This paper analyzes the women in Willa Cather’s novel The Professor’s House
and demonstrates the ways in which the women are able to adapt to change better than
the men in the novel, even though the women are degraded for their materialism and
behaviors. By looking at previous scholarship, this thesis highlights how women in this
novel have for some reason been excluded from the academic debate surrounding The
Professor’s House. This exclusion is often the result of scholars placing more emphasis
on St. Peter and Tom as the main characters in the story. What this ignores, however, is
the strength of the women and their ability to adapt to modern life. The women in the
novel are remarkably strong, yet St. Peter does not see them this way. Since the narrative
focuses mainly on the male perspectives, the reader can easily take on the view of the
men and forget to look closer at the women in the text who demonstrate different
characteristics than St. Peter detects in them. Finally, in placing this novel alongside A
Lost Lady, which similarly views the woman in the story through the male’s perspective,
this paper proves that a new reading of The Professor’s House must be considered to
truly understand one of the ways Cather uses the women in this novel.
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