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,
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