Lena Lingard's Character in Mia AntoniaLena Lingard is the best example of a central non-domestic character appearing in Mia Ántonia's domestic life. Often the sections featuring Lena in place of Ántonia are seen as confusing divergences from the plot of a novel that purports to be about the woman named in the title. However, because Lena appears in the novel almost as much as Ántonia, and more often than any other character except Jim, she is a central character. Lena is a working woman who refuses to accept the constraints that society places on her. Even when society predicts that by becoming a seamstress instead of getting married she will fail and become a "dissolute" woman, she upsets their expectations and succeeds. The first image of Lena in the novel is that of a newly arrived pseudo-sophisticated country girl who has come to the city to learn the trade of a seamstress. However, from the beginning of our acquaintance with Lena she is anti-domestic. Lena recognizes that marriage is difficult: she never gives in to the idea of ​​romance that leads Ántonia to a disastrous relationship and single motherhood. Ántonia takes dancing and socializing much more seriously and ends up in trouble, while Lena enjoys dancing and kissing but just has fun. When asked about her mother, Lena replies, "Oh, mother is never very well; she has too much to do. She would go away from the farm too, if she could" (Cather, 104). When Frances Harling teases Lena about a suitor the town thinks Lena will marry, she responds, "I don't want to marry Nick, or any other man,... I've seen a lot of married life, and don't worry about it " (105). It seems impossible for the city to believe that a beautiful girl...... middle of paper ......c plot" limits and ignores the non-traditional female experience that is equally important to analyze. The Nan Princes, Lena Lingards and Tiny Solderalls of the fictional world deserve and demand critical attention not for what they don't do (the dishes) but for what they are: Working Women. Cather, Willa My Antonia New York: Houghton Mifflin Company Ann. women, writing, and domestic rituals. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press 1992. Weiner, Lynn Y. From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Workforce in the United States, 1820-1980: The University of North Carolina Press. 1985.