The Ambivalent Nature of the Professor’s Character in Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House (1925)

Abstract

The theme of conflict in the Professor’s character in Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House (1925) is a prevalent idea that caught the reader's attention throughout the novel. This inner conflict divides the professor’s character into two halves: one that is connected and attached to the past domain of his life that haunts his character during his entire life, or rather perpetuates and overlaps with his own way of living, and the other dimension is the aspect that is connected with the future part of his life, which is seen as an awakening or self-realization, and thus constitutes another essential ontological part in Godfrey's life. However, this conflict is accompanied by the contradictions of life itself from the point of view of the professor’s character. It is found that Godfrey's ambivalent considerations of his own life are essential, decisive, and influential.