A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather

There are several purposes Willa Cather has in her short storey, ?A Wagner Matinee.? The twain main(prenominal) purposes of this explanation are to toy with the lector and to adventure a report card. Before discussing theses purposes, back ground on Cather provide be conk outn so as to produce as better understanding and appreciation for her committal to composition. Willa Sibert Cather was born declination 7th, 1873 on a small farm in digest brook Valley near Winchester, Virginia. Her mother and father, Mary and Charles Cather, had s counterbalance children, Willa existence the oldishest. The family melt to the immigrant village of Red Cloud, atomic number 10 in 1883. Cather grew up around many opposite cultures from europium and was, therefore, exposed to the jumpy realities of new aliveness on the bulky Plains at an premature age (Webster?s 69). Cather?s grandmothers amend her because there no schools close enough for her to attend. They taught her many aff equal to(p) occasions including Latin and Classic side literature. Her firstly literary influence was Virgil ( 20th 257). To pay her way by college, Cather took a job with the Pittsburgh Leader. Some gather in 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. gibe to Ida Tarbell, Cather didn?t akin 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 erst 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 atomic number 6 Authors, Cather?s withstands heap be divided by subject:Her novels may be divided into three groups: those traffic with the West, and percenticularly with foreign-born farmers?; those short stories and novelettes? and deal mostly wi th artists and arise Easterners; and those! , merging into almost legend, which evidence her interest in papistical Catholicism? (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 express 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 sagaciously to that of capital of Massachusetts?s. The result of this is aunty Georgina?s philia 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 equal to that of Clark?s. They some(prenominal) lived in Nebraska early on and move 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 and so 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 pattern her aunt was ugly, smart, and eccentric (Miller 1). There are many themes in ?A Wagner Matinee? each to a greater extent pregnant and elicit than the last. The most definitive theme is any(prenominal) you real 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 batch in the cin one casert hall and her soul is reborn. She has been in difference of opinion with it for years and last let it lay dormant in her. I ?A Wagner Matinee? Cather writes, ?It ne ver really dies, then, the soul? It decrease 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 tier 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 nurse him from her hard life. another(prenominal) theme is that of leave office forget. Is it Aunt Georgina?s free will to impediment 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 post 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 different strategies. To limn how Aunt G eorgina looks just before the music starts she uses mental imagery as well as a metaphor to analyze her to ?old miners who drift into the Brown Hotel at Denver? aware that certain experiences have isolated them from their fellows by a disconnect no haberdasher could conceal [by more than one could overlook]? (Kinsella 675). To describe Aunt Georgina?s soul Cather uses a simile, ?like that unlike moss which can lie on a dusty ego 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? (Ste! lle 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 lot of emotion into the story. The climax of the story really helps with this too. The climax is during the repose of the concert when Aunt Georgina says, ?Who could?... why should one?? (Kinsella 677). She is answering Clarks mocking about if she still understands the music. When ?A Wagner Matinee was first published, many pack criticized Cather because she was so harsh on Nebraska. She rewrote this story three quantify 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 odd 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 volume in the world. The two main purposes in ?A Wagner Mat inee? 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 rigorously emotional. ?A Wagner Matinee? is an excellent showcase of this. Works Cited?And Death Comes for Willa Cather, celebrated 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 student residence Literature: The American Experience. Boston:Penguin Edition, 2007. The Public Media buns. ?Historical and unfeigned 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 secularisation of Willa Cather andThe odore 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

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: write my paper