"Paul's Case" is a short story by
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...
. It was first published in ''
McClure's Magazine
''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism ( investigative, wat ...
'' in 1905 under the title "Paul's Case: A Study in Temperament", which was later shortened. It also appeared in a collection of Cather's stories, ''
The Troll Garden'' (1905). For many years "Paul's Case" was the only one of her stories that Cather allowed to be
anthologized
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically catego ...
.
Overview
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
was historically known as a destination for those seeking adventure and new opportunities, and often described as a center of fine living and society. It was considered at the time of the publication of "Paul's Case" as “the symbol of ultimate glamour and cosmopolitan sophistication”. Indeed, in the story, New York City is described as lavish and extraordinary, in contrast to the descriptions of Paul's home,
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, which he despises.
Paul, a high school student from Pittsburgh, is frustrated with his dull middle-class life. This frustration, mixed with a desire for a luxurious lifestyle, causes him to purposely separate himself from everyone else, leading to feelings of isolation. Paul's teachers and father refer to Paul as a "case", representing him at a distance and as an example of someone to be studied, handled, and managed; the term enables Cather to adopt "the voice of medical authority".
Paul seems to display some symptoms of a narcissistic personality disorder, but that is still debated.
Synopsis
The short story "Paul's Case" is about a young boy who struggles to fit in at home and in school. This story begins with the reader finding out the main character, Paul, has been suspended from high school. He meets with his principal and teachers who complain about Paul's "defiant manner" in class, and the "physical aversion" he exhibits toward his teachers. In the evening, Paul works as a "model" usher for Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. After helping seat the patrons in his section, he stays for the concert and enjoys the social scene while losing himself in the music. After the concert, Paul follows the soloist and imagines life inside her hotel room. Unfortunately, the reader soon learns that Paul and his father have a poor relationship. Upon returning home very late that night, Paul enters through the basement window to avoid a confrontation with his father. Remaining in the basement, Paul stays awake for the rest of the night, imagining what would happen if his father mistook him for a burglar and shot him. Not only does Paul wonder if his father will recognize him in time, but he also entertains the idea of his father possibly regretting not shooting him when he had the chance to do so.
Paul feels out of place with the people on Cordelia Street because they serve to remind him of his own lackluster life. Although his father considers him a role model for Paul, Paul is unimpressed by a plodding young man who works for an iron company and is married with four children. While Paul longs to be wealthy, cultivated, and powerful, he lacks the stamina and ambition to change his condition. Instead, Paul escapes his monotonous life by visiting Charley Edwards, a young actor. Later on, Paul makes it clear to one of his teachers that his job ushering is more important than his schoolwork, causing his father to prevent him from continuing to work as an usher. He is taken out of school and put to work at an entry-level office job and Charley is compelled to promise not to see Paul again.
Paul takes a train to New York City after stealing a large sum of money from his job that he was supposed to take to the bank. He then buys an expensive wardrobe, rents a room at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze ...
, and explores the city. He also meets a 'wild San Francisco boy, a freshman at Yale, who said he had run down for a "little flyer" over Sunday', who takes Paul on an all-night tour of the city's lively social scene. His few days of impersonating a rich, privileged young man, bring him more contentment than he had ever known, because living a lavish lifestyle is Paul's only hope and dream. However, on the eighth day, after spending most of his money, Paul reads from a Pittsburgh newspaper that his theft has been made public. His father has reimbursed his job and is on his way to New York City to bring Paul back home to Pittsburgh. Paul then reveals that he had bought a gun on his first day in New York City, and briefly considers shooting himself to avoid returning to his old life in Pittsburgh. Eventually, he decides against it and instead commits suicide by jumping in front of a train. Paul made the ultimate decision of taking his own life because the thought of returning to his old lifestyle was too much for him to handle.
Literary criticism and significance
''Paul's Case'' has been called a "gay suicide". Many critics have attributed his suicide to the forces of alienation and stigmatization facing a young, possibly homosexual, man in early 20th-century America. In 1975, Larry Rubin wrote ''The Homosexual Motif'' which includes the reinterpretation of the story since the stigma on sex has eased. He identifies small details which he claims support a gay reading of Paul. For example, Rubin refers to the way Paul is described as "dressing as a dandy". The violet water (a perfume Paul owns), and his choice of company are construed as signs of feminine tendencies. Jane Nardin also explores the possibility that Paul's character is gay, and that this is a metaphor for a general feeling of being an outsider or not fitting in with a specific group of people. Author Roger Austen states that Paul might be understood as a homosexual character because of the "depiction of a sensitive young man stifled by the drab ugliness of his environment and places the protagonist in an American literary tradition of 'village sissies'".
Wayne Koestenbaum
Wayne Koestenbaum (born 1958) is an American artist, poet, and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a 1994 Whiting Award recipi ...
reads the story as a possible portrait of Willa Cather's "own desire for aesthetic fulfillment and sexual nonconformity".
[ ] Another critic, Tom Quirk, reads it as an exploration of Cather's belief in the "irreconcilable opposition" between art and life.
In response to Michael Salda's "What Really Happens in Cather's 'Paul's Case'?", where Salda says Paul did not kill himself, Martha Czernicki suggests, in "Fantasy and Reality in Willa Cather's 'Paul's Case'", that Paul's trip to New York is a fantasy or dream, but his suicide is not.
James Obertino of the
University of Central Missouri
The University of Central Missouri (UCM) is a public university in Warrensburg, Missouri. In 2019, enrollment was 11,229 students from 49 states and 59 countries on its 1,561-acre campus. UCM offers 150 programs of study, including 10 pre-profes ...
suggests that Paul may suffer from
post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...
.
Hayley Wilhelm of the
University of New Haven, suggests the possibility that Paul has
autism
The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
due to certain signs and symptoms he displays throughout the story.
Rob Saari, in "'Paul's Case': A Narcissistic Personality Disorder", considers whether the main character, Paul, has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The
DSM-IV
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langua ...
essential features match the personality traits that Paul had throughout the story. Saari also suggests that because of this disorder, Paul needs to associate with people of a higher class, and that Paul "shows traits of vanity". He also talks about how difficult it is for the reader to feel bad for Paul because of how he acts in the story. When actually looking back and seeing how much Paul was struggling it's much easier to sympathize with him. Paul is clearly both unaware and unable to control the way he acts and feels. Examples Rob Sarri uses to support his claim include: Paul not caring about school and being more focused on his job, Paul stealing money from his employer to go away and live out his dream, and Paul killing himself in the end rather than confronting his reality.
David A. Carpenter, describes how Willa Cather was just starting to enjoy city life, which could be the reason "Paul's Case" and "A Wagner Matinee" were so heavily focused on cities like New York and Boston. He states "They also come when Cather is still extolling the big-city cultural life before she learned to love the bleaker environment and warmer people of the American Midwest that she later wrote about in short works and novels that made her famous". In addition, Cather made alterations to the title, paragraph simplification, punctuation and dictation based around her state of life and surroundings 15 years after publication. Similar alterations were made to her other works, such as "A Lost Lady" and "The Professor's House".
Adaptations
*''Paul's Case'' was adapted for television in 1980 as an episode of
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
's ''
The American Short Story
''The American Short Story'' is an American television anthology series produced by Learning in Focus and Sea Cliff Productions for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It consisted of adaptations of short stories by both classic and contemporary ...
'' anthology series. The 54 minute presentation was directed by
Lamont Johnson
Ernest Lamont Johnson Jr. (September 30, 1922 – October 24, 2010) was an American actor and film director who has appeared in and directed many television shows and movies. He won two Emmy Awards.
Early years
Johnson was born in Stoc ...
and starred
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. His career began with a leading role in ''King of the Gypsies'' (1978) for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He was nominated again at the Golden Globes fo ...
.
*''Paul's Case'' was also released as a book-on-tape by HarperCollins in 1981.
*In 1986, ''Paul's Case'' was released as an
audiobook
An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements.
Spoken audio has been available in sc ...
by
Caedmon Audio Cassette
*The story was the basis for a
chamber opera Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas such as Pergoles ...
in two acts with music by
Gregory Spears
Gregory Spears is an American composer of instrumental and operatic works that blend aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music. Among his best known works are the operas ''Fellow Travelers'' and ''Paul's Case'', as well as his Requiem. ...
to a libretto by Spears and Kathryn Walat. It premiered in April 2013 at the
Artisphere
Artisphere was an arts center located in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia. The center encompassed four performance venues, three visual art galleries, an artist in residence studio, a 4,000 square foot ballroom, studio space, social ...
in Washington, D.C. and was then performed for the PROTOTYPE opera festival in New York City, performed at HERE, 145
6th Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
.
See also
*
1905 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1905.
Events
*January–September – L. Frank Baum's ''Animal Fairy Tales'' appear in ''The Delineator'' magazine.
*January 5 – Baroness Emma Orczy's play ''The ...
*
List of suicides in fiction
This is a list of incidents of suicide — the intentional killing of oneself — depicted in fictional works, including films, television series, anime and manga, comics, novels, etc. Also, self-sacrifices are included as they give up their own li ...
References
External links
Full textat the Willa Cather Archive
"Paul's Case" in: ''Literature Annotations''*
{{authority control
1905 short stories
Short stories adapted into films
Short stories by Willa Cather
Works originally published in McClure's
Short stories about suicide