In Settlers of the Marsh Frederick Phillip Grove tries his best to provide a sympathetic portrait of Clara, but he is continually tripped up by his own unconscious bias against her. Grove tries to depict Clara as an attractive widowed woman who is only in need of companionship, but turns her into an unlovable and uncared for creature for whom we can feel no pity or compassion. Through discussion on Clara's interactions with the other characters, especially that of Niels, Grove's bias towards Clara and her sexual choices can be easily seen. Grove's bias towards Clara does, after-all, have a positive effect on the story's outcome allowing for the love story to complete itself with a happy ending.
             Clara is the most complicated character in the book. Grove portrays her as vulgar and lazy she tells Niels after their marriage: "I hope you didn't marry me in order to make me work... I am not the kind of woman who works" (152). In the times of this novel, work was considered "good" and necessary for survival. With work came advancement in material wealth and in community stature. The prosperous in the community were the farmers who were well established and had strong healthy livestock and cultivated land. The men seemed to pride themselves on their accomplishments and Grove often brings up the purchases of great proportion such as Nelsons "having bought a second team" (47) and his saying that: "I've got my patent...I'm getting a loan on a place... I want to buy stock and a pure-bread bull" (67) to Niels. Clara is educated and feels that her time is better spent in reading and idle pleasures where her husband is a hard worker and believes that hard work and devotion will help him to achieve his goals of running a prosperous farm and making a life for himself. Clara is an outsider because she does not work on the farm and has no respected involvement within the commun...