Juliet: Willa Cather and the Language of the Sublime

Willa Cather's novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, uses language characteristic of Romantic authors to create a sublime landscape. The novel is set in unsettled New Mexico and the rugged, untamed landscape definitely influences the themes in the book. One scene in particular uses language characteristic of descriptions of the sublime to create a feeling of awe and grandeur in an ancient world.

As two of the main characters travel into the land of the Ácoma people, Cather gives the following descriptions:

“From the flat red sea of sand rose great rock mesas, generally Gothic in outline, resembling vast cathedrals” (94) 

Cather continues with a description of the cloud formations framing the mesas: “[they] seemed to always be there . . . sometimes they were flat terraces, ledges of vapour; sometimes they were dome-shaped, or fantastic . . .” (95). 

As the traveling companions continue through the land, they eventually reach the great “rock” upon which the Ácoma people dwell. This discovery is described in these words, “The Bishop, following with his eye the straight, pointing Indian hand, saw, far away, two great mesas. They were almost square in shape, and at this distance seemed close together, though they were really some miles apart” (96). This description itself hints at nothing romantic or fantastic, but the picture it paints is a sublime image: a sketch of a mountain both terrifying because of its cold majesty and beautiful because of its overwhelming power. The description continues, “It was very different from a mountain vastness; more lonely, more stark and grim, more appealing to the imagination” (97). I believe this final sentence is Cather’s most powerfully sublime description of nature and the uncivilized West. Not only does she recognize the imaginative power of nature’s beauty but she also uses language similar to that of the great Romantic poets, such as Wordsworth, to embody it.

One last quote, and my favorite:

“This mesa plain had an appearance of great antiquity, and of incompleteness; as if, with all the materials for world-making assembled, the Creator had desisted, gone away and left everything on the point of being brought together” (94).

With this example, I see a connection to Juliet's research in the language of awe. Cather is making an obvious attempt to imitate the language of the sublime because she wants her readers to associate the landscape of New Mexico with awe, sublime, and wonder, and it is only through this use of specific language and imagery that the reader actually experiences this. I think it is really cool that there actually is a "language" of awe and that this language genuinely works to create an experience with the sublime, even if it is formulaic at times.