Blog #8

A Wagner Matinee was written by Willa Cather. In this story, the narrator recieves a letter from his uncle asking him to pick up his aunt at the station because she has some inheritance she needs to get. From the very beginning of this story, we are shown the relationship between the narrator and his aunt is special to him. For example, at the beginning of the sixth paragraph Clark says "I owed to this woman most of the good that ever came my way in my boyhood, and had a reverential affection for her" (Cather). Clark, the main character, recalls that his aunt used to be a music teacher before she left the city with her husband and then decides to take her to a Wagnerian opera (Cather). The author reveals to us that Clark's aunt lost something that she loved when she says "Don't love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you. Oh, dear boy, pray that whatever you sacrafice may be, it be not that" (Cather). It seems like Clark's aunt really misses not being able to play music anymore since she moved away from the city to live on a farm with her husband. Later in the story while they are at the opera, Clark studies his aunt and at the beginning of the show he describes her as "She sat looking about her with eyes as impersonal, almost as stony, as those with which the granite Ramses..." (Cather). This description tells us that Clark's aunt is pretty unemotional and uninterested in what is going on around her, but later in the opera she breaks down and begins to weep. At the very end of the concert, everyone around them begins to leave but Clark's aunt stays seated and then finally says while sobbing and pleading "I don't want to go, Clark, I don't want to go!" (Cather). At this point in the story, we can understand why Clark's aunt was weeping during the concert. She did not want to leave the city and return to her life on the farm. One of the things Emerson valued in his philosophies is education, and at one point in this story the author mentions Clark's aunt's knowledge of music and how it was more than most people of her time (Cather).

Cather, Willa. "A Wagner Matinee." Willa Cather's Short Story:. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.