A Lost Lady by Willa Cather (May 15-29, 2005)
Set in Sweet Water, Nebraska, Willa Cather describes the bustling, young
city, and the subsequent decline of the booming frontier town. The story
is told by Niel Herbert, about his relationship with Captain Daniel and Mrs.
Forrester, the town's leading citizens. Young Niel, like the other men in
the story, is entirely captivated by Marian Forrester. She is a gracious,
charming, well-loved hostess, who is a generation younger than her husband.
It seems that Niel is in love with her, or that she his ideal of what a woman
should be. He tells the reader his observations of her, and while revealing
little of himself, the reader learns parts of Marian's story through his
filtered viewpoint.
Captain Forrester is an honest and successful railroad
builder. Marian respect and loves him and is in a happy marriage, but it
is difficult to pinpoint her exact feelings towards him and his towards her.
The narrator states that the Captain “knew his wife better
even than she knew herself” indicating that their relationship may
be more complicated than what is narrated. The reader then learns
Marian is
having
an
affair with
Frank Ellinger, a man from Colorado Spring, but Niel is unaware of this.
Later, Niels discovery of Marian in her bedroom with Ellinger stuns him,
turning his long-held admiration for her
into contempt. Meanwhile, the Captain’s strong conscience in business
causes him to lose money. The Captain becomes ill, and without her anchor,
Marian is lost. Coping with her sick husband,
Marian is shocked to read that Ellinger has married another woman. Trying
to call him, she is saved from gossip only by Niel cutting the phone line.
After
the Captain’s death, Niel describes, "since her husband's death
she seemed to have become another woman.... without him, she was like a ship
without ballast, driven hither and thither by every wind.” The novel’s
title may refer to this fact, and also Niel’s changed perception of
Marian, as he considers her morally lost. Marian gives power over her finances
to Ivy Peters, a slimy lawyer, who is Niel’s age, hoping he will make
her rich again. Niel, near the novel’s conclusion, sees that Marian
is involved with Ivy, and he never makes an attempt to meet her again.
The reader learns Marian’s later history in the novel’s final pages. We learn that Marian left Sweet Water, and was seen in Buenos Aires, where she had married a rich English rancher. Ultimately, Marian is resourceful, and continued to live and change, while others around her did not. Was Marian lost, or not? Cather leaves it up to the reader to decide.
External Link:Great Essay on A Lost Lady by James Woodress
