Both an epic of the American frontier and a love story, Lonesome Dove represents a last literary “hoorah!” to the American west and the gritty, persevering men and women who struggled through the hell that was frontier life. McMurtry gives the Wild West a twist in this saga of two fading ex-Texas Rangers who mount up for one last, great cattle drive promising paradise. The Wild West is actually deconstructed as some kind of mythic paradise by McMurtry, who gives us plenty of violence, torture, scalping, castration, and natural disasters. The main point appears to be that life on the frontier was hell, particularly for the women! This is where McMurtry’s other twist on the Wild West comes in – the female characters.
The western is a genre that is often written by men about men. Women are often used as stage dressing in many westerns, from barmaids and prostitutes to schoolmarms and saloon entertainers. Seldom are these women given any kind of depth, and when they are portrayed they typically are simplified and subordinate to the patriarchal code of values. While there are only three main female characters in Lonesome Dove, McMurtry provides us with spunky, determined women who more often control their own fate than allowing it to be controlled by men. The most central of the three main female characters is Lorena Wood, a prostitute with a heart of gold. She actually catalyzes a good deal of the action in the story when she is kidnapped by Blue Duck, a sinister Indian with a representation for acts of cruelty to his victims. Clara is the love of Gus’ life, but she rejects their natural passion in order to find stability with a wealthy horse trader in Nebraska. Elmira is the wife of the town sheriff, July. She encourages him to go off on a search to find his brother’s killer, Jake Spoon, but she does so in order to flee to Nebraska where she can marry the love of her life – an outlaw. Her motivations are in s...