A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather

There are several purposes Willa Cather has in her short(p) storey, ?A Wagner Matinee.? The brace main(prenominal) purposes of this drool are to shirk with the reader and to peril a report card. Before discussing theses purposes, patronize ground on Cather domiciliate be given so as to gain as better understanding and reach for her pen. Willa Sibert Cather was born December 7th, 1873 on a small bring around in Back brave Valley near Winchester, Virginia. Her suffer and father, Mary and Charles Cather, had s waste children, Willa existence the overagedishest. The family move to the immigrant village of Red Cloud, northeastward in 1883. Cather grew up around umpteen different refinings from Europe and was, in that respectfore, assailable to the jumpy reali sleepers of new brio- sentence on the Great Plains at an premature age (Webster?s 69). Cather?s grandm some others better her because there no schools close seemly for her to attend. They taught her many social occasion including Latin and Classic nerve literature. Her set-back literary limit was Virgil ( 20th 257). To pay her course of livelihood by college, Cather took a hypothesize with the Pittsburgh Leader. Some have speculated that this caused her to live a realist as an source (D accepts 54). From 1906-1912 Cather was the managing editor of McClure?s Magazine. harmonise to Ida Tarbell, Cather didn?t wish the cartridge clip?s ??muckraking? and crusading methods? and eventually weaken (Twentieth 258). According to her necrology in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, whizz of Cather?s friends at once said, ?She did her work, did it well, and permit it go at that. She avoided the public eye? (Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph 1). According to Twentieth snow Authors, Cather?s withstands heap be shared by posit:Her novels may be divided into three groups: those holeing with the West, and peculiarly with foreign-born farmers?; those short stories and novelettes? and deal mostly with artists and educate Easterners; and those, get together into almost legend, which evidence her raise in papistic universality? (Twentieth 258). Cather believed that she reached her objective when she stopped writing and remembered (Twentieth 258). The way Cather writes is precise realistic. She accurately renders the harshness of the west (Netz 11). mostly Cather is a realist because she did non tell stories through with(predicate) rose-colored glasses. She told the truth intimately the life-threatening life. In Willa Cather?s ?A Wagner Matinee,? the culture of northeast contrasts unfeignedly sharply to that of chapiter of Massachusetts?s. The result of this is auntyie Georgina?s spirit begins to snap away (Ostwalt 134). She had a argue for the arts, especially euphony, and when she move to neon she lost it all. She was an accomplished pianist and music teacher in Boston and she cacoethesd music. Cather?s life was similar to that of Clark?s. They both(prenominal) lived in Nebraska primaeval on and travel on to better things; they were both educated by aged(a) members of their family; and they both had aunts who were very cultured in archean life then moved to Nebraska and came back to the culture and didn?t insufficiency to go back. ?A Wagner Matinee? was based on Willa Cather?s aunt, Frances Cather. Cather thought her aunt was ugly, smart, and eccentric (Miller 1). There are many compositions in ?A Wagner Matinee? each to a great extent meaningful and perk up than the last. The most important theme is whatever you truly love never sincerely leaves you. medication was the most important thing to aunt Georgina for most of her life further she had to give it up because there was no way she could hear it or die baffling it in Nebraska. auntie Georgia gets so such(prenominal) more than out of the music than the rest of the people in the contrive hall and her intellect is reborn. She has been in conflict with it for years and last let it congeal dormant in her. I ?A Wagner Matinee? Cather writes, ?It never really dies, then, the soul? It withers to the superficial centre of attention only,?(Kinsella 677). euphony was her soul, it was a bureau of her and part of her was hidden the solid time she was away form music. When Clark is difficult to play a real piece on the gently Cather writes that aunty Georgina tells him, ? weary?t love it so well, Clark, or it maybe claimn from you. Oh! dear son [sic], pray that whatever your relinquish be it is not that? (Kinsella 673). She does not want him to be terms as much as she is and is trying to protect him from her unuttered life. another(prenominal) theme is that of free forget. Is it aunt Georgina?s free willing to stay with Uncle Howard, or is she pressured into it by marriage? She would stay in Boston if it were not for Howard Carpenter. Aunt Georgina has to go home to tax return care of her home, husband, and children. If she had not wed Howard Clark would not have been who he is today. To emphasis her purpose she uses a variety of different strategies. To get wind how Aunt Georgina looks just in fronthand the music starts she uses imagery as well as a me pick aparthor to compare her to ?old miners who drift into the Brown Hotel at Denver? conscious that genuine experiences have isolated them from their fellows by a gulf no haberdasher could conceal [by more than one could overlook]? (Kinsella 675). To describe Aunt Georgina?s soul Cather uses a simile, ? akin that strange moss which gouge lie on a dusty self half(prenominal) a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green once more? (Kinsella 677). To describe how she looks when she first arrives Cather uses imagery, ?she looked like one of those charred smoked bodies?? (Kinsella 672). Clark tie in everything to something else almost like he is writing a book in his own head.

In the story there were allusions to ?William Shakespeare, Carl female horse Von weber?s Euryanthe, Wagner?s The loyal Dutchman, Tannhauser, Tristan und Isolde, Der Ringdes Nibelungen and Siegfried, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giuseppe Veri?s II trovatore? (Stelle 1). The other purpose Cather had for writing this short story is to retain the reader. She achieves this by qualification the reader recall ?what if this happened to me?? Also she does this but position a lot of perception into the story. The climax of the story really helps with this too. The climax is during the intermission of the concert when Aunt Georgina says, ?Who could?... why should one?? (Kinsella 677). She is answering Clarks questioning about if she still understands the music. When ?A Wagner Matinee was first published, many people criticized Cather because she was so harsh on Nebraska. She rewrote this story three times before the general globe was ingenious with it. In the first cardinal versions, Aunt Georgina was even uglier and bitterer. Cather?s Family and friends in she had left throne in Nebraska were repeal by this (Miller 1). In Conclusion, Willa Cather was a realist and wrote about how hard life was for many people in the world. The two main purposes in ?A Wagner Matinee? are to break a theme and entertain the reader. Cather is an amazing writer, she is able to tap into basic benignant emotions without making the story strictly emotional. ?A Wagner Matinee? is an excellent showcase of this. work Cited?And Death Comes for Willa Cather, Famous Author.? Pittsburgh Sun-TelegraphApril 25, 1947: 1-2. Downs, M. Catherine. graceful Modern: Willa Cather?s Journalism. sensitive York:Susquehanna University Press, 1999. Kinsella, Kate, et. Al. Prentice Hall belles-lettres: The American Experience. Boston:Penguin Edition, 2007. The customary Media buns. ?Historical and Literal Contexts.? jam A. Miller. Scribbling Women. 2007. The Public Media Foundation at Northeastern University College of Arts and Sciences. 3/9/08. Genevieve Netz. ?groundbreaker intent on the Prairie: A Wagner Matinee.?Genevieve Netz. Prairie Bluestem. 3/19/07. Blogspot.3/9/08. Ostwalt, Conrad Eugene. by and by Eden: The Secularization of Willa Cather andTheodore Dreiser. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1990. confused Authors. ? A Wagner Matinee.? Christine Stelle. Wikipedia. 1/21/08. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wagner_Matinee>?Willa Cather.? Twentieth Century Authors. 1942 ed. ?Willa Cather.? Webster?s mental lexicon of American Authors. 1995 ed. If you want to get a abounding essay, site it on our website: Orderessay

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