Tuesday, August 25, 2015

In "A Wagner Matinee," Aunt Georgiana travels to Boston for the purpose of what?

At the beginning of the story, the narrator receives a letter from his Uncle Howard. In the letter his uncle says that his Aunt Georgina is coming to Boston "to attend the settling of the estate." Uncle Howard says that one of Aunt Georgina's relatives, a bachelor, has died and left Aunt Georgina "a small legacy." And so Aunt Georgina must come to Boston in order to collect whatever it is that her bachelor relative has left for her. The "settling of the estate" is when somebody's will is read out to the named beneficiaries, and arrangements are made for those beneficiaries to collect or take possession of the gifts they have been left.
Uncle Howard asks his nephew, the narrator, who we can presume lives in Boston, to meet his aunt at the station.
Aunt Georgina is already familiar with Boston because she used to be "a music-teacher at the Boston Conservatory." It was also in Boston that Aunt Georgina met Howard. They fell in love and she eloped with him to the Nebraska frontier.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What is the theme of the chapter Lead?

Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...