Character Analysis in Paul's Case

A reflection of Paul's mentality where artificiality is where true beauty lies. The flowers hiding behind the windows are probably fake. In Paul's mind, they are real, and actually growing miraculously in the snow.

This shows the extent to which Paul idealizes things; to him, the performers were their actual characters. He saw them as great and glorious people. The reality is Paul actor friends are from a stock company (acting troop), many not even making minimum wage. They are perhaps even more "cruddy" than the venerable people of Cordelia St. that Paul snubs so much. This shows how flipped the view of the world is from Paul's eyes. 

Romanticism is the literary movement in which art imitates life, but makes it look better. Artificiality, aesthetics, the use of dramatic tones, cliche and irony permeate Romantic Art. If Paul feels that the stage entrance represents the most beautiful life has to offer, his knowledge of beauty is actually quite limited.

Another point of study regarding Paul's "case" itself. His actions make him more of a presence rather than an actual living, breathing, individual. This brings a touch of the supernatural to his character. 

This term is key to understanding Paul. The "world-shine" means sophistication and artificiality, two very important aesthetic elements. 

Hellenic-style statue of Aphrodite created around 150 BC by "Alexandros" and found in 1820 in the island of Melos. 

It is significant that Paul looks with evil eyes at a sculpture that embodies the female ideal. Another enigmatic behavior coming from Paul's "temperament".

This is an important trait that indirectly characterizes Paul as a potentially neurotic young man who is terrified by something that exists only in his mind: he has decided that Cordelia Street, a very normal place, is dreadful and hateful. And the fact that he believes his own ideas renders him out of touch with reality.

This phrase embodies the aesthete ideal of life imitating art and the search of beauty in everything, particularly in that which is not produced by nature. Artificiality is one of many aesthetic cults. Cather is declaring Paul a naturally-born Aesthete which is a contradictory thing. Could Paul's nature be so different that it is other-worldly?

Notice that Cordelia Street is a relatively happy, safe, and stable place. There is nothing scary, gloomy, or nasty about Cordelia St. This shows the extent to which Paul was dissonant with his environment.

A perfect descriptor of Paul's "case", the "morbidity" of the desire is what makes Paul a potential case of psychological imbalance. Willa Cather again brings up the extreme nature of Paul's wants and desires.

As "a study in temperament", these cues in "Paul's Case" are Willa Cather's mediums to separate Paul from other, typical boys. Paul is clearly challenged by his reality in a way that affects him psychologically, socially, and even at a spiritual level. This is why he lives for the moment.

This is indicative that Paul, although he tries to appear to be superior to everybody else in the room, still does not "come from money". The description of the out-grown clothes brings his foppish behavior down to a level of tackiness. He is pretending to be something that he is not.