Paul's Case
Encyclopedia
Paul's Case is a short story by Willa Cather
. It was first published in McClure's Magazine in 1905.
.
It has been suggested that it enables Willa Cather to '[impersonate] the voice of medical authority
'.
but he is early, so he just tarries in the picture gallery. He then proceeds to usher in the audience and sees his English teacher. After the concert he follows some of the singers and marvels at their glamour. He then walks back to his house but decides to sneak into the basement. Being so late in coming home, he fears that his father will think him an intruder and possibly try to kill him.
Paul despises the 'burghers' on his respectable but drab street, and is unimpressed by a plodding young man who works for an iron company and is married with four children, although his father would like to use him as a role model for his son. However, while Paul longs to be wealthy, cultivated and powerful, he lacks the stamina and ambition to even attempt to change his condition. Instead, Paul escapes his humdrum life through visiting Charley Edwards, a young actor, and works as an usher at Carnegie Hall. Sometime later, as Paul makes it clear to one of his teachers that his job there is more important than his lessons, his father prevents him from continuing to work there.
Later, Paul takes a train to New York City. He now works for Denny & Carson's and has stolen $2,000 for his trip. He buys an expensive wardrobe, checks in at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
, walks around the city, and meets a young San Franciscan who shows him around the nightlife until morning. His few days of impersonating a rich, privileged young man bring him more contentment than he has ever known before. On the eighth day, however, when most of the money has been spent, Paul reads in the Pittsburgh newspapers that the theft has been made public, and that his father has returned the money and is now on his way to New York City to fetch his son. Unable to face a return to his dull, middle class life, Paul kills himself by jumping in front of a train.
It has been argued that the story revolves around the trope of opera queendom, often commingled with a suicidal sense of self-loss.
It has also been suggested that this might be a portrait of Willa Cather's 'own desire for aesthetic fulfillment and sexual nonconformity'.
The story is also seen as an investigation of the relationship between art and life, which Cather saw to be in "irreconcilable opposition."
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
. It was first published in McClure's Magazine in 1905.
Plot introduction
Paul, a suspended high school student in Pittsburgh, is frustrated with his middle-class life and the people around him not understanding his love of beautiful things, and he runs away to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Explanation of the title
'Paul's case' is the way teachers and his father refer to Paul concerning his lack of interest in school.It has been suggested that it enables Willa Cather to '[impersonate] the voice of medical authority
'.
Plot summary
Paul meets with the Principal and his teachers from Pittsburgh High School after he has been suspended for a week. They complain of his agitation in class, and of his apparent repulsion of other people's bodies. He then goes to work at Carnegie HallCarnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
but he is early, so he just tarries in the picture gallery. He then proceeds to usher in the audience and sees his English teacher. After the concert he follows some of the singers and marvels at their glamour. He then walks back to his house but decides to sneak into the basement. Being so late in coming home, he fears that his father will think him an intruder and possibly try to kill him.
Paul despises the 'burghers' on his respectable but drab street, and is unimpressed by a plodding young man who works for an iron company and is married with four children, although his father would like to use him as a role model for his son. However, while Paul longs to be wealthy, cultivated and powerful, he lacks the stamina and ambition to even attempt to change his condition. Instead, Paul escapes his humdrum life through visiting Charley Edwards, a young actor, and works as an usher at Carnegie Hall. Sometime later, as Paul makes it clear to one of his teachers that his job there is more important than his lessons, his father prevents him from continuing to work there.
Later, Paul takes a train to New York City. He now works for Denny & Carson's and has stolen $2,000 for his trip. He buys an expensive wardrobe, checks in at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
, walks around the city, and meets a young San Franciscan who shows him around the nightlife until morning. His few days of impersonating a rich, privileged young man bring him more contentment than he has ever known before. On the eighth day, however, when most of the money has been spent, Paul reads in the Pittsburgh newspapers that the theft has been made public, and that his father has returned the money and is now on his way to New York City to fetch his son. Unable to face a return to his dull, middle class life, Paul kills himself by jumping in front of a train.
Importance of setting
Around the turn of the century, Pittsburgh was a highly industrial, very grey and drab city. And New York City was an art-centered city that sported many rich people, many museums, the finest hotels and the some of the best music performances in the world. The transition from Pittsburgh to New York City in the story translates to a change from reality to the ideal.Characters
- Paul, the eponymous protagonist. He is tall and thin, something of a dandy. He was born in ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
and his mother died a few months later. He is bored by school, but passionate about music, especially the operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
. He hates his middle-class life and longs for luxury. - Paul's father, kindly and respectable but with little understanding of or sympathy for Paul's restlessness with his life.
- The Principal of Pittsburgh High School.
- The English teacher, a well-meaning woman whom Paul disdains.
- The Drawing master
- The guard in the picture gallery of the Carnegie Hall.
- The soloist in the opera at Carnegie Hall.
- Paul's sisters whose mundane interests further alienate him.
- A young man whom paul's father wants Paul to model after, but who embodies the middle-class life that Paul hates.
- Charlie Edwards: Paul's friend who works as an actor.
- The college boy who spends a weekend with Paul in New York.
Allusions to actual history
- Paul's father's house has portraits of George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
and John CalvinJohn CalvinJohn Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
. - The operas mentioned are FaustFaust (opera)Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, MarthaMartha (opera)Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
, Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's RigolettoRigolettoRigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, PagliacciPagliacciPagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
. The waltz The Blue DanubeThe Blue DanubeThe Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
is also mentioned. - The visual arts mentioned are Jean-François Raffelli and Venus de MiloVenus de MiloAphrodite of Milos , better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly...
Literary criticism and significance
The story has been called a 'gay suicide'.It has been argued that the story revolves around the trope of opera queendom, often commingled with a suicidal sense of self-loss.
It has also been suggested that this might be a portrait of Willa Cather's 'own desire for aesthetic fulfillment and sexual nonconformity'.
The story is also seen as an investigation of the relationship between art and life, which Cather saw to be in "irreconcilable opposition."
External links
- Full Text at the Willa Cather Archive