Susan J. Rosowski (Essay Date Autumn 1981)

SOURCE: Rosowski, Susan J. "Willa Cather's Women." Studies in American Fiction 9, no. 2 (autumn 1981): 261-75.

In the following essay, Rosowski explores the ways in which Cather portrays her female characters not only as feminine archetypes but also as individual women.

Willa Cather created a gallery of powerful women. It includes the indomitable pioneer Alexandra Bergson, the great artist Thea Kronborg, the Earth Mother Ántonia Shimerda, the artful teacher of civilized standards Marian Forrester, the fiercely individual Myra Driscoll Henshawe. As critics have recognized, each functions as a type, an allegorical figure, of Cather's major themes, as Alexandra and Ántonia are allegorical of the pioneer experience, Thea and Myra Henshawe of the artistic soul, and Mrs. Forrester of the corrupting power of materialism.¹ Yet these critical categories have led readers from similarities among them. All are female, and Cather makes her character's...