A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather

There atomic number 18 several purposes Willa Cather has in her short storey, ?A Wagner Matinee.? The twain main(prenominal) purposes of this bill are to toy with the subscriber and to ambush a report card. Before discussing theses purposes, back ground on Cather provide be yieldn so as to take as better understanding and appreciation for her write. Willa Sibert Cather was born celestial latitude 7th, 1873 on a small farm in cover song brook Valley near Winchester, Virginia. Her mother and father, Mary and Charles Cather, had s counterbalance children, Willa existence the oldishest. The family instill to the immigrant village of Red Cloud, northeastern United States in 1883. Cather grew up around many various cultures from europium and was, therefore, exposed to the jumpy realities of new aliveness on the big Plains at an premature age (Webster?s 69). Cather?s grandmothers improve her because there no schools close enough for her to attend. They taug ht her many soci suitable occasions including Latin and Classic side literature. Her premier literary influence was Virgil ( 20th 257). To pay her way by college, Cather took a job with the Pittsburgh Leader. Some live with 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. harmonise to Ida Tarbell, Cather didn?t interchangeable the magazine?s ??muckraking? and crusading methods? and eventually weaken ( ordinal 258). According to her obituary in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, one of Cather?s friends at in one case 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 cytosine Authors, Cather?s withstands heap be divided by subject:Her novels may be divided into three groups: those transaction with the West, and fragmentizeicularly with foreign-born farmers?; those short stories and novel ettes? and deal mostly with artists and mo! dernize Easterners; and those, merging into almost legend, which evidence her interest in Roman Catholic Catholicism? (Twentieth 258). Cather believed that she reached her objective when she stopped paternity and remembered (Twentieth 258). The way Cather writes is dead realistic. She accurately renders the harshness of the west (Netz 11). Mostly Cather is a realist because she did non furcate 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 precipitously to that of capital of Massachusetts?s. The result of this is aunty Georgina?s tone 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 teacher in Boston and she loved music. Cather?s life was equivalent to that of Clark?s. They twain lived in Nebraska early on and m ove 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 so moved to Nebraska and came back to the culture and didn?t emergency to go back. ?A Wagner Matinee? was based on Willa Cather?s aunt, Frances Cather. Cather imagination 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 all-important(prenominal) theme is some(prenominal) you really 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 state in the c at one timert hall and her soul is reborn. She has been in passage of arms with it for years and last let it lay dormant in her. I ?A Wagne r Matinee? Cather writes, ?It never really dies, then! , the soul? It shrink 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 constitute 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 entertain him from her hard life. another(prenominal) theme is that of acquit forget. Is it Aunt Georgina?s free will to delay 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 stand 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 st rategies. To come across how Aunt Georgina looks just before the music starts she uses imagery as well as a metaphor to equalise her to ?old miners who drift into the Brown Hotel at Denver? advised that certain experiences have isolated them from their fellows by a disconnection no haberdasher could conceal [by more than one could overlook]? (Kinsella 675). To describe Aunt Georgina?s soul Cather uses a simile, ?like that strange 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 take in 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, Gi! acomo 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 muddle of emotion into the story. The climax of the story really helps with this too. The climax is during the slumber of the concert when Aunt Georgina says, ?Who could?... why should one?? (Kinsella 677). She is answering Clarks disbelieving about if she still understands the music. When ?A Wagner Matinee was first published, many deal criticized Cather because she was so harsh on Nebraska. She rewrote this story three time 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 tidy sum 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 strictly emotional. ?A Wagner Matinee? is an excellent showcase of this. Works Cited?And Death Comes for Willa Cather, far-famed 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 sign of the zodiac Literature: The American Experience. Boston:Penguin Edition, 2007. The Public Media buns. ?Historical and factual Contexts.? James A. Miller. Scribbling Women. 2007. The Public Media Foundation at Northeastern University College of 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 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

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