ves
the sundry themes into a single conclusion. In addition, Cather
notes the difference between the stuffy, cluttered, increasingly
modernistic environment in which the professor lives and the open
desert spaces, as personified by Tom Outland, which intrude upon or
are let into that environment and become a means by which the Pro(
fessor liberates himself from a crowded life dominated by a career.
For all these differences, however, (The Song of the Lark( and
(The Professor's House( share certain elements in common. In this
regard, Loretta Wasserman remarks that one of Willa Cather's most
persistent themes is that of "the divided self,"(4( and the same point
is made by Susan Rosowski.(5( Indeed, the existence of two distinct,
though related, selves in Thea and the Professor becomes a main
issue as the action of (The Song of the Lark( and of (The Professor's
House( unfolds. Thus Thea Kronborg is both (Kronborg(, the opera singer
...