He is a constant dreamer, perhaps daydreaming about position he would rather have in society (pilot, surgeon) or what he would not want to be (a witness accused of a crime he didn't commit, facing a firing squad). Readers also know that Mitty's character is so given to daydreams he has practically lost his ability to remember things. It comes across in this Added to that, his wife is obviously a strong personality and his personality appears to be very meek and easily intimidated. Still, Mitty is an endearing character, someone that could be the absent-minded uncle, or grandfather who needs to be reminded of what his duties are for the household.

The setting in this story is in the community of Waterbury during World War II. Mitty doesn't need to conjure up his own private daydreaming narrative because things around him remind him of what time and place he is in. He sits in a big leather chair in the lobby of a hotel and picks up the newspaper while waiting for his wife. Boom, he is transported into the war zone because he sees the pictures and the headlines...

It is an "old copy" of Liberty but a reader can assume it is not too old otherwise it wouldn't still be in the hotel lobby. Captain Mitty is guzzling brandy as though in a war situation he would be consuming alcohol and says "we only live once" as his wife appears and begins nagging at him again. She is an important part of the setting of this story because readers can easily speculate that Mitty is going off into his dream sequences to get away from his wife's nattering. The humor that one expects when reading James Thurber comes through very clearly after his wife rags on him to put his books on (it's winter). "Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?" he asked her impatiently. She looks at him and replies, "I'm going to take your temperature when I get you home," as though he is a little boy. In conclusion, this paper takes the position that Mitty is bored with his life, hence the daydreams, and two, he has found a perfect way to escape the nitpicking and nagging of his wife -- slip into a dramatic fantasy and be in control in that fantasy.