in a family that relishes in the past. This work, which is set in the south, is separated into three sections with the first one beginning in 1885 and the last one taking place in 1912. There are three main characters in this story; Miranda, Miranda's Aunt Amy, and her Cousin Eva. Miranda's older sister, Maria, is highly involved in the first two sections of the story but the reader is not able to see her inner thoughts nor her transformation from a child into an adult. Some critics believe that "Old Mortality" is simply a story of romantic ideals, romantic love, and the past, but there is also an issue of femininity present. In the first section of the story Maria and Miranda are merely children, twelve and eight years of age respectively. They are being raised by their grandmother and their father. In every aspect of their lives they are taught about the ideal of the southern belle. Miranda's father and grandmother preserve the family history by refusing to admit the imperfections in the women in their family. Miranda hears her father talking about a picture of Amy, saying "...she was much slimmer than that, too. There were never any fat women in the family, thank God" (174). Miranda knows that the reality was to the contrary of that statement because her great-aunt Keziah was so overweight that her husband "had refused to allow her to ride his good horses" (174). It is through Amy that Maria and Miranda learn their roles in society. They were able to learn what women were supposed to be, or rather, at that time, what women were supposed to look like, and Amy had fulfilled all of the requirements of a female beauty."There were points of beauty by which one was judged severely. First, a beauty must be tall; whatever the color the eyes, the hair must be dark, the darker the better; the skin must be pale and smooth. Lightness and swiftness of movement were important points. A beauty must be a good dancer, superb on ho...
