“Paul’s Case” :“Paul’s Case” By Willa Cather Part 2 –


Setting :Setting Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case”


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” In 1899, Andrew Carnegie created the Carnegie Steel Company by consolidating several smaller steel works in the Pittsburgh area.


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Carnegie was also involved in the cultural side of life and contributed much money to the arts.


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Both Cather and Carnegie saw that the rapid progress of technology could potentially drown out the more aesthetic side of people, a problem he wished to avoid.


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” The plot of "Paul's Case“ presents a series of settings: Pittsburgh High School Carnegie Hall Cordelia Street Stock theatre company Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York Snowy train tracks - suicide scene


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Season: winter The world is cold Paul is like a flower in winter It’s “chilly outside” but the picture gallery at Carnegie Hall offers Paul refuge and escape When he returns from the theater “he was wet and cold”


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Cordelia Street = American Dream/Paul’s nightmare Cordelia Street is a "perfectly respectable" middle- class neighborhood


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Cordelia Street = American Dream/Paul’s nightmare Residents believe in values of hard work, family and church. Paul despises the monotonous lives led by Cordelia Street residents


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Paul clearly dislikes Cordelia Street: He feels drowned: “he felt the waters close above his head” “After each of these orgies of living, he experienced all the physical depression”


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Paul clearly dislikes Cordelia Street: “the loathing of respectable beds” “common food” “a house permeated by kitchen odors” “a shuddering repulsion for the flavorless, colorless mass of every-day existence”


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” As Paul approaches Cordelia street, the description of the setting changes; Paul feels “absolutely unequal,” describing: “his ugly sleeping chamber” “cold bath-room” “grimy zinc tub” “cracked mirror” “dripping spigots”


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Paul’s room reflects his life: "horrible yellow wallpaper” Yellow = cowardice, illness, or old age. “a painted wooden bed” The natural beauty of the wood has been covered with paint


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” The 2 portraits are significant: George Washington, the first president, also known for the story in which he tells his father that he can not tell a lie Contrast my story with Paul’s…


Slide 15:The 2 portraits are significant: John Calvin – Calvinism is based upon predestination, that our destinies are already determined by God. “Feed my Lambs” = give them what they need to survive on earth.


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Calvinism = lack of guilt? If one’s fate is already determined, then one’s actions on earth would not affect one’s destiny. Could this explain Paul’s lack of conscience?


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” In contrast to Cordelia Street, the glamour and color of the theater and music provide comfort and respite from the pain and drudgery of Paul's life.


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Paul feels alive and comfortable surrounded by the arts. Paul "loses himself'‘ in the arts. His identity dissolves and he merges with his surroundings. Art is a religion for Paul; theater is his "secret temple."


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” For Paul, beauty is a double -edged sword: Beauty can be powerful, fascinating Paul and allowing him to feel free. Beauty can be destructive as well, when it makes ordinary life seem "worse than jail."


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” At the Waldorf Hotel, the "surroundings explained him" and Paul realizes that "this was what all the struggle was about" and that “money was every- thing.”


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Setting is key to Paul’s suicide Paul thinks of home, which is unbearable, in contrast to the luxurious, glamorous hotel, he knows he can’t return to Cordelia Street.


Setting in “Paul’s Case” :Setting in “Paul’s Case” Setting is key to Paul’s suicide When he learns that his father is coming to New York to bring him back to Pittsburgh, a fate "worse than jail," he decides his only escape from such boundaries now is death.


The Flower(S) :The Flower(S) Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case”


Flowers :Flowers Flowers in "Paul's Case" refer to cut flowers that, without roots, have no means of sustaining themselves, just as Paul's environment has no means of sustaining him.


Flowers :Flowers Flowers repeatedly provide for Paul an avenue into the world he yearns to join. Just as the cut flowers once grew and thrived in an artificial hothouse environment, Paul dreams of transplanting himself into a similarly nourishing environment, albeit temporary.


The Carnation :The Carnation Cut carnation = Paul's fragility his craving for beauty temporary nature of life his inability to thrive in his environment


The Carnation :The Carnation As Paul buries a blossom in the snow, he acknowledges his own imminent “death in a cold world that holds no lasting home for him”


The Carnation :The Carnation The bright color of the carnation is in sharp contrast to Paul's drab surroundings, where the people "were as exactly alike as their homes, and of a piece with the monotony in which they lived"


The Carnation :The Carnation Paul’s teachers see the flower as defiance. It is not "properly significant of the contrite spirit befitting a boy under the ban of suspension,” and his “whole attitude was symbolized by his shrug and his flippantly red carnation.”


Flowers :Flowers Paul despises the world he lives in and longs for “cool things and soft lights and fresh flowers.” His fantasies of escape always include flowers.


Money :Money Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case”


Money :Money Paul’s father tries to instill the virtue of working to make money Paul’s Father identifies a neighbor, a young man who works as a clerk, as a role model for Paul


Money :Money Paul despises the idea of using one’s life to make money and chase the American Dream Paul is “interested in the triumphs of cash boys who had become famous, though he had no mind for the cash-boy stage.”


Money :Money Ironically, Paul realizes that money is absolutely essential to sustaining the glamour and luxury he craves. Money brings freedom for Paul. In New York “Everything was quite perfect; he was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be.”


Money :Money Ironically, in New York City, thanks to the money he has stolen, Paul’s self-respect is “restored.” Stolen money, money for which he has not worked, cannot last.


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case”


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father One question many readers and critics ponder: Is Paul’s father abusive?


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father When Paul returns late from Carnegie Hall, he “sat looking distrustfully at the dark, still terrified lest he might have awakened his father.” Why is Paul “terrified”?


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father Paul imagines “his father, at the top of the stairs, his hairy legs sticking out from his nightshirt, his feet thrust into carpet slippers.”


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father Paul thinks about his father’s “inquiries and reproaches.” Paul “stopped short before the door. He felt that he could not be accosted by his father”


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father Paul is often described as “nervous” when approaching or speaking to his father. Paul’s father is involved in Paul’s life to some extent, although he clearly does not understand his son.


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father When Paul imagines his father mistaking him for a burglar, he thinks about how his father would be “horrified to think how nearly he had killed him” Paul continues to “entertain him- self” with the “supposition” that his father wanted to kill him


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father Paul’s father agreed with Paul’s teachers that Paul’s was a “bad case” However, Paul’s father seems to care about Paul’s studies and/or his having a job


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father Paul’s father pays back the stolen money Paul reads that “his father had gone East to find him and bring him home.” Note: Paul’s father wants to “bring him home,” not punish him or make him face consequences.


Paul’s Father :Paul’s Father Based upon the evidence presented in the text, do you think Paul’s father was abusive? (opinions vary)


End of Presentation :End of Presentation