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WILLA CATHER’S “A WAGNER MATINEE” Mr. Williams’ HENG3 Class
WILLA CATHER’S“A WAGNER MATINEE”
Mr. Williams’ HENG3 Class
You may listen to/read the short story:
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/yetcres/multimedi
a/McDougalLiterature/g11/cd15/A%20Wagner%
20Matinee.mp3
https://youtu.be/9MaqsoRlLqY
Willa Cather’s “A WAGNER MATINEE”
At the MatineeAnalyzing Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matinee”
1. What seems to be Cather’s theme in the story?
2. Explain why the narrator feels he owes a great debt to Aunt Georgiana. Explain.
3. Georgiana says about music, “Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you.” How do you feel about
her attitude?
4. Analyze the narrator.
5. In contrast to the music and the concert hall is the emotional effect of the Nebraska frontier—the setting we
hear about over and over again in the story. How does Cather want you to feel about the Nebraska setting? What
specific images create this “feeling”?
6. Evaluate Aunt Georgiana.
7. Does one's environs/setting/region dictate one’s behavior? How so? [use the story for support as well]
8. Numerous flashbacks in the story provide information about Aunt Georgiana’s life after her move to Nebraska.
Describe two of her hardships and disappointments.
9. Summarize in your own words what you think Clark “understands” at the end of the story.
10. Determine the tone of the work. How so.
11. Explicate 2 archetypes in the story. [Use your Archetype Handbook]
12. Discuss the social commentary/human condition of the work.
Answer any 4 of the following. Remember the MANTRA!
Willa Cather’s “A Wagner matinee”:The Exercise
[You may put on a PowerPoint, Word
document, regular binder paper]
You have 2 versions of Cather’s short story
on the class website.
One: is just the document.
Two: is copied from a textbook that has
support for you. It also has the assignment.
You may use any version.
On version 2: Do p. 33: Words to Own, and
p. 32: Exercises A & B
