A Wagner Matinee Questionaire

A Wagner Matinee Questionaire

A Wagner Matinée
Willa Cather

  1. a) Why is Clark’s Aunt Georgiana coming to visit?
She went to Boston because she was left a small legacy from a bachelor who has recently died. So she had to go to attend to the settling of the state.
b) Explain his reaction to the news of her visit.
He felt a stranger in his actual existence, uncomfortable and out of place. He remembered when he was a shy farmer boy with chilblains on his hands thumbing on his aunt’s piano while she made mittens for him.
  2. a) Why does Clark take Aunt Georgiana to the Wagner matinee?
He wanted to take her to the Wagner matinee as a way to repay her for the wonderful moments she had given to him in his childhood.
b) Why does he grow doubtful that she will enjoy it?
He realized how immersed she was in his country life and after asking her if she had ever heard a Wagnerian operas and founded that she wouldn’t he started to think that it would be better to get her back to his home without waking her to her old lifestyle.  
  3. Describe three ways in which Aunt Georgiana indulged her love of music while living on the frontier.
She used to play for Clark when he was with her.
  4. a) What impression is conveyed through the physical descriptions of the Red Willow Country?
It was boring and monotone lifestyle; far from everything, 50 miles from the railroad, isolated, without piped water. Every day the same view, the same things to do.
b) Contrast the impression of life in Red Willow Country with life in Boston.
Boston was a city full of social activity and life, cultural opportunities.
Red Willow Country was an empty land far from everything, with harsh climate and with very few people to socialize with.
  5. a) What does Aunt Georgiana mean when she comments, “Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you”?
Because she lost what she had loved most in her life so she thought that if he loved music as much as her he would be deprived from it.
b) How...