“The Purple Hat” is a short story by Eudora Welty from her collection The Wide Net and Other Stories. It’s about a woman who gambles at a casino every night, always accompanied by a younger man. She stands out because of her purple hat and another significant feature. Here’s a summary of “The Purple Hat”.
“The Purple Hat” Summary
It’s four in the afternoon in a small New Orleans bar. Two men have come in out of the rain and sat down at opposite ends. One is fat and affable; the other is young and unshaven with shaky hands. The fat man orders a rye. The young man looks fearfully at the counter. The bartender serves him a drink.
Looking at the young man, the fat man starts talking about a lady with a purple hat who goes to the Palace of Pleasure every day. She arrives at five and gambles until midnight. Thousands of middle-aged women go there every day to gamble, but this woman is distinguished by her purple hat and a young man who always meets her there.
The fat man is a watcher at the Palace of Pleasure from a catwalk. He believes she’s a ghost because she hasn’t changed in thirty years. He’s also seen her get killed twice. He thinks it might take three times to make it permanent. The young man with her does change. She finds them somehow.
The first time she was shot point-blank by her young man. She was back within the month. The second time involved the hat. It’s a great, wide hat trimmed with flowers. On the crown is a little glass vial with a plunger that the young man could see when she placed the hat in her lap.
The fat man turns to the bartender as he continues the story. Late in the night, she always removes the hat. She has long thick black hair that’s pinned up. The young man doesn’t look at it, but instead focuses on the hat. He caresses it. She speaks to him, leading him on, although the fat man can’t hear from his position.
The woman has a large head, or rather, her face seems to be expanded. To balance the weight of the plunger, there’s a hatpin, which she removes and then sticks back through again before putting it on her lap.
The fat man returns to the second time he saw her killed. The young man, while spinning the brim on the woman’s lap, removed the long hatpin and plunged it between her ribs. Only he could see it from his vantage point. She folded over and was carried out. No one at the tables noticed.
The fat man focuses on the bartender, imagining him to be the young man with the woman. Once he’s in love and thrilled by touching the hat, he can’t be sure about the vial.
The sounding of chimes announces it’s five o’clock. The young man at the bar leaves. On the floor where he was sitting, the cigarette stubs are raked into a little circle, like a game wheel. The fat man pays for all the drinks and leaves a big tip.
From his position up on the catwalk, he feels he could make a change in the universe. The bartender confidentially asks if the woman in the purple hat is really a ghost. The fat man will let him know tomorrow. He leaves.
I hope this summary of “The Purple Hat” by Eudora Welty was helpful.