pushers, and they didn’t always show good judgement. They were comfortable, they were out
of debt, but they didn’t get much ahead. Maybe, Doctor Burleigh reflected, people as
generous and warm-hearted and affectionate as the Rosickys never got ahead much; maybe
you could not enjoy your life and put it into the bank, too.
In such a vivid family humour is never missing. It is most obvious when Dr. Ed is invited
for a breakfast after helping at a childbirth on the neighbouring farm. All along the dinner the
atmosphere bustles and they are all joking and high spirited. It seems to be a truly happy
family, where friends are always wellcomed. “ He didn’t know any other farm-house where a
man coul get such a warm welcome, and such good strong coffee with rich cream.” Rosicky
himself is a friendly and joking person. He never forgets to make the “pretty girl with plucked
eyebrows who always waited on him” in the merchandize shop to laugh on his regular
shoppings.
Humour seems to be part of his character, even when he knows that his health is failing and
he should be worried about it. Perhap, the fact that he has to be hepled in the things that he
had done by homself before is hard to accept, but his spirit is still full of energy. “If Rosicky
went to throw hay down from the loft, one of the boysran up the ladder and took the fork from
him. He sometimes complained that though he was getting to be an old man, he wasn’t an old
woman yet.”
Another important device of Cather’s characterization technique is the
authorial comment. A lot of information about Rosicky’s and, last but not least, about other
characters’ outlook we get from these authorial comments. Already in the beginning of the
short story we got a very detailed description of how Rosicky looked like.
... his queer, triangular-shaped eyes. His eyes were large and lively, but the lids were
caught up in the middle in a curious way, so that they formed a triangle. He had a ruddy
colour in his smooth-shaven cheeks and his lips, under his long brown mustache. His hair
was thin and ragged around his ears, but very litle grey. His forhead, naturally high and
crossed by deep parallel lines, now ran all the way up to his pointed crown. Rosicky’s face
had the habit of looking interested – suggested a contented disposition and a reflective quality
that was gay rather than grave. This gave him a certain detachment, the easy manner of an
onlooker and observer.
But if we examine this description more attentively, we can see that it is not only a
mere physical scatch about a man, but rather hides deep interest of the author in Rosicky’s
inner traits. She takes the advantage that a person’s face and features tell a lot about his
personality. His eyes suggest an inquiring and open-minded person; his forehead and the deep
lines that cross it shows that we have to deal with a wise, calm, thoughtful man; and also his
features imply a person that had a hard life, which didn’t break him down, but on the contrary,
he seems to posess spiritual harmony.
There is also another passage in which the author describes his appearance, but this time she
enters the mind of the farmer’s wife, Mary.
It is hard to see anyone who has become like your own body to you. Yes, hi hair had got
thin, and his high forehead had deep lines running from left to right. But his neck, always
clean-shaved except i the busiest seasons, was not loose or baggy. It was burned a dark
reddish brown, and there were deep creases in it, but it looked firm and full of blood. His
cheeks had a good colour. On either side of his mouth there was a half-moon down the length
of his cheek, not wrinkles, but two lines that had come there from his habitual expression. He
was shorter and broader when she married him; his back had grown broad and curved, a
good deal like the shell on the turtle, and his arms and legs were short.
It can be imagined that, however she descries her husband as a changed man under the
hardships of life and it is true that time had its effects on his body, but he is not a broken,
sickly old man. She carefully watches him and sees that he is yet her handsome and energetic
man she married in her youth.Once entering the wife’s mind, Cather goes further and not only
describes Rosicky through her eyes but approaches the two’s relationship. Enters Mary’s heart
to find out what kind of relationship do they have. And not only their relationship is touched
upon, but they are contrasted as characters, too.
Mary wanted to jump up, but she sat still. She admired the way he never under any
circumstances raised his voice or spoke roughly... she often said she wanted her boys to have
their pap’s nice ways. ... He was her man, and the kind of man she liked. She was rough, and
he was gentle – city-bred, as she always said. They had been shipmates on a rough voyage
and had stood by each other in trying times. Life had gone well with them because, at the
bottom, they had the same ideas about life. They agreed without discussion, as to what was
most important and what was secondary. They didn’y often exchange opinions, even in Czech
– it was if they had thought the same thought together. A good deal had to be sacrificed and
thrown overboard in a hard life like theirs, and they never disagreed as to the things that
could do. It has been a hard life and a soft life, too. ... He was a city man, a gentle man, and
though he married a rough farm girl, he had never touched her without gentleness.
Although only Rosicky has got such detailed description from the author, we can have a
glance on Polly, his precious daughter-in-law. Nothing important is revealed in connection
of her character from her appearance, but all the more is from her relationship with the
farmer and his family. But now have a look at her. “Polly was in a short- sleeved gingham
dress, clearing away the supper dishes. She was a trim, slim little thing, with blue eyes and
shingle yellow hair, and her eyebrows were reduced to a mere brush-stroke, like Miss Pearl’s.
Willa Cather creates characters who have a keen sense of history and wish to establish
and understand familial and spiritual roots. She characterizes her protagonists through their
relationship with each pther. These are the most telling things about a person ans she uses this
natural truth as a very clever device.
The author comments upon Mary’s relationship with her animals and draws a parallel
between their treatment and that of humans’ around her. “ To feed creatures was the natural
expression of affection – her chickens, the calves, her big hungry boys. It was a rare pleasure
to feed a young man (Dr. Ed) whom she seldom saw and whom she was as proud as if he
belonged to her.” Maybe it sounds primitive but it is very onest way of expressing her
feelings. The physical well- being of her beloved is very important to her and the first sign of
it is if they are well-fed.
As I mentioned in the beginning the Rosicky family was popular. So it’s not a surprise that
they care of their neighbours. It clearly reflects from their concern of the pregnant wife on the
near farm. “... I said it wasn’ right, Mary put it warmly. It was all right for me to do them
things up to the last, for I was terrible strong, but that woman’s so weakly. And do you think
she’ll be able to nurse it, Ed?”
Another thing that I already underlined is the relationship between the family nad Dr. Ed. He
was a very good friend of them, especially of Mary. She treated him like a family memeber
and was intersted in his happiness. “she was glad – she threw back her head and spoke out as
if she were announcing him to the whole prairie. ... She had known him when he was a poor
country boy, and was boastfully proud of his success... << You look too solemn for a ypung
man, Ed. Why don’t you git married? I’m worried about you.>>”.
In such a nice family it is natural that a kind-hearted woman and a gentle man understand and
respect each another. The most expressive in this sence is the attentive gesture of Rosicky that
he never forgets to bring candy for his wife, as a sign of love and courtesy.
Family is the most important in Rosicky’s life, this means for him fulfillment and spiritual
peace. I think the way someone is connected to his beloved ones are the most significant
virtues of a good man. Rosicky’s eldest son, Rudolph has married only a year ago with an
American girl, Polly. Unlike her husband, Polly grew up in town and is not the child of
immigrants. These differences make her feel somewhat awkward around Rudy’s family—she
calls her father-in-law ‘‘Mr. Rosicky’’ and is ‘‘stiff and on her guard’’ with Mary, whose
occasional gifts of bread or sweets she is not quite comfortable receiving. Rosicky makes
many sacrifices to help Rudolph’s marriage stay together. He loans the family car and gives
some money to Rudolph, even though he is very poor himself. „Polly ain’t lookin’ so good. I
don’t like to see nobody lookin’ sad. It comes hard fur a town girl to be a farmer’s wife. I
don’t want no trouble to start in Rudolph’s family.” He even tries to take care of the young
couple’s entertainment when sending them to the cinema and tries to make their life
comfortable in spite of the hardships they have with the unprosperous land.
The most striking in the story is the emotional depth and gentleness that characterizes
Rosicky’s and Polly’s relation no matter how awkward does she feel around her man’s family.
From the beginnig they feel a common sympathy for each other. Rosicky treats her like a
fragile flower that needs special attention. „That kind reassuring grip on her elbows, the old
man’s funny bright eyes, made Polly want to drop her hed on his shoulders for a second.” I
think in spite of her doubts she began to feel Rosicky like a father to herself, maybe because
she was the daughter of a widow, maybe because she just cannot resist the gentleness of this
strange father-like old farmer. As the end approaches more quickly for Rosicky, as progresses
their relationship to a deepening one based on mutual confidence. It is interesting how much
more significant can be the gestures between to person rather than the words. Its evidence is
clear when Rosicky sacrifices himself and helps Rudolph get rid of the thistles that appeared
on his farm. His heart attack is a serious warning for his health. The moment when he is so
close to death brings the father and the daughter-in-law closer to each other.
Than he closed his eyes and lay half-smiling. But Polly sat still, thinking hard. She had
a sudden feeling that nobody in the world, not her mother, not Rudolph, or anyone, really
loved her as much as old Rosicky did. … It was as if Rosicky had a special gift for loving
people, something that was like an ear for music or an eye for colour.
As her thoght’s thread goes on we realize what a rare capacity that old man had for love and
what a wonderful way had he to express it.
It was quiet, unobtrusive; it was merely there. You saw it in his eyes – perhaps that was
why they were merry. You felt it in his hands too. … she sat holding his warm, broad, flexible,
brown hand. … She wondered if it wasn’t a kind of gipsy hand, it was so alive and quick and
light in its communications … Rosicky’s hand was like quicksilver, flexible, muscular, about
the colour of the pale cigar, with deep, deep creases across the palm. … it was a warm brown
human hand, with some cleverness in it, a great deal of generosity…”
This description is so enlightening to the audience what a real, earthly, honest and optimistic
man Anton Rosicky is.At this crucial event Polly’s address as ’Mr. Rosicky’ changes into
’Father’. She experiences this like ’’an awakening”. She feels that she had never learned so
much about life than from Anton Rocicky. His message was ’’direct and ununtranslateable”.
There borns a cofidence of such a degree between the two that Rosicky realizes without any
suggestion that she will become a mother.
Equally explicit is the importance of Rosicky’s memories. As Hermione Lee expresses
it, Cather evoked ’’landscapes of the mind” by an imagination working through ’’ memory,
distance, and loss”. ’’The workings of memory are crucial to most of her great novels and
stories, and the problem of journeying – literal or symbolic – is central.”
Most of Rosicky’s memories from his youth appear when he is sewing in his ’’Father’s
corner” We learn that He was originally from a small family farm in Czechlovakia and that
he had a very hard life in London. He worked as a tailor and and earned so little that
sometimes he was even starving and havn’t have where to sleep. Because of his uneasy
feelings about Rudolph’s ideas on going to the city and working there in afactory, he tells the
story of his London life. He was sharing the same little dirty apartment with a poor family. It
was Christmas eve and he had got nothing to eat. In the morning he found a rost goose and ate
that. After this he felt terribly guilty because of not giving from it to the hungry family from
whom this gift was gotten. So, he put away his dignity and pride and begged money enough
for a wonderful Christmas dinner from some kind rich people and made it as a gift for the
family. After that incident he was looked up by those rich people and with their help he went
to New York to find better life. His father’s drama makes Rudolph to left behind all his
doubts about Rosicky’s values that he believs in and tries to teach with all his effort to his
sons. And not even his son but Polly as well finally understands why does he stick so much to
country life and land.
Furthermore we can conclude his human values that he is driven by all through hi life.
They were the only things in his experience he had found terrifying and horrible: the
look in the eyes of a dishonest and crafty man, of a schemeing and rapacious women. … The
worst things he had come upon in his journey through the world were human – depraved and
poisonous speciemens of man. … There were mean people everywhere, to be sure, even in
their own country tow here. But they weren’t tempred, hardened, sharpened, like the
treacherous people in the cities who live by grinding or cheating or poisoning their fellow
men. … What Rosickt really hoped for hi boys was that they could get through the world
without ever knowing much about the cruelty of human beings.”
In his thoughts he also compares the city with the farmlife. He was ’’distrustful of the
organized industries that see one out ot he world in the big cities.” All through the story we
can have a clear picture of his relation with nature, his land and the lifestyle that he leeds. His
tales stand as interor journeys from a world full of hardship and cruelty to a harmonic,
peaceful one. It shows that his individual need of harmony can be associated only with a
modest country life. His ’’need for a spiritually reflective and well-ordered universe’ is ther in
his attitude towards the alfalfa fields and the graveyard. He believes that his land that is
owned by him and his family provides the freedom to pursue a true happy family life. This is
why he wants so much for his boys to lead the same kind of life after hi death, too. One
passage, which is near the beginning of the story, brings home the fact that Rosicky is very
close to land. In this passage he discribes the graveyard as a nice, home-like place. He
imagines himself laid out there right at the edge of his own hayfield overseeing the work of
his ground for years to come. Second, the alfalfa fields were a link to his roots and this
another thing that fulfills him, going back to his own roots. In a next passage he ’’stopped by
the windmill to look up at the frosty winter stars and draw a long breath before he went
inside. That kitchen with the shining windows was dear to him: but the sleeping fields and
bright stars and the noble darkness were dearer still.” Once born from nature (the soil of the
ground) man feels a deep connection with it, so he knows that soon he has to return to it. The
same feels Rosicky and his returning is not an end but a new beginning,
Cather shows that another kind of American dream was fulfilled in Rosicky’s
example. He became a spiritually wealthy person, his dream, that of having a beautiful
family and a land of his own, had come true with hard work and honour. On the whole
we can say that Cather’s portrait of an immigrant farmer whose honesty, integrity and
emotional depth help him to achieve a meaningful and happy life for himself and for
his family. His significant virtues are that of a truly good person’s and as such I
consider this one of the most successful character studies. I also conclude that the
splendidness Willa Cather’s characterization technique lies in her ellicit approach of
depicting a character’s inner qualities in a very natural and lively way.
Works cited and consulted
Harris, Richard. ’’ Willa Cather, Ivan Turgenev, And The Novel Of Character”.
http:// www.getfreeessays.com
Murphy, John J. ’’ Cather’s New World Divine Comedy”.
http:// www. getfreeessays. com
Sage, Lorna. The Cambridge Guide To Women’s Writing In English. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Seargent, Elizabeth Shepley. Willa Cather: A Memoir. Lincoln: Nebraska University Press, 1963.
Wilson, Kathleen, ed. Short Sories For Students. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1997.