Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady - Captain Daniel Forrester Essay -- Willa

Willa Cathers A Lost Lady - Captain Daniel ForresterIn Willa Cathers A Lost Lady, Captain Daniel Forrester is a gardener at heart. His lifetime is spent encouraging growth, whether of railroads, personal lives or flowers. His philosophy is to dream because a thing that is dreamed of in the way I mean is already an accomplished fact (44). Close friends described the Captain as clearly looking like pictures of Grover Cleveland. His clumsy dignity covered a deep nature, and a conscience that had never been juggled with (39). Because of his clear conscience Captain Forrester became a rich soil for many around him to take root in. As this soil, he could everlastingly be in the background and many never noticed how important he was until he was missed. Once the Captains career outside his theme ended he truly opens up to the peacefulness of nature, including his flowers, which eventually illustrate the phases of his life. The location of the Forresters homes gives a hint towards Captain Forresters dreams throughout his life. They had seasonal homes, spending winter in Denver and Colorado Springs,-left Sweet pee soon after Thanksgiving and did not return until the first of May (23). Of deuce-ace places they stayed during the year, two of them had optimistic names, encouraging ideas of eternal springs, which would be wonderful places for gardening. During the summer at Sweet Water, The wild roses were wide open and brilliant, the blue-eyed grass was in purple flower, and the silvery milkweed was just coming on (10). This picture of wild blooms is a reflection of Mrs. Forrester enjoying summertime, complimented with her barrenness of winter. Niel who enjoyed Mrs. Forrester staying on in Sweet Water throughout the winter noticed The frosty air had brought no colour to her cheeks,-her skin had evermore the fragrant, crystalline whiteness of white lilacs (26). This picture of Mrs. Forrester displays a reverberation of the nature around her. That same day as Niel ga ve Mrs. Forrester a ride home, The poplars looked very tall and straight, pinched up and severe in their winter distress (28). Throughout A Lost Lady Mrs. Forrester reacts to the seasons as a rose does. With the Captain around he quietly gives her the support she needs, reacting to all of her seasonal needs, always supplying an endless supply of sweet or spring water. The Capta... ...tain gone could it be nailn thatIt was Mrs. Forrester herself who had changed. Since her husbands death she seemed to have become another woman. For historic period 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 tither by every wind. She was flighty and perverse. She seemed to have lost her faculty of discrimination her power of advantageously and graciously keeping everyone in his pro per place. (130) Mrs. Forrester was the rose of her husband, who carefully tended her. Without his leadership she slowly became a memory of a rose garden who eventually iron its self into a briar rose patch. From before the couple met Captain Forrester thought as a gardener, applying his technique throughout his life. He grew the railroads and his fortunes until he could no longer and then he appreciated his organic companions, which kept him company through the twilight of his life. Throughout A Lost Lady it is easy to see who is the beautiful flower many admire, and who keeps it lively.