Isolation in "To Room Nineteen" and "Paul's Case"
This essay examines the theme of isolation in Doris Lessing's "To Room Nineteen" and Willa Cather's "Paul's Case," arguing that in both works, the central tragedy is driven not by the protagonists themselves but by the men in their lives—a negligent husband and an unempathetic father—whose failure to love and understand pushes Susan and Paul into states of total emotional and social isolation. The essay traces how each character's unrecognized inner calling, whether artistic or spiritual, goes unsupported, ultimately leading to destruction. The comparative reading highlights Lessing's "failure of intelligence" as a moral indictment of Matthew and situates Paul's despair within a similar dynamic of paternal indifference.
- Introduction: The Root of Isolation: Thesis: male indifference drives both protagonists to isolation
- Matthew's Failure of Empathy in 'To Room Nineteen': Matthew's self-centeredness isolates Susan emotionally
- Paul's Isolation and Artistic Vocation in 'Paul's Case': Paul's artistic calling goes unsupported by his father
- Comparing Susan and Paul: Different Circumstances, Shared Despair: Both characters share unrecognized vocations and absent support
- The Responsibility of Father and Husband: Male figures bear moral responsibility for each tragedy
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What makes this paper effective
- The thesis is clearly stated in the opening paragraph and sustained throughout: the source of each protagonist's isolation is an empathy-deficient male figure, not the protagonist's own weakness.
- Textual evidence is integrated directly from both stories, grounding interpretive claims in specific moments and quotations rather than generalization.
- The comparative structure is balanced — the essay moves fluidly between the two works, drawing meaningful parallels (vocation, spiritual need, isolation) without forcing an artificial equivalence.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The essay demonstrates comparative literary analysis: it identifies a shared thematic framework (isolation caused by male indifference) and uses that framework as a lens to read two distinct texts in dialogue with each other. By anchoring the comparison in Lessing's own phrase "failure of intelligence," the writer turns a textual detail into a controlling interpretive concept applicable to both works.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a dual thesis introducing both texts. The second paragraph establishes Lessing's framework and briefly introduces Cather's parallel. The third paragraph develops the contrast between Susan's and Paul's circumstances while identifying what they share — an unrecognized vocation and an absent helpmate. The final paragraph draws the moral conclusion, placing responsibility squarely on the male figures and synthesizing the comparison into a unified argument.
Introduction: The Root of Isolation
At the root of Willa Cather's Paul's Case is a young boy's fear of his father — the most devastating aspect of the story. As in Doris Lessing's To Room Nineteen, the ultimate problem in Cather's story falls on the man who should be most empathetic and loving. In both stories, it is a lack of love and empathy on the part of the man — the husband in Lessing's To Room Nineteen and the father in Cather's Paul's Case — that pushes the respective wife and son into total isolation.
Matthew's Failure of Empathy in 'To Room Nineteen'
The "failure of intelligence" identified by Lessing in To Room Nineteen is not a reference to Susan's gradual descent into madness but rather a condemnation of her husband Matthew for his inability to understand and empathize with his wife's illness (875). He simply sees her as unreasonable and cruelly dismisses her needs. As her husband, he is bound to love and support her as though she were his own flesh — but an indiscretion earlier in their marriage has already revealed what kind of husband he is: one who puts his own feelings first and negates those of everyone around him. In short, he is a self-centered husband, and his inability to love his wife as she deserves and needs to be loved drives her into a pit of emotional isolation from which she cannot escape.
There is no hope for Susan in the material realm or the spiritual. There is only one moment in the entire story when she kneels to pray, and even then it reads more as an act of terror and desperation than of genuine faith. Lessing's "To Room Nineteen" ultimately frames Susan's tragedy as the consequence of a marriage built on emotional indifference, not personal weakness.
Paul's Isolation and Artistic Vocation in 'Paul's Case'
Similarly, Cather's Paul's Case is a tale of despair exhibited through a young man's isolation from contemporary society. Paul is drawn to the allure of the lavish nightlife of the theater and the big city, yet he possesses none of the social means that would enable him to join that world in a meaningful way. He steals, impersonates a wealthy patron, and ultimately hurls himself in front of a train to avoid the coming retribution.
His father tries to get him to see the young married man at the iron company as a role model — but Paul is far more impressed by his actor friend Charley, whose life seems exciting and free. Paul's attitude is not entirely without justification: his actor friend "recognized in Paul something akin to what churchmen term 'vocation'" (Cather 9). Paul has, to some degree, been called to be part of the ethereal world of the arts. His father cannot and will not understand it.
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