A Wagner Matinee Essay

Ever since the days of World War I, women have been seen as second rate to men. They had to live up to many social standards that men didn’t have to and had strict guidelines on how to live their lives. This all changed when modernism deliberately tried to break away from Victorian Era standards in which women were subjugated to a lot more scrutiny. Ezra Pound, who was a large figure in the modernist movement, captured the spirit of the era in his famous line “Make it new!” Consequently, many writers started to experiment with many different and wild writing styles, which led to the short stories and poems we have today. The stories The Wife of His Youth and Mrs. Spring Fragrance were all written in this era of modernism. While they are written in a more traditional style of writing, both these stories have strong implications on feminism from the viewpoints of both male and female writers.

   In their works, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin show that freedom was not universal in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The three works, "The Yellow Wallpaper," "At the 'Cadian Ball," and "The Storm" expose the oppression of women by society.  This works also illustrate that those women who were passive in the face of this oppression risk losing not only their identity, but their sanity as well.

The 1800s served as a turning point for the role of women in society. Nearing the end of the century, the idea that women should not work outside the home began to be challenged, and women started to hold jobs of their own (Fischer et al., 2000). Great opportunity was given to unmarried women, as they gained independence in living apart from their families (Fischer et al., 2000). Women began to fight for their independence, opposing the idea of only being known as a housewife. Kate Chopin was among the individuals who challenged what the role of women in society was during the late 1800s. Chopin shares her perspective in her two short stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “The Storm.” In “The Story of an Hour,” the main

The significance of music as a motif contributes to the story because it strengthens the theme of the importance of self expression. When Edna first hears Mademoiselle Reisz play the piano she reactions emotionally different to the sound of the music than when Adèle Ratignolle plays the piano. Edna cries to the sound of Mademoiselle Reisz playing the piano and she is emotionally moved when she hears the music, whereas when Adèle Ratignolle plays she sees random images and feels no type of emotion, which displays Edna’s emotional growth and shows how she starts to express her feelings and emotions. Music began to assist in Edna’s awakening because Edna was able to hear a piece of music and feel emotionally connected and attracted to the music, instead of hearing a piece of music and seeing unusual pictures. Through Edna’s examination of music and her contemplation upon the importance of music, she establishes her own art that blossoms. In addition, when Mademoiselle Reisz strunked the first chords Edna felt an ardent upheaval like never before, but she still waited for the random images to blaze before her imagination but they never did: “She saw no pictures of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair. But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid. She trembled, she was choking, and tears blinded her” (Chopin 29-30). This quote demonstrates how Mademoiselle Reisz plays the piano and

The nineteenth century is popularly known for its traditional view of gender roles, especially regarding women. The term “True Woman” refers to what society at that time thought to be the ideal woman, carrying qualities of “modesty, submissiveness, physical weakness, limited education, and complete devotion to husband and home” (White, 2009, p. 1). Women were restrained in terms of sexuality, dress, language, and economic decisions. In Amy Gilman Srebnick’s The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Mary rebels against these standards by being a single women that is also sexually active, however, her actions are what seemingly lead to her demise. Similarly, Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall also goes against gender norms. In her case, she earns her own economic independence through her writing and lives a more unconventional life as a mother, but faces repercussions from her family. Through the novels Ruth Hall and The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, the main female characters revolt against being “True Women” through their daily actions and behaviors, however they’re each punished with consequences for trying to deviate from society’s path.

A Wagner Matinee, the narrators Aunt Georgiana had run away with Henry, to elope. Georgiana loved her husband and had sacrificed the job she adored, teaching music in Boston to be with him. The narrator explains that Georgiana travels back to Boston from Nebraska to obtain the money left for her in a will. While seeing and soaking in the music at the matinee Aunt Georgiana realizes how much she has missed her old life being surrounded by beautiful music. The narrator makes the observation that “…The Flying Dutchman, though her fingers worked mechanically upon her black dress, as though, of themselves, they were recalling the piano”. The story ends with Aunt Georgiana saying "I don’t want to go, Clark, I don't want to go!” proving she has not yet achieved her personal freedom to do experience life the way she truly wanted with music.

As Willa Cather’s novel unfolds, it highlights the prejudice that society holds of women during this time period. My Antonia defies gender roles by depicting women as stronger and independent, whilst men are shown to be weaker individuals. Throughout the novel, it is seen that Antonia and Jim do not meet societal expectations. The author paints her female characters — such as Antonia — as strong and decisive and Jim as passive and indecisive.

Considering I am one of the only two males in the Intro to Women’s Literature class, I felt moved to touch on Willa Cather’s flipping of the gender roles in the book O Pioneers! I will be using my own opinion in this essay, along with textual evidence to back up my claims. I will also be establishing connections between Cather’s portrayals of herself within the themes and characters in the book.

Richard Wagner Who is the most important person in the music history? There is no one in this world that does not love music, doesn’t matter who they are and where they are, all the people on the Earth have at least one special song and one favorite genre of music. Most of the amateur listeners think that the most important person in music history is someone like Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Music is about emotions or points of view that came to be spoken by either with our voice or our instruments.

American literature is great source for understanding how society defines gender roles and what drives the power struggles between men and women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, deals with the limitations imposed on women by the political and social institutions of her time. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, a short story by Ernest Hemingway, illustrate the difficulties men faced during the early days of feminism between the first and second world wars. American playwright Tennessee Williams’ famous play “A Streetcar Named Desire” tells a story of how the tensions of life and unconditional submission one women made her a victim of her own destiny. The conflicts between men and women described in these works of American literature are directly caused by the societal roles assigned to the genders.

Feminism is a women’s rights movement which originated during the 19th century to advocate for equality for both sexes. Women, as a whole, were oppressed by a patriarchal society where they had few opportunities to express themselves due to cultural roles and stereotypes surrounding their gender. Donald Hall claims, “... women have been denied social power and the right to various forms of self-expression...” in his Literary and Cultural Theory: Feminist Analysis to further prove the oppressed status of women. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, two cultural feminist literary critics, allow their readers to view an oppressive, androcentric patriarchal society through the eyes of their characters in their stories. Chopin’s The Awakening and

Richard Wagner was one of the most influential nineteenth-century composers behind Beethoven. In his essay Artwork of the Future, Wagner discusses what he believes should be the future of art and what art must be thrown out in order to get to the artwork of the future. Throughout his essay Wagner's use of metaphor and allegory help the reader understand the message he is trying to convey. Wagner begins his essay by stating that all forms of art are connected in some way. For example dancing gives music motion while music gives dancing it's rhythm and poetry gives music words while music gives poetry it's melody.

Literature changes as current events change and as the structure of society begins to shift. American feminist literature started to become prevalent during the Victorian era, or around the latter part of the 19th century. This is the time when the first wave of feminism in the United States hit. The Seneca Falls Convention - the first women’s rights convention - and the emergence of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s American Equal Rights Association in the middle of the 19th century are among some of the noteable events that sparked this movement in literature. Women across America were inspired by the changing of the times, and that is reflected in many American female authors’ writings.

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was one of the greatest opera writers of all time. He helped to take opera to a whole new level from even Verdi and Puccini. Some say that Wagner was very egotistic, however; “his extreme egotism rested on conviction, Wagner had the ability to do great things” (Colles 207). He was extraordinary at composing music as well as formulating words. He was not a prodigy however his musical skills surpassed many other composers from his time period.

Throughout history the female gender has been considered the lesser sex, where they had little to no power over anything. Eventually they got tired of their mistreatment and those who wanted it to end became known as feminist. They hold the idea that both men and women should be treated as equals. Many feminist were authors who contained the feminist literary theory within their works. The theory mainly focuses on critiquing how women must comply with gender roles and how they have been denied their rights by men. The feminist literary theory has many forms, one of them would be cultural feminism, which focuses on the stereotypical women who is only meant to look pretty and take care of minor jobs such as cooking, cleaning, and watching the children. The feminist literary appears in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which is about an unnamed female narrator who suffers from a nervous condition during the late 1800s, and is locked within her bedroom. The feminist Kate Chopin has written many works containing the feminist literary theory, such as her short story “The Story of an Hour” which revolves around Mrs. Mallard, who has lost her husband in a train accident, so she starts to shed tears of sorrow, however her tears of sorrow transform into tears of joy. One of Chopin 's novel, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier a woman who starts to realize the truth of society. Feminist literary theory can be viewed in many different