Willa Cather artistically crafted the ending of A Lost Lady so that Marian Forrester emerges a survivor rather than a lost woman as the title suggests. This use of irony is very important because it opens up questions about the nature of the novel's title, thus bringing to light how Marian was just a lost woman from the point of view of the male gaze. When looking beyond the male gaze and through Marian's unfiltered character, the double standard Neil imposes on the protagonist becomes apparent. Mrs. Forrester is lost in the compartmentalization of her entire being according to Neil's perspective, and understanding her true character means recognizing that she encompasses many different traits and characteristics. By analyzing the different perspectives offered in the novel it becomes especially clear that Marian is ultimately not a lost woman and that this irony serves to make a thematic statement about women as whole, complex beings rather than characters of isolated ideals. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayNeil grapples with the two ideas of Mrs. Forrester that he becomes acquainted with throughout the novel. From the beginning, Neil places Mrs. Forrester on a pedestal: “He had never found anyone so attractive and distinguished as Mrs. Forrester. Compared to her, the other women were heavy and dull; even the beautiful ones seemed lifeless: they didn't have that something in their eyes that made the blood tremble" (32). As a boy, Neil romanticizes Marian and in doing so creates an idealized version of her. Of course, "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 highlights this quality as central to her identity. This ultimately leads to the heartbreak he experiences later when he sees that she is having an affair with Frank Ellinger. Morris Dickstien points out that “there is a childlike petulance and disenchantment in Neil's response to Mrs. Forrester's downfall, which reveals how much he has put her on a pedestal” (2). This observation makes it clear that Neil's "disenchantment" is a product of his own naivety rather than a degradation of Marian's character. When Neil witnesses this relationship and senses the polarity in Marian's character, his ideal of her is crushed. “In that instant… he had lost one of the most beautiful things in his life” (72). Neil has lost Marian's ideal, but Marian is still there, still the same person she always was. This is not a loss that Marian experiences; it is a loss experienced solely by Neil. This language is similarly seen in the expression, “Neil was destined to hear about his long-lost woman once again (147).” The possessive pronoun “his” also indicates that the “lost lady” is something that only exists from Neil's perspective. If you take this perspective into consideration, it is logical that the story ends with Marian, a remarried woman who managed to realize her dream of travel. If the novel had ended with Marian slowly vanishing or dying in the Sweet Water house, it would be more likely to adopt Neil's perspective of Marian as a lost woman. 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 narrating Neil's perceived dissonance towards Marian's character---in his frustration---Cather makes her thematic statement powerful. “It was not a moral scruple that he had outraged, but aaesthetic ideal. Beautiful women, whose beauty meant more than it said…was their brilliance always fueled by something gross and hidden? Was that their secret?" (72). The narrator offers a very thought-provoking question in an attempt to make him understand how Mrs. Forrester could have acted in a way that contrasted with the "aesthetic ideal" that Neil entrusts to her. This question explores the possibility that this ideal was fueled by the very thing he despised in her. Chopin calls attention to the “secret” that women must live with: the fact that they are human in all their complexity and “magic of contradictions.” the focus on the social expectation placed on women to behave unrealistically in a way that satisfies the idealizations of others. Demonstrates how the most charismatic women like Marian Forrester can be both “elegant” and “wild” can experience both joyous laughter What a profound desperation. Rosowski explains: “There are two selves in every person, Cather suggests: a personal, worldly self expressed in family and friends, and an otherworldly, imaginative second self expressed in creative work.” (162). Cather points out that this dichotomy seems as surprising as it is to Neil only if one considers women as anything other than complex and entirely human. The same essence that makes Marian the one that is present in all aspects 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 stable personal self” (162). For example, Neil explains, "The charm of her conversation lay not so much in what she said, though she was often witty, but in the quick recognition of her eyes, in the lively quality of her voice itself" (58). Here, Neil is attuned to a quality in Mrs. Forrester that exists at a depth that goes beyond general personality traits: a rather deeper essence and quality that governs her character. Neil loves this quality and observes, “the secret, he supposed, was that she couldn't help but be interested in people, even very ordinary ones” (58). If this were the 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 exquisiteness when she was with a man like Elinger? Where did he put it away?" (84). Here, Cather calls attention to the ridiculousness of the idea that one can "put away" their deliciousness, and implores the reader to realize that this deliciousness is not only present in Marian's "desirable" moments, but it is also what nourishes her "undesirable" self. To truly love the exquisiteness of Marian means accepting all its elements as a product of this deeper essence. Unlike Neil who only sees compartmentalized components of Marian, Cather offers the perspective of Captain Forrester who realizes that what Neil sees as a deficiency in Mrs. Forrester's personality character is actually the same quality that makes her so likable. Captain Forrester tells the story of his life's successes: "I wanted to build a house where my friends could come, with a wife like Mrs. Forrester to make it attractive to them" (43). One of the things Captain Forrester appreciates in his wife is her charming liveliness which attracts his friends. Arguably, he accepts Marian's relationships for this very reason, as he is able to accept that these “contradictions” arise from the same source of life in Marian. “The Captain knew his wife better than she knew herself; and that, knowing her, he, to use one of his own ,.1981.0019