Monday, March 4 Wagner Matinee

Tannhauser Overture from A Wagner Matinee  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgpOctKSwp4

Due today: vocabulary 9 and having read A Wagner Matinee

In class: quick write on A Wagner Matinee

                                AND graphic organizer on the short story; for this you will use the story. Due at the close of class.

HOMEWORK for Tuesday: please have read the excerpt from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi.

Wedneday: quick vocabulary quiz on Friday's words from Poker Flat

Quiz Wednesday on the following words from Poker
Flat Vocabulary from Poker Flat..

1. conjecture (noun)- a guess
2. anathema (noun) - a curse
3. prescience (noun)- forethought
4. bellicose (adjective)- loud
5. remonstrances- (noun)- protest
6 .maudlin (adjective) weepingly sentimental
7. guileless (adjective)- innocent
8. malevolent (adjective)- evil
9. propriety (noun)- decorum
10. vituperative (adjective)- abusive

A Wagner Matinee  by Willa Cather   Quick write:  Was Clark cruel to Aunt Georgiana in taking her to the opera?

Support your response with details from the short story, including the contrast between her life in Nebraska and both her earlier life and return to Boston.

             

A Wagner Matinee  by Willa Cather    Often what is not said is equally as important as what is overtly stated. Carefully read the following excerpt from A Wagner Matinee that describes Josephine’s physical appearance, responding to each excerpted phase as to what is implied.

But Mrs. Springer knew nothing of all this, and must have been considerable shocked at what was left of my kinswoman.  Beneath the soiled linen duster which, on her arrival, was the most conspicuous feature of her costume, she wore a black stuff dress, whose ornamentation showed that she had surrendered herself unquestioningly in the hands of the country dressmaker.  My poor aunt’s figure, however, would have presented astonishing difficulties to any dressmaker.  Originally stooped, her shoulders were now almost bent together over a sunken chest.  She wore no stays, and her gown, which trailed unevenly behind, rose in a sort of peak over her abdomen.  She wore ill-fitting false teeth, and her skin was a yellow as a Mongolian’s from constant exposure to a pitiless wind and to the alkaline water which harden the most transparent cuticle into a sort of flexible leather.

1.       considerably shocked at what was left of my kinswoman ________________________________________________________________________________________

2.       a black stuff dress, whose ornamentation showed that she had surrendered herself unquestioningly in the hands of a country dressmaker ____________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

3.       My poor aunt’s figure, however, would have presented astonishing difficulties to any dressmaker.  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

4.       She wore no stays.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

5.       Her skin was as yellow as a Mongolian’s from constant exposure to a pitiless wind

___________________________________________________________________________________________

          _____________________________________________________________________________________________

      Based upon the same paragraph, list below what is implied about the settings of Boston and Red Willow County, Nebraska.

Boston                                                                                                         Red Willow County, Nebraska

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