So much of life can’t be known. To live without some sense of curiosity about what’s out there and what it all means will never lead to true fulfillment. This paradox often ends with lost souls searching tirelessly for some type of idea they can connect to. Each of Willa Cather’s protagonists experiences this same hunger for finding their place on Earth and, at the same time, their connection to something much larger. Though each hunger is unique, in Cather’s works what satiates this longing is somewhat constant. In such works as The Great Short Works of Willa Cather, My Ántonia, and One of Ours, Cather’s consistently unsettled characters find meaning and personal fulfillment in music and the environment.
Music is everywhere in the works of Willa Cather. It exists as a subject and also in the background. Never incidental, it is a symbol or metaphor that underscores the action. Beyond that, music is something that gives meaning to life and connects characters to distant or internal lands.
“The Wagner Matinee,” a hauntingly beautiful short story by Cather, is a good example of the importance of music. It also presents the heartbreak that can accompany being removed from what gives one’s life purpose, another theme throughout Cather’s work. The story centers on a young man named Clark who takes his elderly aunt Georgina to her first classical performance since she moved to a farm with her husband years ago, breaking “a silence of thirty years, the inconceivable silence of the plains” (Great Short Works of Willa Cather, 58). A lover and teacher of music, the only music Georgina had heard in in this time was that of the church choir.
At first Clark wonders whether the music has any effect on his aunt after all this time. Whether s...
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...nd streaked with rose colour, thin as a bubble or a ghost-moon. For five, perhaps ten minutes, the two luminaries confronted each other across the level land, resting’s on opposite edges of the world.” It is in that moment that Jim feels once more “the old pull of the earth, the solemn magic that comes out of those fields at nightfall” (My Ántonia, 192).
It’s easy to imagine that for Jim and Ántonia the scenes of nature Cather so lovingly describes throughout her works are like a visual representation of music. The feelings of enchantment, wonder, and meaning that Georgina, Paul, and Eric feel in the presence of music, and that David and Mr. Shirmedia lost, are what they have found in the sweeping plains. Like so many of Cather’s characters, these souls have all been greatly affected by music and the environment on their journey towards fulfillment.
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
In My Antonia by Willa Cather, there are many dark overtones that pervade the novel. It is through the use of symbolism and contrast these overtones are made real. The prairie is the predominant setting of the novel. It may be shaped, and it conforms to the desires of those working it. The prairie¹s loneliness, shown by the wide open spaces, is a brilliant way of revealing internal conflict by using a setting. Also, it brings out the characters true meaning. Cather shows through the character of Lena Lengard that society¹s next generation would not be as good, or quite as noble as that of Cather¹s childhood. The primary inscription on the first page states that the best days are the first to flee. Cather contrasts these ideas with Antonia¹s personality, which is always bright. This contributes to the dreariness of the novel.
In conclusion, Willa Carther’s “Paul’s Case” is an interesting glimpse into the world of a young boy, who’s individuality is constantly in conflict with the conformist society that surrounds him. In attempts to escape this reality, Paul loses himself in a fantasy world of art, lies, and thievery. In this attempt to escape, Paul slips into isolation and depression. Carther in this regard is very careful on how she portrays Paul, to brink about some sympathy from the reader as he is simply a troubled young man. In the end, Paul’s individuality and societies refusal of him leads to Paul’s demise. The sympathy Cather creates for Paul leaves one questioning if society simply should have supported Paul’s individuality, instead of letting him slip away. Paul’s death seems to support this theory, as not a single reader would have wished such a cruel ending to the life of a dreamer.
The music that was played by Mademoiselle Reisz also awakened the soul that was sleeping in Edna. “The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier’s spinal column.” It was the first time for Edna to feel the emotional power of music and the message that Mademoiselle Reisz wants to express though each
Music is personified in “Where are you going, Where have you been?” Connie, the main character, is a fifteen year old girl that is obsessed with herself and music. The first mention of music in “Where are you going, Where have you been?” is near the beginning of the story. Connie and her girlfriends often hung out in shopping plazas and drive-in restaurants with older teenagers. The narrator states, they “listened to the music that made everything so good: the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon” (673). Here, music is almost omnipotent and omnipresent. For Connie and her friends, it was always there. It also seems to be something sacred for Connie and her friends. It is also very influential on Connie and her friend's mood. Music made “everything so good” for them. Music makes everything better. Connie complains about her mother, sister, and home life. She turns to music as a way to escape her reality. She's both bratty, insec...
The Professor’s House was written at a very dynamic point in Willa Cather’s life. Every thought and emotion she experienced was poured into, and made a part of, the character of Godfrey St. Peter. Through St. Peter, we can observe the many trials and myriad emotions that Cather was experiencing at this point in her life. Though by nature Cather was a quiet, reserved person, in her novels she leaves all her feelings and thoughts out in the open. She invites the reader to share in both the joys and the sorrows of the characters, thereby sharing them with her.
Nature and humanity are innately intertwined, and their differences only amplify their connection. Judith Wright’s poems ‘Brothers and Sisters’ and ‘Flame Tree in a Quarry’ unravel the wonder of nature and its correspondence with humanity’s attitudes at various stages of its interaction with the landscape. Meanwhile, the album cover of ‘River of Dreams’ by Billy Joel explores society and the landscape’s common origins, and powerful potential for action that morphs with time, into new values and behaviours. All texts acknowledge the embedded shared values susceptible to resculpting, which continually carve the framework for a closer, more interlinked relationship between humankind and the landscape.
Since the earliest days of human civilization music has been a key tool for communication of stories which carried emotions through them. If we think back to our youngest years of life music has surrounded us whether it was from our parents singing us lullabies or from some sort of toy that played music we can say that musical melodies have helped shape or lives one way or another. Once we start growing up and figuring out who we are our musical preferences change; some people like classical and some like punk. We start to befriend people who like the same music as us and eventually we may attend a musical event. Our lives somewhat revolve around the music that we listen to.
Ethel Smyth, composer and outspoken suffragist, was born in 1858. Her middle-class English family opposed her ambition to study music in Germany, thinking the goal of becoming a professional musician unladylike. Smyth’s father eventually allowed her to study composition in Leipzig, but only after she waged a campaign of protest that included a hunger strike and self-imposed isolation. Among her seventy-two compositions are six operas, and works for orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensembles. Afflicted with deafness later in life, a malady that afflicted both Beethoven and Smetana, she died in 1944.
The way Cather describes the scenery and takes the time to paint a backdrop for the characters seems out of touch with the other Modernists who seem to focus on anything but cheer. Cather offers detailed description of lush nature, vibrant red grasses, wildflowers, and beautiful, bountiful wheat fields. But while Cather also focuses on the happy romantic ideas of the beauty of nature, she also offers a full view of the human experience on the Plains. She also displays hardship, loss, violence, and despair, especially with the suicide of Antonia’s father. She pairs utopia and civilization against the dystopia of prairie life. She highlights the dangers and violence in both types of society. She contrasts the struggle between old and young generations. She offers a panoramic view of life, personal fortitude, and the pioneer spirit. Cather pits the old world immigrants against the new American culture which is so strange and
Music can decipher a narrative event by indicating a perspective. To unify a set of diverse images and provide rhythmic and formal continuity and momentum, a film’s structure is more often than not, directly articulated by a musical structure. Music can assist the dialogue and visuals of film and often is inaudible (e.g. music is meant to be heard unconsciously, not consciously). Music has been used by directors to reinforce or strengthen certain weak scenes in film and then on the other hand when music is not needed to reinforce a scene
The soundtrack of the dark comedy movie Harold and Maude (1971) directed by Hal Ashby asserts that even the most paradoxical and abstruse of circumstances can lead to an unimpeachable bond whether it be between two characters or music that leaves its listeners shackled into the story. Ashby exhibits this by playing upbeat, happy songs directly following a funeral scene with lines such as “Love is where we all belong” and this directly correlates with the relationship between Harold and Maude: two very disparate people who ended up improving each other’s lives for the better.
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.
“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky – seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” (96)
Music is an essential part of life because of the expression it allows people to have, its entertainment, and its therapeutic ways for the world.