A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather

There be several purposes Willa Cather has in her short storey, ?A Wagner Matinee.? The twain main(prenominal) purposes of this trading floor are to toy with the reviewer and to riskiness a report card. Before discussing theses purposes, back ground on Cather provide be befuddlen so as to raise as better understanding and appreciation for her committal to written material. Willa Sibert Cather was born celestial latitude 7th, 1873 on a small farm in seat brook Valley near Winchester, Virginia. Her mother and father, Mary and Charles Cather, had s counterbalance children, Willa existence the oldishest. The family feign to the immigrant village of Red Cloud, atomic number 10 in 1883. Cather grew up around many divers(prenominal) cultures from europium and was, therefore, exposed to the jumpy realities of new aliveness on the outstanding Plains at an premature age (Webster?s 69). Cather?s grandmothers ameliorate her because there no schools close enough f or her to attend. They taught her many societal occasions including Latin and Classic side literature. Her first off literary influence was Virgil ( 20th 257). To pay her way by college, Cather took a job with the Pittsburgh Leader. Some wealthy person speculated that this caused her to become a realist as an author (Downs 54). From 1906-1912 Cather was the managing editor of McClure?s Magazine. jibe to Ida Tarbell, Cather didn?t exchange adequate the magazine?s ??muckraking? and crusading methods? and eventually weaken ( 20th 258). According to her obituary in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, one of Cather?s friends at at a time said, ?She did her work, did it well, and let it go at that. She avoided the limelight? (Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph 1). According to Twentieth ascorbic acid Authors, Cather?s withstands heap be divided by subject:Her novels may be divided into three groups: those transaction with the West, and percenticularly with foreign-born farmers?; thos e short stories and novelettes? and deal mos! tly with artists and organize Easterners; and those, merging into almost legend, which evidence her interest in Romanist Catholicism? (Twentieth 258). Cather believed that she reached her objective when she stopped writing and remembered (Twentieth 258). The way Cather writes is hairsplitting realistic. She accurately renders the harshness of the west (Netz 11). Mostly Cather is a realist because she did non pronounce stories through rose-colored glasses. She told the truth about the life-threatening life. In Willa Cather?s ?A Wagner Matinee,? the culture of Nebraska contrasts very sharp to that of capital of Massachusetts?s. The result of this is aunty Georgina?s notion begins to wither away (Ostwalt 134). She had a contend for the arts, especially music, and when she move to Nebraska she lost it all. She was an accomplished pianist and music instructor in Boston and she loved music. Cather?s life was akin(predicate) to that of Clark?s. They twain lived in Nebraska early on and go 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 early life therefore moved to Nebraska and came back to the culture and didn?t penury to go back. ?A Wagner Matinee? was based on Willa Cather?s aunt, Frances Cather. Cather thinking her aunt was ugly, smart, and eccentric (Miller 1). There are many themes in ?A Wagner Matinee? each to a greater extent meaningful and elicit than the last. The most central theme is some(prenominal) you unfeignedly love never really leaves you. Music 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. Aunt Georgia gets so much more out of the music than the rest of the hatful in the c at one timert hall and her soul is reborn. She has been in employment with it for years and last let it lay dormant in her. I ?A Wagner Matinee? Cather writes, ?It never reall! y dies, then, the soul? It fall to the outward centre of attention only,?(Kinsella 677). Music was her soul, it was a part of her and part of her was hidden the solid time she was away hold music. When Clark is trying to play a authentic piece on the piano Cather writes that Aunt Georgina tells him, ? weary?t love it so well, Clark, or it maybe claimn from you. Oh! dear boy [sic], pray that whatever your sacrifice be it is not that? (Kinsella 673). She does not want him to be hurt as much as she is and is trying to encourage him from her hard life. another(prenominal) theme is that of clear forget. Is it Aunt Georgina?s free will to remain 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 pedestal to take care of her home, husband, and children. If she had not married Howard Clark would not have been who he is today. To emphasis her purpose she uses a variety of diffe rent strategies. To hear how Aunt Georgina looks just before the music starts she uses tomography as well as a metaphor to comparison her to ?old miners who drift into the Brown Hotel at Denver? certified that certain experiences have isolated them from their fellows by a disjunction no haberdasher could conceal [by more than one could overlook]? (Kinsella 675). To describe Aunt Georgina?s soul Cather uses a simile, ?like that quaint moss which can lie on a dusty self-importance 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 Flying 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 entertain the reader. She achieves this by making the reader think ?what if this happened to me?? Also she does this but putting a readiness of emotion into the story. The climax of the story really helps with this too. The climax is during the breach of the concert when Aunt Georgina says, ?Who could?... why should one?? (Kinsella 677). She is answering Clarks skeptical about if she still understands the music. When ?A Wagner Matinee was first published, many masses criticized Cather because she was so harsh on Nebraska. She rewrote this story three generation before the general globe was happy with it. In the first two versions, Aunt Georgina was even uglier and bitterer. Cather?s Family and friends in she had remaining behind in Nebraska were upset by this (Miller 1). In Conclusion, Willa Cather was a realist and wrote about how hard life was for many state in the world. The two main purposes in ?A Wagner Matinee? are to reveal a theme and entertain the reader. Cather is an amazing writer, she is able to tap into basic benignant emotions without making the story purely emotional. ?A Wagner Matinee? is an excellent showcase of this. Works Cited?And Death Comes for Willa Cather, historied Author.? Pittsburgh Sun-TelegraphApril 25, 1947: 1-2. Downs, M. Catherine. Becoming Modern: Willa Cather?s Journalism. New York:Susquehanna University Press, 1999. Kinsella, Kate, et. Al. Prentice anteroom Literature: The American Experience. Boston:Penguin Edi tion, 2007. The Public Media buns. ?Historical and ! material Contexts.? James A. Miller. Scribbling Women. 2007. The Public Media Foundation at Northeastern University College of liberal arts and Sciences. 3/9/08. Genevieve Netz. ?groundbreaker Life on the Prairie: A Wagner Matinee.?Genevieve Netz. Prairie Bluestem. 3/19/07. Blogspot.3/9/08. Ostwalt, Conrad Eugene. After Eden: The secularization of Willa Cather andTheodore Dreiser. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1990. Various 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 full essay, site it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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