The body of criticism on Welty's fiction has failed to point out that, in The Robber Bridegroom, Welty tells a story that deals with a circumstance that is universal - the way fantasies and dreams shape us all, men and/or women; determine the inner self and the life path of each of us; and build in anxieties and visions of the world(s) whose boundaries lose meaning in everyday life. The cristicism has also neglected two other interrelated facets of the novel. One is that The Robber Bridegroom deals with feminine characters, and the other is that Welty uses a kind of temporal and spatial contraction.