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A Wagner matinee summary
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In the past there have been stories concocted from within the depths of writer’s minds, portraying what they know and what could be. However there seem to always be casualties by the sharp words that have been thrust into the world. “A Wagner Matinee” is no exception due to the reference of Nebraska and its occupants. The Nebraskans believed that Cather, the author, was intentionally insulting them, but Cather claimed that it was a tribute to the pioneer way of life. I would Argue that the story really is a tribute the pioneer way of life through three main ideas of the story: Aunt Georgiana’s sacrifice, how Clark live as a child, and Aunt Georgiana’s survival of the west. Aunt Georgiana used to play the piano but had to give up her love of music to cook and clean for her family and work hands when she moved to the west. Clark, the narrator of this story recalls he aunt saying, “Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you. Oh! Dear boy pray that whatever your sacrifice be it is not that.” Georgiana of course was speaking of her love of music and her struggles to give u...
A common trait for Willa Cather's characters is that they possess a certain talent or skill. This art usually controls the lives of these characters. According to critic Maxell Geismar, Cather's heroines who possess a skill often either do not marry or marry men whom they dominate; if they do marry the marriage is without excitement because their passion is invested in their art. In a sense, Geismar accuses Cather's heroines of sacrificing their marital roles for their art (172). However, marriage is not the only aspect that raises the subject of sacrifice for Cather's protagonists - there is also the issue of family. This is because a woman artist, or any woman, is judged not only on her art but also on her personal life, especially by her submissiveness to man in the role of daughter, wife and mother. If a woman is unable to commit towards one of these roles, she is blamed for renouncing her expectant role for something that is associated with a man's world - talent. Many readers judge Thea Kronberg and Lena Lingard according to these female roles, and hence place the accusation of sacrifice upon them. Thea Kronberg and Lena Lingard in Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark and My Antonia, respectively, are accused of sacrificing too much for their art because they apparently choose to overlook their families and love relations in respect to their art. On the surface, it appears as if Thea sacrifices her relationship with her mother and her love with Fred Ottenburg in order to achieve her musical desires. Similarly, Lena is depicted as a female who sacrifices her bond with her mother and her prospects for marriage for the life of an indepe...
Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).
...Kingston opinion towards her aunt. It is evident that she no longer believes that her aunt is a kind individual, but believes that she is an evil spirit who does not mean her well.
The master knew that she was trying to learn to write and as he was talking to her, she ran to her mother. The master chased her until he found her hiding behind her mother. He then asked her mother if she knew anything about her writing, but she lied and said no. Nonetheless, the master knew she was lying, so instead of taking Sarny away, he took her mother. He took her to the spring house where he usually whip anyone who tried to escape or lie to him. The master chained her up and left. Her mother acknowledged the fact he was going to whip her and she accepted it. Sarny cried because she knew it was all her fault for willing to risk learning to write. Since the weather was very hot, Sarny brought her mother water. Sarny’s mother waited uncomfortable all tied up in the chains waiting to see if the master will whip her.
As a small child, about two years old, Lizzie's mother died. Her father, Andrew, married again. Lizzie did not like her stepmother even though she did not really remember her real mother at all. She never really accepted her stepmother as the person who raised her. And then one afternoon they were robber sunk in the house a...
The thought of the narrator 's life of staying home all day to be taken care of by her husband and his sister, as well as having the husband go out and tarnish her reputation to her family and friends is such a dreadful thought. Apart from her husband John 's treatment is to keep her away from her family for a bit till she is better, but in order to do that he must disclose her well being with them. It is preposterous that her
Jane in her younger years was practically shunned by everyone and was shown very little love and compassion, from this throughout her life she searches for these qualities through those around her. Due to Jane’s mother’s disinheritance she was disowned by Mrs. Reed and her children, and was treated like a servant consistently reminded that she lacked position and wealth.
Having other character flaws, the trait of being selfish for example, makes it ten times harder to deal with that family member. Both Anse and Howard were very selfish people, very selfish husbands. "Don't love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you. Oh, dear boy, pray that whatever your sacrifice may be, it be not that." (Cather). Georgianna had been kept from her music for 30 years, and she misses it, yet her husband who obviously does not care about what she cares about, has kept and allowed her to be without what she loves most for so long. It is only when she visits her nephew that she realizes how much she wishes she could stay; stay with the music. Anse, on the other hand, knew his wife was very ill, yet instead of getting a doctor, he just let her die. "God's will be done," he says. "Now I can get them teeth." (Faulkner). Being selfish drove Anse’s and Howard's family members away and left them lonely and outcasts.
““Didn’t they try to stop him? Didn’t they give him any warning... Aunt Alexandra sat down in Calpurnia’s chair and put her hands to her face,”(315). After hearing the news about Tom’s death, Aunt Alexandra is now somber and doesn’t want to think about anything but Tom and his family. After all the hurtful things she has said about the blacks and their community, she is now sorrowful for what she has done and accepts to sit in Calpurnia’s chair and not her just her own or someone else’s in the family. This has also shown that she with going to be with the Robinson’s in their time of grieving to make them feel accepted in the community and to show how the whites are being appreciative of them being
The Grandmother often finds herself at odds with the rest of her family. Everyone feels her domineering attitude over her family, even the youngest child knows that she's "afraid she'd miss something she has to go everywhere we go"(Good Man 2). Yet this accusation doesn't seem to phase the grandmother, and when it is her fault alone that the family gets into the car accident and is found by the Misfit, she decides to try to talk her way out of this terrible predicament.
...uties. Edna cries nightly because of how depressed she is in her life, “She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon kin her married life” (Chopin 14). Edna always had concerns with the roles of the patriarchal woman, now she has a terrible time trying to play the role of an accommodating woman.
One form of art which is predominant in The Awakening is piano playing. Piano playing symbolizes a woman’s role in society. In Edna’s society, artistic skill, such as piano playing and sketching, were accomplishments which ladies acquired. They were merely enhancements to their education, not possibilities for occupation. Women artists, whether they were musicians, painters, or writers, had a difficult time being accepted in society (Dyer 86). Kate Chopin presents two women who are foils to Edna: Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz (Koloski 117). Both of these women play the piano; however, their purpose and motivations are vastly different. The way in which they view their piano playing reflects their values.
First, through Chopin’s choice of diction, she creates empathy, which helps develop the theme. In the story, Chopin writes, “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon
Chopin describes her as a fragile woman. Because she was “afflicted with a heart trouble,” when she receives notification of her husband’s passing, “great care was taken” to break the news “as gently as possible” (1). Josephine, her sister, and Richards, her husband’s friend, expect her to be devastated over this news, and they fear that the depression could kill her because of her weak heart. Richards was “in the newspaper office when the intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of killed” (1). He therefore is one of the first people to know about his death. Knowing about Mrs. Mallard’s heart, he realizes that they need to take caution in letting Mrs. Mallard know about it. Josephine told her because Richards feared “any less careful, less tender” person relaying the message to Louise Mallard (1). Because of her heart trouble, they think that if the message of her husband’s death is delivered to her the wrong way, her heart would not be able to withstand it. They also think that if someone practices caution in giving her the message, that, ...
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...