Compare And Contrast Paul's Case And The Yellow Wallpaper

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There are two stories this semester that have been particularly interesting. ‘Paul’s Case’ by Willa Cather is a turbulent story about Paul, a young man who eventually spirals downwards into his eventual suicide. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman forced into the resting cure by means of her husband until being alone with her thoughts drives her to insanity. At face value, these stories have vastly different plots and outcomes. How are you able to compare stories with different plots? When the ideas behind the stories are similar, it becomes possible. These two stories have many parallels which will be discussed in detail throughout this essay. The first element that is a parallel between the stories …show more content…

In ‘Paul’s Case’ Paul has created a fantasy world in which he becomes entranced, even to the point of lying to classmates about the tales of grandeur and close friendships that he had made with the members of the stock company. This fantasy falls apart around him as “the principle went to Paul’s father, and Paul was taken out of school and put to work. The manager at Carnegie Hall was told to get another usher in his stead; the doorkeeper at the theater was warned not to admit him to the house” (Cather 8). The fantasy fell apart further when the stories he had told his classmates reached the ears of the women of the stock company, who unlike their lavish descriptions from Paul were actually hardworking women supporting their families. Unable to cope with the reality of working for Denny & Carson, he stole the money he was supposed to deposit in the bank to live the life of luxury in New York. Only a person who felt backed into a corner would attempt something so unsound. After his eight days in paradise, he is again backed into a corner by the reality of his middle class upbringing, and the dwindling time he has before his father reaches New York to find him. The final way out for Paul is his suicide, for which an explanation would be “In the end, he fails to find his security, for it was his grandiose “picture making mechanism” that made his life so deardful.” (Saari). With all the securities of his fantasy life finally gone, his mental instability fully comes to light as he jumps in front of the train to end his

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