A Wagner Matinee

Reading this story, I was over-joyed to see that we were moving on to a new time period since the other one was getting old and a little boring.  One person can only read so much of one style before being bored and struggle to want to pay attention.  In the story "A Wagner Matinee", the man finds out that his aunt, who is near and dear to his heart, was on her way to visit him and spend some time with him (Cather).  When Clark heard this he was filled with joy and became very anxious to get everything ready and make a great impression on her.  He remembered that his aunt Georgian loved music and anything that had to do with vocals, instruments, percussion, etc (Cather).  He decided to take her to the opera where she could enjoy the music with him and get a sense of peace after a long travel to come visit him (Cather).

Now that I have told you the physical meaning behind the story, I am going to analyze it from a psychiatrists perspective.  In this story, Cather used the opera to show the idea that "one mans trash is another mans treasure" and how the boy in the story probably could care less about the opera and just wanted to make a good impression/see his aunt, while she enjoyed every minute of it and probably had one of the best times of her life.  Emmerson used this style of getting a point across on different occasions throughout his writings.  Emmerson will take an idea or object and will show or explain how many different people would like that object while others wouldn't and think it is stupid.  This idea that what is important to us might not be important to someone else needs to be something that we engrave into our brains and never forget about because if you make fun of someone or ask "why did you buy that its ugly" is breaking the golden rule and not a good idea if you want to make friends.



Werlock, Abby H. P. "'A Wagner Matinée'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.  Web.  21 Feb. 12.

Willa, Cather. “A Wagner Matinée.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 521-526. Print.