Property as a Feminist Dynamic in Welty's Delta Marriage In our traditionally patriarchal society, primogeniture is the norm for inheriting property. It is unusual for someone other than the firstborn to inherit the family fortune. Even more unusual is inheritance by women, who in many places were prohibited from owning property. Thus, the pattern of inheritance that Robbie notes in Delta Wedding is a significant departure from cultural norms. Eudora Welty describes a domestic politics that represents a feminist dynamic that distances itself from, but does not entirely escape, patriarchy. On the surface, women occupy a dominant role in the novel's internal politics. Robbie testifies in several ways that this is true. First, in the Fairchild family "women have always called the shots" (190). Robbie represents the attitudes of traditional patriarchy by stating that this is not the correct order of things. She “believed in her soul that men should lay down the law” (190). This appears to be an inverted power structure, where women are the dominant party instead of behaving submissively towards their men. In fact, "it was famously the Fairchild women who... ran the house and had everything at their fingertips, not the men" (190). The Delta appears to be a woman's world where men inhabit for the benefit of women. Another example of the inversion of patriarchy is the inheritance model. Not only do women normally inherit property, if this rule is violated “their brothers guiltily handed it over” (190). Robbie states that “in the Delta, the land belonged to women, they only let men have it” (190). She goes on to enumerate three generations of property transfers that demonstrate her observation… middle of paper… so as to be all kind and noble” (191). Thus, their subversion of patriarchy also fits into her mold. The Fairchild women in a sense play a different game of internal politics than their contemporaries. They begin and end the game as masters of their own domains. They possess great power and are able to use it to their advantage, they cannot change with successful structures of patriarchy. Their power is imposed, derived from, and implicitly supportive of male dominance. Although they possess the trappings of matriarchy, men still wield considerable power by successfully usurping many of the benefits of patriarchy through a bartering of roles, tasks, and property that guarantees them autonomy if not true equality. If patriarchy is a prison, these women have transformed their cell into a palace where they are free to be women.