This month’s masterclass looks at one of those stories where it’s not what happens that’s important, but the meaning of what happens. A Wagner Matinée by Willa Cather, set in the US of the early twentieth century, tells the story of a woman returning to city life in Boston after spending many years living on a homestead on the frontier in Nebraska. As always, you’ll get the most out of the masterclass if you read the story yourself.
Although the story is told in first person through the eyes of the narrator, Clark, it is really his Aunt Georgiana’s stor y. Because of her centrality to the stor y, we’re going to look first at how the author presents Georgiana to the reader. We’re also going to consider how the story contrasts city life with frontier life, and how it depicts the transformative power of music.
Before we actually meet Aunt Georgiana, we see Clark referring to her as ‘pathetic’
