Explore Paul’s Homosexuality, Research Paper Example

The story of Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” is an intriguing story in which is shrouded in hidden meanings and symbolism that make inferences to the struggle of sexual identity of the main protagonist Paul. Paul not only struggles with his sexually but also has learning disabilities, family problems which are displayed from his abusive father and home without the mother. The struggle with his sexual identity is the overlapping theme throughout the short story and prevalent as one of the meaning reasons in which leads to isolation, depression, and subsequent suicide. Paul was a high school boy that enjoyed the arts but felt that he was trapped in a life that was not his own. He showed feelings of despair where he felt everyone around him largely misunderstood him, and subject to abuse from his only parent. The aesthetic nature in which Paul position himself in society through a lack of imagination is the opposite in which Oscar Wilde believed offered that were rejected by society. The purpose of this paper is to compare the aesthetic view in that in the society in which Paul felt alienated had to deal with the physical and mental anguish of his father, society, and his teacher’s refusal to see his perspective as his undoing. The aesthetic view in which Oscar Wilde believed that it was largely due to him being a homosexual was what led to reject from society and his eventual suicide.

Paul is typically viewed as a troubled and unusual boy that felt he was essentially misunderstood. He is consumed by the images he sees in the theaters and feels that he wants to be a part of that image. Arthur of the Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America, Roger Austen saw Paul as a “sensitive young man stifled by the drab ugliness of his environment and places the protagonist in an American literary tradition of “village sissies” (31-33.” (Summers 3) This character throughout the short story struggles with the masculine aesthetic as he viewed as sensitive and alienated from his mild temperament. In this respect, his sexual identity of being a homosexual is treated closer as a metaphor of alienation that makes a social commentary of the powerful society in which Paul was unsatisfied with. (Anders 55) The story of Paul is written in an omnificent third person view in which the narrator spoke the thoughts of the characters. (Cummings 4) This provide readers to connect with the inner struggles that Paul faced. Notwithstanding the overall theme of homosexuality and struggles with conformity, the life of Paul was plagued with self-inflicted anguish and despair as the character lack proper education, did not fit the social norms of society, and still was unable to deal with reality.

Paul’s character largely preferred a more feminine lifestyle, he would usually take his violet and colorful flowers (like Wilde) to school in spite of what the teachers wanted as they tried to continually punish him. Paul’s character is essentially Wildean esthetics as, “dandy who sports a carnation in his button-hole and who found “ a certain element of artificiality….necessaryIn beauty” (251)” (Summers 7) As Paul continues to be defiant against his teachers and the school he is eventually kicked out. His father being the enforcer that he is forces Paul to request to be reinstated in school. Paul however feels otherwise as he knows his instructors sees him as strange. “There is something wrong about the fellow” (Cather Para 8) As far as not only getting along with his teachers he also felt different about his classmates. He often would tell them stories in which he visited these exotic locales, he did not want his classmates to think that he took them seriously, or lack of better words considered it all just his ordinary life. (Cather Para 33) Paul would soon confront his teachers, and invoke in them feelings of regret for being so vindictive against Paul. (Cather Para 40) His disdain for his teachers was evident as he would often look out to the windows in class, shade his eyes, and would make commentary during lectures. Like he treated his peers, Paul wanted everyone to think he was better than them. His sense of entitlement further agitated the perspective from authorities that something was wrong (different) with Paul. Paul however was more withdrawn and disassociated with school more than ever, and he began to hate his life at school and did not want to go back. Paul felt more hurt by the words and actions displayed from his teachers. The attitudes in which they regarded Paul effecting him to the point where he lack respect for authority and was defiant. His defiance did not stop at his teachers but more direct authority figures in his life.

Paul was left to the care of his father and an undisclosed amount of sisters since his mother died at a young age. Paul was not able to develop the relationship he wanted with her. The father is seen as the typical archetype character that acts as the authoritative figure. While the father does not appear much throughout the story the inserts in which Paul and the narrator reveal he is looming figure that controls much of Paul’s imagination and only means for Paul to do well. Paul’s father like his teachers felt that something was wrong with Paul. Paul’s clothing was different from those around him, he would often dress up to give the appearance that he was wealthy and prominent. He displayed a great deal of disdain for not only his father but his sisters as well. His haughty countenance and air that he carried himself which went against the type of surroundings he dwelled in. His thinly veiled homosexual nature was often hidden from his father, like the violet water was something that showed his effeminacy. Paul’s dad meaning well pulled him out of school in order to work as an assistant at his job. This is did nothing for Paul as he felt he was not able to carry on his delusions, this inevitably broke Paul’s spirit. In another blow to his individuality, his father forbade him from going to the theater and from his only real friend, Charley Edwards. This hurt Paul who defied his dad as theater to him was “nothing but sleep and forgotten” (Cather Para 253) Paul was ultimately entrapped in the endless authority entanglements of either work of his father’s jail.

Paul delusions are what set him apart from others. His obsession with the images he sees in theaters is what propels his inner anguish as he feels that the environment and the society in which he dwells in are not up to his standards. Paul moved lifelessly through his daily routine without any emotions or ability to escape. A physical depression in which only the theater offered his life any light. (Cather 250) During this time Paul further isolated himself and felt endless depression. Paul is a selfish character in which due to his ideals of grandeur feel that others around him are beneath him. He openly and continually criticizes his mundane environment where he felt entrap. Working in the theater at Carnegie Hall as an usher is where he felt he belonged. He felt at home, when he sees his teacher in the teacher she feels embarrassed and humiliated while Paul sees her as unworthy to be in the theater, “ what business had she with these fine people among these gay colors?” he asked. (Cather Para 130) In Cather’s view of the aesthetic Wildean character that challenged masculinity. Around the neighborhood, he despised him as they did not dress as he did or live to the norms in which he felt he was accustomedto. When he had the opportunity to live in New York he felt that is where he was meant to be. He excitedly ranged for the doorbell, and was able to enjoy all the flowers he wanted. Being at New York he felt at home with the social class in which he felt he belong, going back to Pittsburg was akin to being back in jail. (Cather Para 340) He did not want to leave, but knowing that his father was coming to collect him he suddenly fell into depression and look to the bottle for comfort. He could not bear to return home to the mundane dwellings he felt he lived in. He felt extreme dread always followed him. In the case of his struggle with his sexuality, “until now he could not remember the time when he had not been dreading something.” (Cather’s Para 255) He flamboyancy is seen as he able to dress as he feels, comfortably, be with whom he wanted to be with and enjoy the nightlife of the city. Soon his pockets became empty filled with despair and the realization that money was what stood between him, made the tragic decision to end his own life. His behavior was not dealing with identity but instead his deep displeasure and dissatisfaction with his life. He was not only able to live the way he wanted, but knowing his father and the city he would not be able to be whom he was either. According to Anders, “Homosexuality in “Paul’s Case” is not the reason for Paul’s tragedy, and his suicide is not the stereotypical tragic ending for gay characters.” (Anders 56) It was the inability to integrate his identity and the reality in which he lived in.

In “Paul’s Case”, Cather does not mention Paul’s sexual orientation although it is heavily implied through subtle and not so subtle hints and usages of gay dichotomy. Paul was a trouble young man where his identity was not the crucial issue but instead his lack of acceptance of his own reality. He had delusions of grandeur and felt that he was destined for something better than his current surroundings. In Wilde’s aesthetic view, homosexuals should just reject society’s views, but Cather believes that they should integrate with society, “subtly implying alternatives to alienation and suicide and envisioning possibilities implicit in those homilies by which the world is run.” (76) (Anders 56). Paul was deeply disturbed, where everyone was depicted as the enemy, his teachers were beneath him, and society in general were beneath him. He questioned the aesthetic nature in which a man should feel dress, and act, yet he still could not accept him. Cather own struggle with her identity is evident in the overall peril that while they may feel that they and society aren’t willing to accept they can’t expect others to except them either.

Works Cited

Anders, John. Willa Cather’s Sexual Aesthetics and the Male Homosexual Literary Tradition. Cather Studies. 2001. Book.

Cather, Willa. “Paul’s Case.” Modern Fiction Studies, 36.1 1990. 103-119.

Cummings, M. J. “Cumming’s Study Guide. 2011. Web. 26 Nov 2013. Accessed at www.cummingsstudyguides.net

Summers, Claude. “A Losing Game in the End: Aestheticism and Homosexuality in Cather’s Paul’s Case.” Modern Fiction Studies, 36.1 (1990): 103-119. Print.