Paul has very little interest in his class studies. This leaves him open to distraction and eventually criticism. Although Paul’s appearance is that of a perfect gentleman, his teachers find his behavior inappropriate and unacceptable. The narrator draws particular attention to Paul’s eyes describing them as “remarkable for a certain hysterical brilliancy”(Cather 245); this is followed by the response of his teachers who find it “peculiarly offensive in a boy”(Cather 245). Paul’s meeting with the schools principal continues as each of his teachers get an opportunity to voice their disgust with Paul. The whole time Paul stands there never losing his smile. This is dubbed “irritating to the last degree” (Cather 246). For Paul this is his sign of strength. He refuses to allow his teachers, of such simple minds, to tear at his soul. They hav

I observed a correlation between Willa Cather’s Paul’s Case and William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet their love for each other is forbidding by their respected families. Yet this love was too strong to deny. In the end the tragic death of Romeo is accompanied by the dramatically tragic death of Juliet. I find Paul to be befitting of the role of Romeo and his forbidding love for the theater to play his Juliet. One could not stand to live without the other. When Paul had left from New York City he had sampled the lifestyle he dreamed of and he could not live to face Cordelia Street, the yellow wallpaper, the cracked mirror, the somber essence of it all. He had tasted his sweet dream and feared the despair and misery that would accompany his return. “He had the old feeling that the orchestra had suddenly stopped, the sinking sensation that the play was over”(Cather 260).

Paul really lived” (Cather 253). However, with his father deprivation of the theater, Paul was dead inside, a lifeless body moving through constant motions without any emotions, only the thought of escape. When Paul was allowed to attend the theater, as a spectator or an usher, he had a “sudden zest for life” (Cather 248). This freedom he endured always feel short. Like an addiction, the theater would send him into heaven only to fall harder and harder into his dismal existence. He suffered a “phy

Some topics in this essay:
Paul Reimer-2, Willa Cather’s, Paul Paul, Reimer-3 Paul, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Cordelia Street, Romeo Juliet, Juliet Paul, Reimer-4 Paul, York City, cather 253, theater paul, willa cather’s, tragic death, romeo juliet, attend theater, love theater,