Comparing the Theme of Sacrifice in My Antonia and The Song of the Lark

shank of Sacrifice in My Antonia and The Song of the Lark A common character for Willa Cathers characters is that they possess a certain talent or skill. This contrivance normally controls the lives of these characters. According to critic Maxell Geismar, Cathers heroines who possess a skill often either do not marry or marry men whom they miss if they do marry the trade union is without excitement because their passion is invested in their dodge. In a sense, Geismar accuses Cathers heroines of sacrificing their marital roles for their art (172). However, marriage is not the only chance that raises the subject of sacrifice for Cathers protagonists - there is also the issue of family. This is because a cleaning woman artist, or any woman, is count ond not only on her art solely also on her personal life, especially by her submissiveness to man in the role of daughter, wife and mother. If a woman is unable to commit towards angiotensin-converting enzyme of these roles, she is blamed for renouncing her expectant role for something that is associated with a mans sphere - talent. Many readers judge Thea Kronberg and Lena Lingard according to these female roles, and hence place the accusation of sacrifice upon them. Thea Kronberg and Lena Lingard in Willa Cathers The Song of the Lark and My Antonia, venerateively, are accuse of sacrificing too much for their art because they apparently choose to overlook their families and love relations in respect to their art. On the surface, it appears as if Thea sacrifices her relationship with her mother and her love with Fred Ottenburg in read to achieve her musical desires. Similarly, Lena is depicted as a female who sacrifices her attach with her mother and her prospects for marriage for the life of an indepe... ...r orator skills (i.e. they usually become Lawyers), and postponing marriage prospects until they are independently and financially settled. However, these men are never acc used of sacrificing their relations, or too much for their art. Unfortunately, even in the literary world men and women are depicted differently in terms of their comparative expectations. This difference goes as far as accusing the pursuit of art as a sacrifice only when the individual is a woman. deeds Cited Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. Cather, Willa. The Song of the Lark. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943. Geismar, Maxell. The Last of the Provincials The American Novel 1915 to 1925. Cambridge The riverside Press, 1947. Sabiston, Elizabeth. EN 4210 3.0E Seminar. Toronto York University, October 15 2002.