A LOST LADY
by Willa Cather
Discussion Questions:
1. "Grace, variety, the lovely voice, the sparkle of fun and fancy in those dark eyes; all this was nothing. It was not a moral scruple she had outraged, but an aesthetic ideal. Beautiful women, whose beauty meant more than it said ... was their brilliancy always fed by something coarse and concealed? Was that their secret?"
"He burned to ask her one question, to get the truth out of her and set his mind at rest: What did she do with all her exquisiteness when she was with a man like Ellinger? Where did she put it away? And having put it away, how could she recover herself, and give one - give even him - the sense of tempered steel, a blade that could fence with anyone and never break?"
Niel is disappointed to discover that his ideal woman has feet of clay. Is this a disappointment that all [young] men must suffer in order to mature? Niel's mother died when he was young; does this have anything to do with his attraction and/or attachment to Mrs. Forrester? Is he more vulnerable than the other young men, at least in the beginning?
2. "I think just now it's the fashion for women to make themselves comfortable, before anything else." Mrs. Forrester glanced at him as if he had said something shocking. "Ah, that's just it! The two things don't go together. Athletics and going to college and smoking after dinner - Do you like it? Don't men like women to be different from themselves? They used to."
Comment on the change of fashion and manners of women in the '20s. Do changing fashions create confusion or establish a better social order? Think of some historical examples.
3. Could this tragedy have been prevented? Is it wise for older men to marry beautiful, vivacious women who are 25 years younger than they? Is it wise for those unsuited to country life to attempt it? It's an old story: rich, old men can "buy" themselves young, attractive wives. Is that necessarily a bad deal for either party? The Captain is not unhappy with the bargain; why is she?
"The longer Niel was with Captain Forrester in those peaceful closing days of his life, the more he felt that the Captain knew his wife better even than she knew herself; and that, knowing her, he - to use one of his own expressions - valued her."
4. Nowhere in the story is the subject of children brought up. If the Forresters had had children (or even if he had had children from his previous marriage), how would things have changed?
5. "As Niel walked back to his room behind the law offices, he felt frightened for her. When women began to talk about still feeling young, didn't it mean that something had broken?"
What does the author think has been broken? How important is it for older women to be gracious? Virtuous? Dignified?
6. Burdened with financial ruin and the Captain's illness, Mrs. Forrester lets herself, the house and her social standing go. "All the bars were down. She had ceased to care about anything." Yet she does work hard and tries to care for the Captain. Why?
7. There seem to be different social levels in Sweetwater: the rich (the Forresters and their guests), the naturally virtuous (Niel and his uncle) and the townspeople (especially the women). Is this order natural? When disaster strikes the townswomen take advantage of it to get above themselves. Does Niel restore order when he forbids them the house, or is it permanently compromised? Is this simply a sign of the times?
8. "It was Mrs. Forrester herself who had changed. Since her husband's death she seemed to have become another woman. For years Niel and his uncle, the Dalzells and all her friends, had thought of the Captain as a drag upon his wife; a care that drained her and dimmed her and kept her from being all that she might be. But without him, she was like a ship without ballast, driven hither and thither by every wind. She was flighty and perverse. She seemed to have lost her faculty of discrimination; her power of easily and graciously keeping everyone in his proper place."
What is Mrs. Forrester's predominant fault? What can be done to/by/for vivacious women to avoid her tragedy?
9. Which boundaries can/should be observed by widows, especially attractive widows? Mrs. Forrester tries to teach manners and social graces to the younger men. Is this praiseworthy? Is she successful? "[Niel] sighed as he thought how much work it meant to cook a dinner like this for eight people, and a beefsteak with potatoes would have pleased them better! They didn't really like this kind of food at all. Why did she do it?"
10."It was what he most held against Mrs. Forrester; that she was not willing to immolate herself, like the widow of all these great men, and die with the pioneer period to which she belonged; that she preferred life on any terms."
Is this a bit harsh? What's a girl to do? After all, she is still fairly young.
11. This story is very similar to 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. Both stories eloquently relate the sadness of the men who are fond of these women and painfully watch their self-inflicted destruction. Yet both women, in the end, feel that they have done well for themselves. Have they?
