Flowers and Dress as Symbols in Willa Cather's "Paul's Case"

Introduction: Paul's Difference and Cather's Symbolism

In her short story "Paul's Case," Willa Cather tells a devastating story of a young man so hopeless that he prefers death to the yellow wallpaper of his home. Though the details used to describe Paul as the reader first sees him — standing insolent before his faculty review board, which wishes to suspend him — are harsh, a Paul with whom the reader can more easily sympathize emerges in the later paragraphs. This is a Paul who feels abandoned, lost, and out of his element; a Paul who knows the sweetness of his desire and its closeness, but cannot taste it. Paul loves music, yet feels that his circumstances have all but built a brick wall between his Pittsburgh neighborhood and Carnegie Hall.

When considering these facts, it becomes clear that Willa Cather's descriptions of Paul serve a function much greater than simply casting doubt about his sexuality. Certainly, many details of the story carry a homosexual flavor. He wears a red carnation in his buttonhole, has an affinity for flowers, and takes great pleasure in dressing well. Cather makes sure to note that he wears purple, that he has silk underwear, and that he enjoys the flamboyant lifestyle of the theater crowd. His friendship with Charley Edwards, a theater boy about his age, is clearly important to him, and Cather even admits that there "was something of the dandy about him" — a term commonly associated with a lifestyle that carries homosexual connotations. The playwright Oscar Wilde, for instance, was frequently described by this term.

Nevertheless, the instances that might be perceived as referring to a homosexual orientation can quite easily be explained as serving Cather's broader theme of difference in a world that does not support it. This idea is best supported through two recurring features of the story: Paul's affinity for flowers and his dress.

Flowers as Symbols of Difference

Willa Cather does not introduce flowers into the story to suggest Paul's sexual orientation, but rather to suggest that he is simply different. She also uses flowers to emphasize the contrast between difference and conformity throughout the narrative. Paul's affinity for flowers is established in the very first paragraph of the story. He attends his suspension hearing with a suspicious red carnation in his buttonhole. The flower receives considerable attention, as his teachers feel it is not "properly significant of the contrite spirit befitting a boy under the ban of suspension" (Cather 1). Cather thus suggests that the carnation is a symbol of Paul's difference — it represents the fact that he does not feel "contrite," or the way his teachers believe he should feel given his circumstances. This is further emphasized by the teachers' sense that the "flippantly red carnation flower" symbolized his attitude (Cather 4).

Cather also uses Paul's desire for "fresh flowers" to contrast his hatred for "everyday things" (Cather 19). His arrival in New York is marked by his entry into a world of affluence, including his ability to send the bellboy down for flowers (Cather 40). At the end of the story, Paul takes his dying flower and buries it in the snow — a gesture that symbolizes his decision to surrender his difference, to bury in death what he could not sustain in life, much as he buries his wilting flower beneath the cold ground.

The symbolic use of flowers in "Paul's Case" does not necessarily mark Paul as homosexual; rather, it emphasizes the contrast between difference and conformity. Paul's desire for flowers underscores his distinctiveness — he wears them when it seems wholly inappropriate, and their presence punctuates the story's major turning points: his suspension hearing, his meetings with Charley Edwards, his trip to New York, and his death. They are consistently juxtaposed against the "everyday things" that Paul finds unbearable (Cather 19).

Conclusion: Symbolism, Intimacy, and the Tragedy of Difference

In sum, Willa Cather's "Paul's Case" presents a troubling story about a boy who is different. While Paul's attributes — his affinity for flowers and his manner of dress — suggest to some readers a commentary on his sexuality, Cather's intention was not to use them as such. Rather, she employs these characteristics both to suggest Paul's difference from his surroundings and to emphasize the tension between difference and sameness throughout the story. Thacker's portrayal of Cather reinforces this reading when he states that Cather "creates a personal intimacy between writer and reader which both creates a deep bond and feels authentic, special" (Thacker 3). The use of flowers and dress in this story is part of that personal intimacy — it allows the reader to see the differences between Paul and his world that Paul himself does not fully comprehend.

Works Cited

Cather, Willa. "Paul's Case." 1906. English Department. 16 March 2009. <

Thacker, Robert. "Willa Cather." The Willa Cather Foundation. n.d. 16 March 2009. <http://www.willacather.org/about-willa-cather/willa-cather>