Willa Cather My Mortal Enemy

¶ … Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather [...] how Cather uses symbolism in the novel. Imagery forms the backbone of this story, and opens up the characters to the reader. MY MORTAL ENEMY Cather uses imagery throughout this novel to indicate and realize the characters, as well as their reactions to each other.

Early in the novel, we learn quite a bit about Myra and her personality from this compelling small piece of imagery: "Her sarcasm was so quick, so fine at the point -- it was like being touched by a metal so cold that one doesn't know whether one is burned or chilled" (Cather 14). The imagery conveys Myra's sarcasm perfectly, making it real and tangible to the reader who immediately pictures a cold and sharp piece of metal.

It also clearly indicates how young Nellie felt at experiencing her sarcasm, she did not know whether she was burned or chilled, but she knew the sarcasm caused pain. Later, Cather uses equally evocative imagery when the couple of Myra and her husband stand at the window at dusk. Myra is compared to a "dove" when she is quiet, and the two paint a domestic picture, but Nellie realizes there is something not quite right with the image.

Cather uses this disturbing imagery to indicate the problems between the couple and how they relate to each other. Cather continues using imagery to show their problems, and how it even affects the rooms they inhabit. "And now everything was in ruins. The air was still and cold like the air in a refrigerating-room" (Cather 64). These vivid images again help make the characters more real to the reader, but also color the reader's mind, seeing how the relationship is failing and growing colder, just like passion cooling.

The couple also begins to appear evil to Nellie, and this too is shown by the imagery in the book, especially Myra's "angry laugh" which she uses when she is most displeased with her husband. Myra is also painted more darkly as the story progresses. She may be like a dove when she is quiet, but her mouth more and more reminds Nellie of an evil snake when she talks badly about the people in her life.

Myra is changing from someone good to someone evil, and Nellie can see it. So can the reader as Cather employs imagery to illustrate the change occurring in the woman. The most compelling image is the title of the story, which in the end refers to Oswald, Myra's husband. She ran away with him out of love, and stays with him out of some kind of perverse hatred. He is her "mortal enemy," and yet it seems he has always loved her, despite her many flaws.

Perhaps this is why she hated him in the end. He knew the real Myra, and loved her anyway, when she felt she was unlovable. Cather uses imagery throughout the story to indicate things between the couple that are never said - only implied. Oswald clearly had affairs, as the cufflinks and the young woman journalist who hangs around the restaurant clearly show. Somehow, Oswald managed to kill the love Myra had for him, and turn from lover into enemy.

The images of Myra's changing personality indicate the changes in their relationship and her disillusionment with her marriage. Yet, Oswald stays with her and loves her, so there is strength there somewhere. It is clear that she blames him for their poverty and for her distance from her religion, and this is shown through the images of the candles, whose lights must eventually go out, just as her.