Comparison of Dorothy Lessing To Room Nineteen and Willa Cather Paul's Case
In Dorothy Lessing's, "To Room Nineteen" and in Willa Cather's, "Paul'sCase" the protagonists, Susan Rawlings and Paul, respectively live twolives-the physical self and the "other" self. The latter is what governstheir every day motivations-their raison d'AŠtres. It takes over theirentire being. And when they discover that this life is not something theycan call their very own or when there is danger of this life beinginfiltrated, they see no reason to let the physical self survive. In eachtale, Paul and Susan commit suicide. And, it is in dying that the physicalor worldly self and the other self truly meet, albeit tragically. Paul and Susan's lives are similar in that they are completelydisassociated from the real and the substantive. And they revel in lifebuilt on imagination. They find succor and protection there. Theirrevelries are also with the knowledge that they do not have to share thisunique existence with even those close to them. Then, there are contrasts. Paul and Susan come into these dissociated existences through differentpaths. Cather does not explain why Paul is the way he is. We just know
Not because he wishes to be part of it;but, because they furnish and embellish his fantasy world. It is as if he were a hero in an epic where hisheroism came from this suffering. Soon, cracks in Paul and Susan's lives begin to appear. Once, Susan actually waits until a prostitute finishes herbusiness rather than take another room. When her husband cheats onher and then admits it with amazing nonchalance. But Cather immediatelydispels the reader's notion by informing that he wants to be nothing of thesort. She deals with everything with a sense of logic and, aftera fashion, but without the associated passion. But jail, which would reengage Paul's martyr complex, wouldbe preferred to his detestable (for most, normal) existence. She does not even write a suicide note. the worldshone upon her, in Paul's eyes, made her a veritable queen of Romance.
Common topics in this essay:
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York City,
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Cather's Paul's,
physical self,
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Acceptance Essays
