Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace in O'Connor's "Revelation"

Introduction: Two Characters in Opposition

In Flannery O'Connor's short story "Revelation," the characters of Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace occupy a uniquely oppositional relationship. Though Mrs. Turpin is ostensibly the main character of the story, Mary Grace plays such a crucial, antagonistic role that comparing and contrasting the two reveals the story's deeper meanings. Examining the crucial differences and continuities between Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace demonstrates how Mary serves as a kind of representation of Mrs. Turpin prior to whatever life experiences helped form her bigoted and shallow worldview — and thus as someone free from the assumptions and ideological blinders Mrs. Turpin seemingly cannot escape.

Physical Appearance and Social Power

The central feature linking Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace is their size and appearance. Mrs. Turpin, "who was very large," uses her size as a means of controlling others, yet she is apparently unaware of the way in which Mary Grace uses her own appearance to control and unsettle her (O'Connor 191). Mary Grace is also large, but Mrs. Turpin focuses mostly on her face, imagining that "it was the ugliest face Mrs. Turpin had ever seen." Whereas Mrs. Turpin enjoys the mother's eyes because "on the lady they sparkled pleasantly," she believes that "in the girl's seared face they appeared alternately to smolder and to blaze" (O'Connor 196, 201).

This is important because, until Mary Grace attacks, Mrs. Turpin does not regard the girl as any kind of threat or opponent, assuming that their age difference places Mrs. Turpin in a position of greater social power. In reality, however, Mrs. Turpin maintains this assumption only because she is rattled by Mary, who looks "as if she had known and disliked [Mrs. Turpin] all her life — all of Mrs. Turpin's life, it seemed too, not just all the girl's life" (O'Connor 201). This similarity is crucial because it demonstrates how Mary can serve as Mrs. Turpin's equal and antagonist. Where Mrs. Turpin uses her weight and girth to overpower and dominate people, thereby reinforcing her condescending, presumptuous attitude, Mary Grace uses her physical appearance to unsettle Mrs. Turpin, establishing a kind of dominance that reaches its peak in their physical altercation. Mary Grace's appearance sets her up to be simultaneously an equal to Mrs. Turpin and an opposite: although they share similar, unflattering physical features and belong to the same social class, they are diametrically opposed in their attitude toward other people.

Behavioral Contrasts and Comic Irony

Aside from their similar appearances and social status, Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace could not be more different, and the story exploits these differences to comically demonstrate how awful Mrs. Turpin really is. Just before Mary Grace attacks, the adults are discussing her as if she were not in the room. Her mother says, "I know a girl" — referring to her own daughter — "who has parents who would give her anything, a little brother who loves her dearly, who is getting a good education, who wears the best clothes, but who can never say a kind word to anyone, who never smiles, who just criticizes and complains all day long" (O'Connor 205).

Mrs. Turpin responds by saying, "If it's one thing I am […] it's grateful," yet she does not realize that the majority of her own thoughts and speech up to this point have consisted of criticism and complaining. Because she conducts this criticism from a position of power, it seems entirely natural to her (O'Connor 205). Mary Grace, by contrast, has remained silently reading, engaging with the other characters only when Mrs. Turpin makes particularly offensive or condescending statements. The criticisms leveled at Mary are thus more suitably applied to Mrs. Turpin, so that Mary's assault may almost be seen as the paddling Claud jokingly suggests — because Mrs. Turpin, far more than Mary, needs her attitude corrected (O'Connor 205). O'Connor's use of dramatic irony here is especially sharp: the reader sees what Mrs. Turpin cannot.

Conclusion: Religion, Ignorance, and the Role of Mary Grace

Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation" uses the character of Mary Grace to comment on the effect religion can have on a person, because Mary serves to challenge Mrs. Turpin's religious self-satisfaction by meeting her on relatively equal footing — a dynamic made possible by their shared physical presence and social standing. Mary is quiet and observant, while Mrs. Turpin talks profusely without ever making a meaningful observation. The story uses these distinctions to highlight and mock Mrs. Turpin's ignorance and bigotry, ultimately suggesting that genuine revelation requires the kind of honest self-examination that Mrs. Turpin, despite her faith, stubbornly refuses to perform.

Works Cited

O'Connor, Flannery. Everything That Rises Must Converge. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965.