Conspiracy and paranoia
This novel delivers critical information at a deliberate pace, artistically utilizing suspense by reminding the reader of all they still do not know. Jamie's introduction to the novel is loaded with implication that he will be important, but how? What will become of this gang dispute? Speaking of secrecy, Clement learns that there is a conspiracy on his life—even though he is just a passerby to them. The suspense is held in tension with one absolute fact: No one is exactly safe in this small Mississippi town.
The sublime
This feature is what makes Eudora Welty an American Gothic novelist. Just like the spires of a gothic cathedral point the eye upward at the 'heavens,' the gothic features of the prose (the character's considerations of death, paranoia, murder, conspiracy, gang mentality, what happens in the dark, in the woods) all point the reader to the sublime. Something is sublime if it affects a person's emotional pallet, but in ways they cannot explain. The effect of this in The Robber Bridegroom is a more fearful appreciation of the human psychology.
Marriage in the dark
This novel could be said to be about marriage, but that would be almost misleading. The novel is about marriage, but as the title implies, this is not the daylight marriage of a happy couple in an honest town. Jamie and Rosamund are united, but not until Rosamund literally considers believing he isn't even real, that he is a ghost. Then, he shows up and marries her. When they were meeting, he told her almost nothing, and she's marrying him, which is great for her one supposes, but then again—he's a career criminal and potentially a murderer. We have witnessed the formation of an underworldly couple.
