Analysis Of Willa Cather s Paul s Case - 1009 Words

In Willa Cather’s â€Å"Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament†, a short story set in Pittsburgh and New York, Cather introduces us to the young Paul. Self-centered, delusional, and some may even argue, narcissistic, Paul is fascinated and encapsulated by the fine arts around him. Whether it be in the theater where he ushers, the art gallery at Carnegie Hall, or the hotel he runs away to in New York, Paul is always finding a way to escape what he considers a hopeless and mundane reality back home, through the arts. What’s interesting to note however is the way that Paul relates to the arts, which seems almost dysfunctional. As mentioned previously, Paul uses the arts as a way to escape from his reality, but it never satisfies him in the long term. The arts become like a drug for him, giving him short lived highs and allowing Paul to lose himself in the moment, even giving him periods of depression and withdrawal in between and ultimately leading him to suicid e. It is interesting to ponder why Paul’s relationship with the arts is this way, and through a close read and analysis of the text, one can infer that Paul never plays an active role (except for himself) in the arts. He never analyzes or interprets, he never finds himself intrigued or provoked. He just allows himself to get lost in the splendor of it all, sequentially enabling a depressed and destructive life as opposed to a potentially satisfying and long-lasting one. plot overview- pauls life at home vs where he escapesShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Willa Cather s Paul s Case 1433 Words   |  6 PagesPaul s Case was and still is one of Willa Cather s best stories which reflects the point of view of an underprivileged young man in the old Pittsburg of the 1900s. Willa describes the main character Paul as an overwhelming mystery that no one seems to understand or accept. . Paul s Case is the source of several different themes such as the dangers of misusing money and the addictiveness of art. The theme least analyzed in Cather s short’s is the homosexual nature of the main character which explainsRead More Willa Cathers Paul‟s Case: A Study in Temperament Essay1867 Words   |  8 PagesWilla Cather‟s â€Å"Paul‟s Case: A Study in Temperament† (1905) invites the reader to wonder, â€Å"What really is Paul‟s case?† Cather provides us with ample clues and descriptions of Paul‟s temperament with remar kable detail and insight into the human psyche considering that she had no formal background in psychology and that she was writing when Sigmund Freud was just beginning to publish his theories and was therefore writing by intuitive observation rather than by using a scientific approach. BecauseRead Moredsfsdsfs4469 Words   |  18 Pagespiece of writing written from an author s personal point of view, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g. Alexander Pope s An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man)