appointments, especially during the Great Depression. The salon is described as a place of “gratification” for its customers, and the deferential terms of endearment both Leota and Thelma use for Mrs. Fletcher (whom they never call by her first name) suggest the beauticians rely on flattery to please and retain their higher-class clients.

Mrs. Pike and her husband are the newest tenants of Leota’s spare bedroom. Mrs. Pike never enters the salon, and therefore never enters the narrative herself. She is characterized exclusively by Leota’s descriptions, which change dramatically by the end of the story. Initially, Leota is infatuated with this fascinating, nomadic beautician from New Orleans and describes her as an attractive, “very decided blonde” with a “sharp eye” who “has her a good time” (1).

She is an outsider to this small town, and her presence is disruptive (at least to Leota and Mrs. Fletcher) as the source of the story’s two conflicts. With her “sharp eye” she predicts that Mrs. Fletcher is pregnant and notices the “Wanted” ad for Mr. Petrie. Mrs. Fletcher and Leota both feel wronged by Mrs. Pike’s actions, and by the end of the story, Leota also feels spiteful toward her once-friend, which reconciles her relationship with Mrs. Fletcher. Mrs. Pike serves as an example of the insular mentality of the rural South and the hypocritical, unspoken rules of community gossip. Mrs. Pike demonstrates the same behaviors and motives as Leota and Mrs. Fletcher, but because she’s an outsider, Leota and Mrs. Fletcher judge her for those behaviors and motives. At the same time, the two women are incapable of seeing these flaws within themselves.

The Petrified Man is one of the oddities of the freak show next door to Leota’s salon. Supposedly, everything that he has digested since the age of nine has turned to stone, and he is only capable of slightly moving his head. The women’s conversation about him reveals the historically specific cultural response to freak shows; those with rare biological conditions were treated as entertaining oddities to be exploited for money. Their conversation simultaneously exhibits just how shallow Leota and Mrs. Fletcher are, as the only characteristic they discuss is the man’s suitability as a husband.

After seeing a “Wanted” ad in one of Leota’s magazines, Mrs. Pike realizes that the Petrified Man is in fact Mr. Petrie, a man she and her husband once knew in New Orleans. The ad says Mr. Petrie is currently wanted for raping four women in California. Welty reiterates the theme of appearance when Mrs. Pike claims that the powder Mr. Petrie used to make up his face kept her from identifying him right away, a stark juxtaposition between the women using powder to make themselves more appealing and Petrie using powder to evade the police. This second conversation about the Petrified Man only further demonstrates the women’s self-importance: Instead of feeling grateful for this heinous man’s arrest, they lament Leota’s “bad luck” and judge Mrs. Pike for her actions.

The women’s husbands (Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Pike, and Fred) never appear in the narrative themselves, as they are only discussed from the perspectives of Leota and Mrs. Fletcher. The two women use the safe space of the salon to complain about their husbands and discuss superficial things about them (their height, their laziness, the way they met). Mrs. Fletcher and Leota stress their independence from their husbands: “Mr. Fletcher can’t do a thing with me,” (3); “He don’t wanna go, but I ain’t gonna put up with nothin’ like that” (7). This sentiment was most likely socially unacceptable to express in public during the 1930s. Because the men are given neither a voice nor their own agency in the story, their characters are “petrified,” or confined within the limits of the women’s descriptions, which temporarily provides the women with a sense of power in the male-centric society of the Depression-era South.