Loving Frank

Mamah and Frank arrive in Berlin and stay at a new hotel. Frank adjusts some of the lavish decor, and they sit in front of a window to look at the city. They explore Berlin on the first day, and on the second, Frank goes to a meeting. In the dining room, Mamah sees Kaiser Wilhelm. She thinks both Mattie and Lizzie would laugh at the absurdity of her situation and hopes they will forgive her.

The chapter opens with a letter describing how Frank is stressed about work, which now includes a monograph of drawings and a photo book of his finished projects. Every day, Mamah explores Berlin, amazed by the languages she hears around her. In a bookstore, she finds a copy of Goethe’s Hymn to Nature. When Frank returns later, she explains that she wants to translate the book, having never seen an English version of it. Mamah suggests she and Frank translate it together. Later, they go to the opera to see Mefistofele with Frank’s benefactor Ernst Wasmuth, and Mamah wonders what they look like together. She wonders if people know she is his mistress. Frank hopes she will help him understand Wasmuth, even though he already has a translator.

Mefistofele is about a man named Faust, who seduces a woman named Marguerita. She ends up poisoning her mother and being left by Faust, and Mamah cries at the play. Frank, who can’t understand the Italian and German segments of the play, does not realize why the story is affecting her. Afterward, Mrs. Wasmuth, thinking Mamah is Frank’s wife, asks to extend a compliment to Frank. Mamah whispers to Mrs. Wasmuth, and she and her husband leave: She revealed that she is not Frank’s wife.

The chapter opens with a quote from Goethe’s Hymn to Nature about being surrounded by nature: “powerless to emerge and powerless to penetrate deeper” (102). Mamah and Frank work on their translation of the text. Mamah also goes to the office with Frank, despite Ernst Wasmuth’s discomfort about her mistress status. When Frank and Mamah stop at the office reception desk, she asks if they have any mail for her as Mrs. Cheney, and the clerk says it might have been sent back. When she checks the mail for herself, Mamah sees a postcard for Frank from Catherine. The clerk eventually returns with two letters, one from Lizzie and one from Ed. She explains that a man came by a few days ago asking after her; Mamah is certain this man was Ed. Mamah returns to the hotel, anxious about Ed’s presence in the city.

Later, while sitting in a café, Mamah reads Ed’s letter. He expresses outrage at her leaving their children in Boulder and believes Frank is a liar who tricked her; however, he still loves her and begs her to return. Opening Lizzie’s letter, Mamah learns Mattie died, having passed away not long after she left. At first, she doesn’t believe it, but Lizzie included a copy of Mattie’s obituary. Mamah weeps.

Mamah wanders into St. Hedwig’s Church three days after learning of Mattie’s death and nearly blames herself for not noticing her illness. She remembers her and Mattie promoting women’s suffrage in Denver. When they were thrown out of a bar by a man who didn’t agree with their cause, Mattie dispelled a group of drunken men by explaining that women need to be able to find jobs and vote.

Mamah then thinks of her mother and sister Jessica’s deaths, how fast “the flesh made that transition from life force to breathless rag” (112). She knows she will carry her grief until she wakes up feeling back to normal but will one day be unable to picture her friend’s face. Later that afternoon, she walks with Frank, and he asks what Mattie would say to her. Mamah believes Mattie would tell her to return home.

Frank reveals that the man who came to Ernst Wasmuth’s office reception desk was not Ed but a reporter. He and Mamah need to find a new place to stay. In the lobby, they spot several reporters, and Frank loudly announces to the reception desk that they are going to Japan, hoping to throw them off his trail.

Frank and Mamah go to a new hotel, but it is too late: Frank receives a letter from his mother with an article from the Chicago Sunday Tribune and other newspaper clippings announcing the pair have left their families.

Mamah believes she can never return home, but Frank does not share the same concern. When he goes to work the next day, she reads the newspaper clippings again and sees that Catherine blames her for Frank’s affair; Catherine does not plan to divorce him. Mamah begins drinking from a bottle of cough syrup and worries about Catherine, Ed, and Lizzie’s shame at the situation; she also worries about her son, John, in particular. In the clippings, Ed remains loyal to her.

Frank returns home and tries to care for Mamah. He says they will go on with their lives and that she can return home if she would like. However, he refuses to let the news get in the way of his work. When Frank finds Mamah reading yet another article, he emphasizes that she can show her strength now, but she worries that she will lose her children. He reminds her that she once told him that she didn’t want to pass her unhappiness to them and that they don’t need to follow social norms. He continues on to say that they will first go to Paris and then Florence. They leave for breakfast, and Frank emphasizes the importance of truth in the face of everything the world throws at them.

The chapter opens with a letter in which Mamah describes her worry-turned-illness. She worries about her children constantly. In Nancy, France, she finds a flyer for an event with Ellen Key, a philosopher and important figure in the Woman Movement in France. Mamah and Frank go to a bookstore, where she finds Ellen’s Love and Marriage. When she reads a passage about love to Frank, he tells her that she has helped him see the world more expansively.

Back at their hotel, Mamah continues to read Ellen’s work, explaining that “[w]hat [she] like[s] is that she champions a woman’s freedom to realize her personality” (129). Ellen also writes about how love is key to marriage and without love, it is no longer sacred; however, she believes love outside of marriage can be holy. Mamah decides to stay in Nancy to hear Ellen speak while Frank goes on to Paris; she plans to meet him there.

When Mamah reads Ellen’s section on divorce, she feels moved by the sentiment that those who cause pain in a marriage are often forgotten, even though they themselves experience pain while leaving their spouse. She feels alone but finds comfort in no one being able to find her in Europe.

At Ellen Key’s talk, Mamah listens as Ellen explains that mutual love is what matters in a relationship and that a marriage without it is “immoral” (131). She thinks the best type of love is one in which both partners inspire the best in one another. Mamah finds comfort in this, feeling like she has this relationship with Frank. Afterward, she thanks the speaker, who invites her for tea.

Over tea, Mamah discusses her relationship with Frank: She explains that she loves him and that Catherine will not divorce him. Ellen asks what motivates Mamah, who replies that writing once inspired her. The philosopher tells her to write and take some time to discover herself. Mamah worries about money and then offers to translate Ellen’s books for her. Ellen already has an English translator, but Mamah says she can translate better. The philosopher hands her three essays to translate as a trial, and emphasizes that Mamah must learn Swedish, offering to pay for a Swedish class in Leipzig.