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Achieving True Love In Willa Cather A Singer's Romance

Decent Essays

Willa Cather, Katherine Anne Porter, and Charles Brockden Brown demonstrate evidence of a character being failed and disappointed. In Cather’s “A Singer’s Romance” Frau Selma Schumann fails in her attempt of obtaining true love. In Porter’s “Magic” Ninette is failed in her efforts to escape the life of a girl in a fancy-house. In Brown’s “Somnambulism” the narrator is failed in his struggle to protect the woman he loves. In each of the aforesaid short stories, the characters exemplify a struggle that they unfortunately weren’t able to overcome.

In Cather’s “A Singer’s Romance” Selma is unable to get the man she loves to reciprocate her love for him. She becomes disappointed in herself because no matter how many subtle advances she makes on him, he never declares any interest in her. Selma knew she had failed when she “…saw ‘Toinette with both her hands clasped in the hands of the dark Signorino” (47). Selma realized then that he wouldn’t display any romantic interest in her because his love went to her maid. The cause of Selma’s disappointment is internal because she never openly admitted her feelings for the Signorino. If she had been direct with him about how she felt, she would have spared herself from …show more content…

However, his feelings are unrequited because she is engaged to another man. The narrator became disappointed when Miss Davis said, “Go, by all means. I confess the fears that have been expressed appear to be groundless” (5). Miss Davis’s denying his request to accompany her and her father means that the narrator’s anxieties for her safety will greaten, and he won’t be able to prove himself to her. The cause of the narrator’s disappointment is internal because he is letting his fears manipulate him. If he had not let his mind wander toward scary and morbid thoughts, he would not have killed her trying to protect her while

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