Connecting scenes in The Professor's House

            In The Professor’s House, I find it interesting how Cather weaves character interactions together into the novel to give the reader a better understanding of what is actually going on. Drawing a parallel between St. Peter’s comments about vanity on pages 37 and 52, it becomes clear for the first time that there is an obvious division in Cather's characterization of St. Peter and Kathleen on one side and Louie, Rosamond and Lillian on the other. As they discuss Louie and Rosamond’s decision to name the house ‘Outland’, Mrs. St. Peter is completely unable to understand her husband’s distaste with the lack of humbleness. As St. Peter says, “a man should do fine deeds and not speak of them…It's a nice idea, reserve about one's deepest feelings: keeps them fresh" (37). He talks condescendingly to Lillian; it is almost as if there is no hope for her to understand the point he is trying to make.

          Directly relating to this passage is St. Peter’s description of his daughter, Kathleen, and his respect for her ability to stay humble. St. Peter admires that ‘Kitty’ “doesn’t think herself a bit unusual”; something very uncommon to him. The girls St. Peter teach “who have a spark of aptitude for anything seem to think themselves remarkable” (52). Cather interestingly lays the framework of the family dynamic for the remainder of the book through these descriptions of vanity that St. Peter so clearly despises. In what other ways does Cather entwine pieces of the narrative together to give the reader an enlightened view of character relationships?