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In Willa Carther's Pauls Case Paul, the main character, lives a life that may be compared to flowers, which are so vividly and often referred to in the text: just as flowers blossom and die, so too does Paul. After living one week as the kind of boy he had always wanted to be (Carther), Paul finds the idea of returning to his ordinary life unbearable. Paul had lived one splendid breath and a losing game in the end, just as he had referred to the flowers growing behind the glass, in spite of the winter cold outside. As the story opens, Paul is appearing before the schools faculty for his misdemeanors wearing a red carnation in his button whole. The red carnation symbolizes Pauls attitude. He stood smiling exposing his white teeth as the faculty fell upon him without mercy, stating their respective charges against him.
Other boys had broke down and began to cry under such interrogation. But Paul never did break down; he continued to answer the questions politely. Although Pauls feelings toward the schools faculty were not love, the carnation expressed love, fascination, and distinction. The red denoted deep love and affection (FTD).
Pauls wearing of the carnation is indicative of his contrary attitude toward the schools faculty and the intended purpose of his appearance. Pauls attempt to portray a gentleman who was beyond reproach was enough to drive the faculty members mad. But convincing enough to have them feeling humiliated to have felt so vindictive toward him. One of them remembered having seen a miserable street cat set at bay by a ring of tormentors (Carther). Pauls life was ordinary to most people. He lived in a respectable neighborhood, where family life was largely predictable because of the similarities amongst those living there.
The houses lining the streets were exactly alike. And living in them were businessmen who reared large families of children that attended Sabbath-school, all of whom were as exactly alike as their homes (Carther). But to Paul the commonness of everyday existence was repulsive. Every aspect of his common life was flavorless and colorless, his ugly sleeping chamber, the cold bathroom with zinc tub, the cracked mirror, the dripping spigots, the common food, the kitchen odors, and the predictable Sunday ritual of setting on the front porch and exchanging conversation with the neighbors. As Paul contemplates all those things that he finds so repulsive he also considers the things he desires. Amongst these things he includes fresh flowers.
He also references a pitcher ornamented with forget-me-knots as being used to serve drinks when his father is in a particular jovial frame of mind. Between childhood and old age, individuals lives are influenced by their experiences, and they undergo gradual change. Some of these experiences may lead to dramatic changes in behavior. Although there are lives that go relatively unchanged from puberty to death, It has been suggested that many transient episodes of insanity are no more than the disturbing repercussions and side effects of profound psychological changes which will eventually result in new, stable, and adaptive mode of behaving (Dallett). Pauls exposure to the lives of the people he seen regularly at the theater has influenced him greatly, The performances that had put him into an almost dream like state, and the fine people that attended who lived life so splendid and grand, had all impacted on Paul in such a way that anything less was as tasteless as a common wild flower.
Paul is one of many daisies growing in a field that overlooks a rose garden. Daisy is a common name for a number of flowering herbs. The English daisy, western daisy, and the African daisy are all part of this common family of flowers. Some of these flowers are even found growing wild such as the black eyed Susan (FTD). Pauls life can be compared to one of these many common flowers, all very beautiful in their own setting, but placed amongst a bouquet of roses; there can be no comparison. Paul sees the splendid beauty of the roses, and truly believes that he can be one.
At times he believes that he is this magnificent flower. Paul not only wants to be this beautiful rose, he wants other people to see him as being different. He could not bear to have the other pupils think, for a moment, that he took these people seriously; he must convey to them that he considered it all trivial, and was there only by way of a joke, anyway (Carther). Paul attempts to portray himself to the other students as a somewhat extravagant person by exaggerating his affiliation with the members of the stock company. His exaggerations include tales of supper with the performers at the theater, followed by sending them (what he held in admiration) lovely arrangements of flowers. He also included stories of anticipated travel to exotic places, only to tell another story when these trips did not materialize.
Pauls moments of living as this beautiful rose would be meet with reality, and he would be forced to look in the mirror at the common daisy. Pauls telling of such stories may be explained as the post hoc principle. Because Pauls stories followed his imagination of living so grand, then his stories were probably caused by it. The person with whom we are most familiar is ourself; many of the things we observe just before we behave, occur within our body, and it is easy to take them as causes of our behavior. Feelings occur at just the right time to serve as causes of behavior, and they have been cited as such for centuries. (Skinner).
What was Pauls reasoning for taking the money and going off to live a life style that must eventually end, and knowing he would have to come back and face the consequences? Psychoanalytic writers sometimes confuse rational and irrational with conscious and unconscious. Irrational, like unreasonable, has unfortunate overtones; irrational behavior is not appropriate to current circumstances; it appears to be emitted for the wrong reasons. But this has little to do with present distinction. All behavior, effective or not, is at first non rational in the sense that the contingencies responsible for it have not been analyzed. All behavior is at first unconscious, but it may become conscious without becoming rational: a person may know what he is doing without knowing why he is doing it (Skinner).
As Paul is shown to his hotel room he begins to consider if it is as grand as he had envisioned: he inventories the setting and immediately realizes that it is missing flowers. Paul moved around the room nervously until the flowers were brought. Only then was he able to relax. Lulled by the sound of the wind, the warm air, and the cool fragrance of the flowers, he sank into deep, drowsy retrospection (Carther). Many things can be said about the way that Paul becomes uncomfortable and restless until the flowers arrive. It could be that Paul is instantly pulled back into reality and begins to consider the scale of his offense.
Or that without the flowers he feels that there is a void that will prevent him from continuing his adventure. Just as the absence of the flowers had made Paul nervous and restless, so too does the idea of looking into the shadowed corner of his mind, where he stores those things that are, not pretty to watch (Carther). Although it is winter and the snow is on the ground, Paul can see through the windows to the flowers growing indoors. When Paul sees these flowers (roses, carnations, violets, and lilies of the valley) growing in spite of, or in defiance to the season it is seen to be as unnatural as his presence and current status.
For that reason it serves as reassurance to Paul that it is possible to live in contrast to what is natural. Both leaving and returning, Paul notices the dead grass or dried weed stalks protruding black above the snow. As he considered his life for the past week (as a beautiful rose) to what he was returning to (the dead weed stalks), reality begins to overwhelm him. In a final attempt to decide to live this common life he recalls all of the common people that he had seen that morning.
Paul decides that he can not possibly live this old life again. Rather than being plucked from the rose garden and discarded back into the field of daisies he decides to end his life in memory as the beautiful rose he always wanted to be. As Paul lives his final moments, he looks down at the carnation in his lapel, and discovers that it has began to die. In Korea, a young girl places three carnations in her hair to tell her fortune. If the top flower dies first, her last years of life will be difficult; if its the middle flower, her earlier years will bring the most grief. Worst of all, if the bottom flower dies first, the girl will be miserable her entire life (FTD).
Paul certainly lived a miserable life. Pauls lived his short life as he had always wanted to. He filled it with fine clothes, entertainment, a status of grandeur, and importantly, many beautiful flowers. Although mentally unable to return to his old life, he was able to experience that which he had always dreamed of, life as a beautiful rose. Bibliography: Sullivan 7 Works Cited Carther, Willa. Pauls Case.
Literature and the Writing Process. Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 4 th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1996. Dallett, Kent. Problems of Psychology.
John Wiley and Sons, Inc: New York, 1972. Skinner, B. F. About behaviorism. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1974.
Website, FTD. Carnations. web 2000.
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