Materialism In The Professor's House By Cather

In The Professor’s House, Cather criticizes modernism and correlates it with the nascent materialism that corrupted the world in early 20th century. If the story of Godfrey depicts a certain struggle between his nostalgic frugality and the sudden materialism of his family, then Cather achieves that by according various, deep meanings and relations to certain objects throughout the story. Rosamond’s emerald necklace is unquestionably one of these objects that holds a special value and affected St Peter’s family morally, in different aspects. However, what significance can contain a costly necklace apart from its monetary value? It turns out that the necklace worn by Rosie at the second dinner is not only a manifestation of Louie’s love, but …show more content…
Indeed in the family dinner, Kathleen appears to be astonished by the Emerald necklace and can’t seem to find the adequate reaction: “Kathleen stood there looking at it and was evidently trying to find the courage to say something about it” (p 90) Kathleen’s confusion in this scene can be explained by how intimidating is the Emerald necklace to someone who is not accustomed to wealth. The Emerald necklace is so fearful that she needs “courage” to address her own sister. Even with that courage, she needs to find the adequate reaction: as a sister, compliment her older sister for the ornament’s unique beauty; as a middle-class woman, hate and envy this rich woman who seems to boast on her superiority. Therefore, the Emerald necklace generates hate and envy around Rosamond. In fact it has a similar effect as of the “taupe fur” when Rosamond visited Kathleen when she was trying her fur coats. The effect on Kathleen is noticeable as described by St Peter: “Her pale skin had taken on a greenish tinge – there was no doubt about it” (p 71) Kathleen seems to be so envious that her skin became green. Of course, this is a figurative meaning, referring to the expression “green with envy”, but the professor doesn’t stop there and wants to show the intensity of the envy that he adds “there is no doubt about it”. This shows how much destructive can be the Emerald necklace as a symbol of wealth, but the worse is that it can corrupt people as well. In this context, Elizabeth Festa argues “Although Kathleen’s intimate memories of Tom manage to elide the commercial realization of Tom’s discoveries, they prove no less possessive.” Kathleen, who until then was one of most succeeding characters in remembering Tom as a person, became interested in Tom’s