Paul's Case

Paul's Case Summary | Detailed Summary

Paul is called before the faculty at Pittsburgh High School to explain his behavior. He was suspended the week before, and his father has told the principal his son perplexes him. Paul enters the room wearing clothing that is a little too small and a bit worn, yet he still manages to look like a dandy. The faculty disapprovingly notes that he is wearing a red carnation in his buttonhole, which does not seem properly contrite, given the situation. Paul is tall and very thin, with abnormally large pupils. It would almost appear that he is addicted to drugs, if it were not for a sparkle in his eyes that drugs cannot create.

Paul lies and says that he wants to return to school. Lying is nothing new for him. He uses false statements often during uncomfortable moments. The teachers list what he has done wrong. However, listing his misbehaviors somehow does not properly convey the strong negative feelings they have for the boy and his blatant contempt for them. He has particularly offended his English teacher. Once when she tried to touch his hand while he was writing something on the chalkboard, he shuddered and drew his hand back quickly. The teacher felt as hurt as if he had hit her. Each of his teachers has a similar story of the ways in which he has shown blatant disrespect during their classes. His contempt for school is so great he appears to have a physical aversion to it. The teachers are angered by the casual shrug he gives them and his red carnation. They react by verbally attacking him. He smiles the entire time, even though older boys before him have never been able to handle such an onslaught of criticism. The principal asks Paul about one sarcastic remark he made to a female teacher. Paul says he didn't mean to be polite or impolite; it is simply the way he talks. When he is told he can leave, he dramatically bows to the faculty before walking out.

After Paul leaves, the drawing master says that there is something about Paul that none of them understands. He says that Paul's smile is not insolent. Paul is not strong. He is haunted and there is something wrong with him. He also explains that the boy's mother had died in Colorado just a few months after he was born. The drawing master once really looked at Paul after he had fallen asleep in class. He was surprised to see that Paul had a white, blue-veined face. The skin around his eyes was wrinkled like an old man's and his nervous twitch stayed with him, even in sleep. The teachers leave the school, feeling sorry and humiliated to have been so vicious to a young boy.

Meanwhile, Paul has left the school and is running down the hill, whistling. He arrives at Carnegie Hall, where he is a part-time usher. The theatre is still closed, but Paul doesn't want to go home, so he goes to a gallery to look at some of Raffelli's paintings of Paris. He stares at the art and loses track of time. Suddenly, he realizes what time it is and runs to work. Once at work, Paul changes into his uniform to start work. He likes the uniform because he thinks it is very flattering, even though it accentuates his narrow chest. Paul begins work. He loves his job and is a model usher. When waiting on the patrons in his row, he acts as if it is the most important thing in the world to him. All of the people in his section think he is charming. As the theater fills with people, Paul becomes excited and his cheeks and lips flush with color. He feels like he is taking part in a huge party and he is the host. His English teacher appears with tickets she received from a well-known manufacturer. She looks a little embarrassed as she hands Paul the tickets. Paul is startled and angry to see her. He thinks that she has no business being in such a grand theater, and he notices that she is dressed inappropriately. Once the concert begins, he takes a seat and forgets about his teacher. He is drawn to a soprano soloist. Although she is an older woman and the mother of many children, the fact that she is accomplished and worldly makes Paul look at her as if she is a queen.

One the concert ends, Paul is restless. He doesn't want to give up the excitement that he has felt this evening. He quickly changes his clothes and goes out the side door so he can stand by the soprano's carriage. She finally comes out and starts toward the Schenley Hotel. Paul follows the carriage, walking quickly so he can see her get out of the coach and go inside. After she enters the hotel, Paul stands outside, feeling almost like he has gone through the doors with her. He imagines the warm, shiny interior and the food she will eat. He bases his fantasy on pictures he has seen in the Sunday Supplement. He is brought back to reality by a gust of wind and a soaking rain. His feet are wet and his thin overcoat is clinging to him. As he looks at the bright glow of the hotel, he wonders if he will always be outside of such finery.

Paul goes back home. He lives on a respectable street, full of middle class businessmen with large families. Paul thinks that the children who live on this street are all as exactly alike as the homes they live in. He loathes the street. As he gets closer to home, he feels like water is closing over his head. Each time he enjoys finery, he feels depressed to return home to his life. As he approaches his house, he doesn't feel like he can stand the site of his ugly bedroom and cold bathroom. Paul thinks that he can't go home to face his father, but he is wet and cold. He climbs into the cellar window at the back of the house. Rats terrify him, so he cannot sleep. Instead, he sits in the darkness, mulling over his situation.

That Sunday, Paul goes to church and Sabbath school, just like usual. In the afternoon, he sits on the lowest step of his stoop, while his sisters talk to the neighbors about sewing and how many waffles someone had eaten at the church dinner. This is the last Sunday of November, but when the weather is warmer, his sisters often make lemonade and serve it in a red-glass pitcher with blue enamel flowers. They think the pitcher is very fine. Today, his father is talking to a neighbor whom he has always held up as a model for Paul to follow. He is a clerk who married a schoolmistress several years older than himself. They had four children, all of them nearsighted like their mother. The two men talk about business and Paul's father explains how his employers are considering putting a railway plant in Cairo. Paul hopes that they don't spoil it before he gets there.

Paul begins to spend as much time as possible in Charley Edwards' dressing room. Charley is a boy actor with a permanent stock company. He has invited Paul to drop by rehearsals. In exchange, Paul helps the young actor, who cannot afford to hire a dresser. Between Carnegie Hall and the theater, Paul has a life. Outside those two places, his life is only sleep and forgetting. Paul sees the entrance of the theater as a portal of Romance. At school, his teachers blame his imagination on fiction, but Paul rarely reads books. He is simply drawn to the theater, even though he has no desire to be an actor or a musician. He only wants to be part of the atmosphere. Spending time in the theater makes going to school seem even worse. He starts telling his classmates stories about the dinners he has with the musicians and shows them his autographed pictures of members of the stock company. After a while, the stories lose their effect, so he starts to make up even more fantastic stories. On Fridays, he tells the boys in school that he is going to Naples or Egypt. Then when he returns to school on Monday, he foolishly makes up excuses that his sister is sick and he will not be able to travel until the spring. Meanwhile, he tries to make his teachers know that he despises them by making up self-important tales of his time with the stock company actors. Finally, the principal talks to Paul's father and he is pulled out of school. Paul is forced to give up his job and Charley has to promise Paul's father that he won't see him again.

Now the story jumps forward in time. It is January and Paul is on a train to New York City. Snow covers the landscape. When he arrives in the city, he hires a cab driver to take him to a men's clothing store. He spends two hours there, carefully picking out clothes before going to a shoe store and hatter. Next on his shopping spree is Tiffany's, where he selects some silver and a new scarf pin. He even stops at a trunk store and has his purchases packed in new suitcases. Finally, the driver takes him to the Waldorf, where he checks in using a phony story about being from Washington. He says that he is waiting for his parents to arrive by steamer from a trip abroad. Paul has planned this entry into New York a hundred times. He had imagined it with Charley Edwards and cut out hundreds of descriptions of the city from the Sunday newspapers. When he gets to his room, it looks fine, except for there are no flowers, so he orders some from the bellboy. After arranging the flowers, he takes a bath and then dresses in his new silk underwear and red robe. Exhausted from his journey, he falls asleep. The opulence of the Waldorf makes him question whether he had ever really lived on Cordelia Street. Paul feels like he had no choice but to run away from home. After his father forced him from the theater, he had nothing of value left. He thinks back on his life and feels like he has lived it in dread and fear. Now that he has run away, he feels relief. Just the day before, his new employers had sent him to the bank with a deposit for two thousand dollars in checks and one thousand dollars in cash. Without hesitation, he slipped the bank notes into his pocket and boarded the train for New York. Being in the city excites Paul. He feels like he is finally among human beings like himself who look for pleasure. He has no desire to meet the people around them. He simply wants to be in their presence.

The next morning, he meets a boy from San Francisco. They go out later that night and stay out until 7 a.m. For the first time, Paul feels at peace and has no desire to lie. When he has been in New York for eight days, he finds his story in the Pittsburgh newspapers. He reads that his father has refunded the money and the company has no intention of prosecuting. The story also says that Paul has been seen in a New York hotel and his father is on his way to bring the boy home. Paul becomes weak in the knees reading the article. He feels that going home would be worse than going to jail.

The next morning, he wakes feeling nauseous. His old depression is back, but much worse than ever. He feels like the entire world has become Cordelia Street. The night before he had purchased a gun and he sits, staring at the revolver. However, he decides he does not want to do it that way. Instead, he takes a cab to the ferry. After a train ride, he hires a driver to take him to train tracks in the country. He notices that the carnations in his coat are drooping from the cold. It occurs to him that all of the flowers he saw in the glass cases on his first night in New York are already dead. They had one splendid moment, but it was a losing game. Paul takes his flower and buries it in the snow. He falls asleep for a while, only to be awoken by the sound of a coming train. He stands, watching the train come. As it gets close, he jumps in front of it. Paul suddenly realizes his folly and with a clearness of mind, he sees what he has left undone. He feels the train strike his chest and his body flying through the air. Paul's vision goes black.