Willa Cather artistically designed the ending of A Lost Lady so that Marian Forrester emerges as a survivor rather than as a lost lady as the title suggests. This use of irony is very important because it raises questions about the nature of the novel's title, thus leading to illuminating the fact that Marian was just a lost lady from the point of view of the male gaze. Looking beyond the male gaze and through Marian's unfiltered persona, the double standard Neil imposes on the protagonist becomes evident. Mrs. Forrester is only lost in the compartmentalization of her entire being for the sake of Neil's point of view, and to understand her true character is to recognize that she encompasses many different traits and characteristics. By analyzing the different perspectives offered throughout the novel, it becomes particularly clear that, ultimately, Marian is not a lost lady and that this irony serves to make a thematic statement about women as whole beings and complex rather than as isolated ideal characters. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Neil struggles with the two ideas of Mrs. Forrester that he discovers throughout the novel. From the beginning, Neil places Mrs. Forrester on a pedestal: “He had never found anyone as attractive and distinguished as Mrs. Forrester. Compared to her, the other women were heavy and boring; even the prettiest seemed lifeless – they did not have that something in their eyes that made the blood shiver” (32). As a young boy, Neil romanticized Marian and, in doing so, created an idealized version of her. Certainly, “it was in her relationship with her husband that he admired her most” (65). Neil particularly admires Mrs. Forrester's loyalty to her husband, and in his idealized creation he highlights this quality as central to her identity. This ultimately leads to the heartbreak he later experiences when he sees that she is having a relationship with Frank Ellinger. Morris Dickstien points out that "there is a childish petulance and disenchantment in Neil's reaction to Mrs. Forrester's fall, which reveals the extent to which he has put her on a pedestal" (2). This observation clarifies how Neil's "disenchantment" is a product of his own naivety rather than a degradation of Marian's character. When Neil witnesses this affair and perceives the polarity of Marian's character, his ideal of her is shattered. “In that moment…he had lost one of the most beautiful things in his life” (72). Neil has lost the ideal of Marian, but Marian is still there, still the same person she always was. It is not a loss that Marian experiences; it’s a loss experienced only by Neil. This language is also found in the phrase “Neil was destined to hear again of his long-lost lady (147).” The possessive pronoun "his" further indicates that the "lost lady" is something that only exists from Neil's point of view. Taking this perspective into account, it makes sense that the story ends with Marian, a remarried woman who was able to realize her dream of traveling. If the novel had ended with Marian slowly disappearing or dying in the Sweet Water house, one would be more likely to adopt Neil's view of Marian as a lost lady. Instead, this irony opens an investigation into the male gaze and invites readers to explore Marian's character through other perspectives. Perhaps one of the most honest perspectives is that of the narrator and/or Cather. In the account of Neil's perceived dissonance with Marian's character---in her frustration---Cather makes his thematic claim powerful. " Thiswas not a moral scruple that she had outraged, but an aesthetic ideal. Beautiful women, whose beauty meant more than it said...was their brilliance always fueled by something crude and hidden? Was this their secret? (72). The narrator asks a very thought-provoking question in an attempt to understand how Mrs. Forrester could have acted in a way that conflicts with the "aesthetic ideal" that Neil imposes on her. This question explores the possibility that this ideal was nourished by the very thing he despised in her. Chopin draws attention to the “secret” with which women must live: the fact that they are human in all their complexity and their “magic of contradictions”. Chopin draws attention to the societal expectations placed on women, which force them to behave unrealistically, in ways that meet the idealizations of others. She demonstrates how the most charismatic women like Marian Forrester can be both “elegant” and “wild”; can experience both joyful laughter and deep despair. Rosowski explains: “There are two selves in every person,” Cather suggests: a personal, worldly self expressed with family and friends, and a second, supernatural, imaginative self expressed in creative work. » (162). Cather points out that this dichotomy only seems surprising, as it does to Neil, if we view women as something other than complex and entirely human. The same essence that makes Marian the one that is present in every aspect of her character because it does not exist in compartmentalized components. Rosowski further explains: “The ideal human condition, described in Cather's early novels, involves a synthesis of the two, with the outward-moving self rooted in the established personal self” (162). For example, Neil explains: "The charm of her conversation lay not so much in what she said, although she was often witty, but in the quick recognition of her eyes, in the lively quality of her voice she -even” (58). Here, Neil is attuned to a quality in Mrs. Forrester that exists at a depth beyond general personality traits---a rather deeper essence and quality that governs her character. Neil adores this quality and observes: "the secret, he supposed, was that she couldn't help but be interested in people, even the most mundane people" (58). If this were a true underlying essence of her character, it would make sense that the same quality would also play a role in her interest in other men like Frank Elinger. Neil wonders, "What did she do with all her delicacy when she was with a man like Elinger?" Where did she put it? (84). Here, Cather calls attention to the ridiculousness of the idea that one could "put aside" their exquisiteness, and implores the reader to realize that this exquisiteness is not only present in Marian's "desirable" moments, but is what also nourishes it. “undesirable”. To truly love Marian's beauty is to accept all of her elements as the product of this deeper essence. Unlike Neil who only sees compartmentalized components of Marian, Cather offers the perspective of Captain Forrester who realizes what Neil sees as a gap in Mrs. Forrester's mind. the character is actually the same quality that makes her so likable. Captain Forrester tells his life story: "I planned to build a house where my friends could come, with a woman like Mrs. Forrester to make it attractive to them" (43). One of the things Captain Forrester appreciates about his wife is her charming vivacity which attracts his friends. Arguably, it is precisely for this reason that he accepts Marian's affairs, just as. ,.1981.0019