The Pardon of Becky Day
Summarize the relationship between Becky Day and the Marcum widow. How does this relationship contribute to the overall story

The relationship between Becky Day and the Marcum widow is one of hatred. Becky Day hates the widow passionately, and though she lay sick and dying, that hatred still burned as intensely as ever.

The Marcum widow holds Becky day in disdain and thinks she is above associating with her, but in reality she was a little bit afraid of her, she wants to mend things between them but was afraid of the outcome if she tried. She didn't really believe Becky would forgive her, hence her assumed attitude of disdain.

Their relationship contribute to the general air of enmity in the story, it emphasizes the theme of feud, conflict and revenge.

Explanation:

The Pardon of Becky Day is about a woman embittered by an injustice, and seeking forgiveness before death.

Becky Day was betrayed by the Marcum widow, who fabricated lies to turn Jim and the whole town against Becky, making everybody who would listen believe that Becky was a bad woman.

As a result Jim left Becky and married the woman who is now his widow, which was what the widow wanted all along.

This broke Becky's heart and made her bitter, creating a deadly hatred for the Marcum widow in her. As a culmination of her bitterness Becky day became bad in earnest because she had lost all hope. In her words ''An' I was a good woman until Jim married her. I didn't keer after that''.

To avenge his sister Becky Day's brother shot and killed Jim, an action that shattered the already fragile peace existing between the families, effectively robbing the other woman of her stolen happiness, making her the Marcum widow.

The strained relationship between the Marcum widow and Becky Day, and Jim's murder both serve to lend a general air of unease to the story, an air of breathless anticipation of possible violence between trigger-happy men eager for revenge.