Edith Wharton depicts the complexity and conflict behind a divorced woman’s reputation through Lydia’s failed escape from society’s judgmental grasps. Coming from a small town to New York, Lydia’s world was limited to what her husband, Mr. Tillotson, and upperclass society taught her. When she met Gannett, she realized how dull and pretentious these people were and desired to be freed from them. However, leaving this social circle is an execution and to save some face, Lydia is forced to marry Gannett. On the awkward train ride to find a new home, Gannett tries to comfort Lydia as she sits under the heavy weight of the divorce papers stored above her. He says that she is free now to marry him, to which she retorts: “Can’t you see how it would humiliate me?…this vulgar fraud upon society–and upon a society we despised and laughed at–this sneaking back into a position that we’ve voluntarily forfeited: don’t you see what a cheap compromise it is?” (1463). Throughout the story, Gannett struggles to see Lydia’s reluctance to marry him. Although he must inherit part of the shame of marrying a divorcee, his purity and chastity is not as ruined as Lydia’s. She sees their relationship as the ultimate hypocrisy–escaping one marriage just to fall into another in order to preserve a reputation that she had wanted to get rid of. But anywhere they go, she would face judgment, which is why they lived for a while running from one place to the next.

The couple arrives at a hotel in Italy, where they attempt to settle down for a bit. If it were up to Lydia, they would continue moving anonymously from place to place, perhaps forever, but Gannett is an aspiring writer and he grows weary and in need of a stable home. At first, this seems like a good place for them and the pickiest Lady Susan Condit quickly approves of them, making them feel secure for the first time in a while. Unfortunately, the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Linton, another fugitive divorced couple in disguise, disrupts the peace between Lydia and Gannett. Mrs. Linton makes a threat to expose herself and Lydia, which causes Lydia to reevaluate her own relationship and her conflict with conforming again to social expectations. After a heated argument with Gannett, she decides to leave early the next morning. As she walks down the incline to the deck of the boat, she turns around and slowly returns to the hotel’s garden. Gannett watched the whole scene from above and “mechanically, without knowing what he did, he began looking out at the trains to Paris” (1477). I was anxious as I read the ending about what would happen between the two. Seeing Lydia’s reluctant escape and reluctant return was more heartbreaking than I suspected. Lydia’s realizes that no matter where she goes, she is never really safe from social defacement. A shallow reading would be that love keeps the couple together, but it is the fear and worry that glue them together. This is emphasized by Gannett’s mindless and mechanical search for trains to Paris so that they can marry devoid of passion and more motivated by pity towards their situation. This second marriage is but a false union, a way for them to pretend for the rest of their lives that their love is virtuous and true.

An American novel that truly challenges and reforms our ideas of what it means to be American! In Book 5 of the novel, the protagonist Jim Burden returns to his country roots after almost two decades of living in the city as a lawyer. After he had left Ántonia behind so many years ago, he fears toll time may have taken on her fiery spirit and feels reluctant to return. However, he finds that when he sees her, he is once again swept up in her magic:

“She was a battered woman now, not a lovely girl; but she still had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop one’s breath for a moment by a look or gesture that somehow revealed the meaning in common things…It was no wonder that her sons stood tall and straight. She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races.” (261)

When he was younger, Jim couldn’t really understand the difference between him and Ántonia. At times, he followed her every move, while in other moments, he looked down upon her foreign customs. But she possessed something he never really did and that was this pure, unadultered passion for the land. Ántonia could never leave the countryside because it always drew her back. Jim thought he had greater callings than the countryside offered and moved away to the busy city. But the passion for the land is the source of Ántonia’s youth that Jim cannot help but feel drawn to. There’s something so American about her battered skin, which has shown years of hard field work, and her large family, making her literally a “mine of life.” Although she isn’t rich or beautiful, she still embodies this perfect American Dream that draws Jim to her.

Another interesting aspect of the text is its portrayal of various marriages and relationships. The novel does not constrain women to simple domestic roles, but instead portrays them as the authority in their relationships. While visiting Ántonia, Jim sees her brother “Ambrosch and his very fat wife, who had a farm of her own, and who bossed her husband” (258). Ambrosch’s wife is only described very briefly in this one sentence, but Cather makes sure to clarify that she holds the power in their relationship. All throughout Jim’s life, he has seen women control the household, instead of being contained within it. Although, perhaps even more surprising in the text are the women who do not marry at all. Two women from his childhood live as successful businesswomen in San Francisco. When he sees them, he cannot help but ponder on their relationship: “It interested me, after so many years, to see the two women together. Tiny audits Lena’s accounts occasionally, and invests her money for her; and Lena, apparently, takes care that Tiny doesn’t grow too miserly” (246). Marriage was typically viewed as a necessity for the survival and safety of women, but here, two women live in harmony with one another. When Lena was younger, she was particularly desirable and Jim even dreamed of being with her, but she defied everyone’s doubts and properly established herself. A queer reading of the text could argue that Tiny and Lena are in a relationship with one another. Their support of each other is necessary for their happiness and sanity in the draining market world and they make sure that they keep each other in good humor. They have conquered the other side of American-ness, which defines success through business and money, and have done so without the need of a man. In this way, Cather subverts typical masculine-oriented ideas of the American identity and shows the role that women have in building this country.