“A Curtain of Green” is a short story by Eudora Welty that served as the title story of her debut collection from 1941. It’s about a young widow in mourning over her husband’s accidental death who works all day in her garden and isolates herself from her community. Here’s a summary of “A Curtain of Green”.
“A Curtain of Green” Summary
This summer, it rains a little every day in Larkin’s Hill in the early afternoon. Mrs. Larkin has a large, dense garden running downhill behind her small house. It’s bordered by a high hedge like a wall. Only neighbors looking out their upstairs windows can see over it.
Since the accident that killed her husband, she works in her garden everyday, from morning until dark. She goes in at dinnertime when the servant calls. She doesn’t go anywhere else. When it rains, she moves under the pear tree. She wears a pair of men’s overalls and doesn’t comb her hair.
Rather than controlling the dense, rich growth of the garden, Mrs. Larkin focuses on planting every kind of flower she can order. She never sends flowers to anyone and doesn’t think of the community standard for gardens. To the few who can see over the hedge, it looks like a jungle.
The town was named after her husband’s father. After the accident, the townspeople called on her but stopped when it seemed she didn’t appreciate it.
Today, it hasn’t rained and the sun still shines at five o’clock. Jamey, a black boy, works in the garden with Mrs. Larkin as he occasionally does. She clears a patch of uncultivated ground for some shrubs with a hoe while Jamey transplants them. She wants the job finished before it rains.
Memories of her husband’s death will intrude on her suddenly. She’ll see him pulling up to the house in the car last summer, from her view on the front porch. Without any warning, the chinaberry tree falls over, crushing the car and him in it.
Everything gets still and quiet; Mrs. Larkin realizes she’s the only one moving. Across the garden, Jamey kneels motionless. She calls out to him angrily, but the sound is absorbed by the thick growth. She walks toward him, infuriated with his docility and the smile on his partly turned face as he daydreams. He doesn’t hear her as she stops right behind him.
Gripping the hoe tightly with both hands, she raises it above her head. She sees Jamey’s bowed, dreaming head and thinks about striking it. Life and death means nothing to her now. As she wonders if it’s possible to do anything about her situation, a rain drop hits her arm.
She lowers the hoe and stands still. Everything gleams with the rain. Jamey notices her and is confused, shyly asking what’s happening. Mrs. Larkin doesn’t answer or move; she can only feel the rain. Overcome with the thought of the night in bed with her grief and with the rain falling, she faints.
Jamey jumps and crouches around her. He remembers feeling Mrs. Larkin standing behind him; he didn’t want to turn around. He calls out to her in a panic until she moves a little. He runs out of the garden.
I hope this summary of “A Curtain of Green” by Eudora Welty was helpful.