Willa Cather's A Lost Lady

Several years ago, I attended a Corporate-sponsored event with Landmark Forum, a personal development company, wherein the presenter spoke about the lenses through which a person interprets his or her world. For example, if a man can only view his wife through a lens of her being a “nag,” then he is less likely to acknowledge or even see the positive attributes that she contributes to the relationship (Landmark). In other words, any person, when viewed and assessed through a predominantly restrictive scope, can lead to extreme discontentment by one or both parties. Intriguingly, Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady provides two unique and narrow male perspectives concerning Marian Forrester—Captain Forrester’s encapsulation and Niel Herbert’s idealization,
suggesting that men are ill-equipped to appreciate a beautiful woman as multifaceted and flawed.
Captain Forrester, a monolith in business dealings and respectability, fell markedly short in recognizing Marian’s needs beyond obligations of providing a home and material baubles and consequently encapsulates her to their land in Sweetwater, thus disregarding the mental, emotional and spiritual needs of his wife. When faced with distressing situations amongst his workers, Captain Forrester not only addresses issues quickly but he, “brought them peace…[t]hat had been the secret of his management of men,” indicating his capabilities as a trusted source of leadership and recognition of the needs of his men. In contrast, however, the Captain’s awareness of his wife’s proclivity for excesses in alcohol results in his, “[keeping] his eye on the sideboard with a certain watchfulness…[she brings] the tray with tea, and no sherry, he seemed very much pleased.” Yet no action in communicating with his wife about the problem or problems that drove her to drink in the first place is forthcoming from the Captain—, which could have resulted in bringing her as much peace as was his wont with “strangers, animals and men.”
Further, Marian, to Captain Forrester, is beautiful, charming and, “a wife that makes his home attractive to his friends,” a perfect complement to himself, which parallels how his roses bring charm and beauty to the landscaping of his home. Similarly, as the fragrance of roses and their petals help adorn the Forrester home, so too does the Captain ornament his wife, “[he] liked to see her wear these [earrings] because they had been his mother’s. It gratified him to have his wife wear jewels; it meant something to him.” Specifically, that his wife’s finery, reflect the station that his money and social status afford her. Despite Captain Forrester’s decline in wealth and health, much provision and time for the care and cultivation of his roses continues to transpire, such that they maintain their glory, but not so with his wife. The Captain’s philosophy, “that what you think of and plan for day by day, in spite of yourself...you will get,” which spurned his early career and strength in industry, abandons such precepts after his “fall.” He does not put his keen mind to use to find ways to generate further income, to keep his wife arrayed and sustained as wonderfully as his roses. The watering and cultivating Marian requires in part—travels, dancing, and engaging with her social peers are lacking, thus encapsulating her to the home in Sweetwater, slowly wilting without fertilization or understanding from the Captain that she requires more than just a home and husband to be holistically happy.
As detrimental to the disregarding of a woman’s multi-faceted personality and needs, is an idealization of her virtues based on her beauty, leading to Niel Herbert’s disenchantment with Marian Forrester.
In author John Green’s book Paper Towns, the lead protagonist, Quentin Jacobsen proclaims, “What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.” Upon his realization that the girl he loves and has attributed many appreciable traits, does not exist as he personified her in his head (Green 282). Accordingly, Niel Herbert mirrors the character Quentin in thought, when he discovers Marian Forrester is not the perfect, unblemished woman he ascribes her to be. The injury to Neil’s psyche when learning Marian is unfaithful to Captain Forrester is expressed as “he had lost one of the most beautiful things in his life…[t]his day saw the end of the admiration and loyalty that had been like a bloom on his existence.” For Neil, Marian is so ideal a woman that he cannot come to terms with her being both beautiful and deceitful. Contrarily, Adolph Blum witnesses Mrs. Forrester with Frank Ellinger in the woods, and not only does he resolve to keep her secret, he, in his youthful wisdom, understands that her improper behavior has no bearing on how pleasant she is or how well she treats
him.
Surprisingly, despite Niel’s physical maturation, schooling, and travels, after Captain Forrester dies, Niel thinks, “the right man could save her..[s]he was still her indomitable self,” that a return to Marian’s former glory could only come through her alignment with an extraordinary man. However, as he laments the end of an era that shaped his thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs, he arrogantly determines that “what he most held against Mrs. Forrester; that she was not willing to [sacrifice] herself…and die with the pioneer period to which she belonged…[h]e went away with weary contempt for her in his heart.” Further confirming Niel’s inability to view Marian as an individual with needs and a right to “live life on her own terms” and not just as a reflection of a “great” man. Neil Herbert’s fervent glorification of Mrs. Forrester as long as she behaves appropriately and swift judgments of her character when she does not, demonstrates his limited male perspective of who she is and reveals an inability to appreciate that despite her fallibility she is still a woman with many redeeming qualities.
Nineteenth Century Methodist Preacher, W.L. Watkinson said, “If you put roses into a cracked pot of commonest clay, it will breathe forth perfume, and from the thorn, we gather the sweetest flowers.” Watkinson is asserting the harmonious relationship between the beauty of the rose flower petals and its thorny stem (Exell, 870). As such, the rose, exquisite and often symbolic for the virtue and beauty of a woman parallels Marian Forrester—the rose of Sweetwater. Man does not say that the rose is defective due to its thorns, but that the thorns add character and complexity to the rose. Captain Forrester and Niel Herbert readily acknowledge Mrs. Forrester’s attractive and charming qualities yet do not distinguish her as a whole, multi-faceted woman—full of faults, fears, and needs that add to her dynamic nature. The Captain’s encapsulation and Niel’s idealization of Marian served to foster only the attributes they deemed worthy of esteem—a sad reminder of the impact of insular notions towards beautiful women