Much of Willa Cather’s writing develops an interest in the minds, ways, and lives of artists: This theme of contrast and discord between conflicting values is present in a number of ways in “Paul’s Case.” Although Paul is not an artist in the sense that he creates works of art, he has the kind of imagination that in a friendlier environment might have developed to enable him to convert the material of his real world into art. As it is, Paul’s case is painful and hopeless. The author shows the reader a world that is blatantly materialistic. The predominant color is gray, while Paul longs for the richness of purple, of light-reflecting crystal. It is sad that for Paul, and indeed for his world, money seems to be the only means to experience the felt life, the excitement of performance. Paul is a spectator. He has no interest in books, which might have helped him to imagine other possibilities. His is a solipsistic vision, stimulated by music that acts like an addictive narcotic on his nervous system and produces an excitement from which he recovers in a state of severe physical and emotional deflation. Paul’s teachers and family seem peculiarly insensitive to his condition, his needs, and his suffering.

In spite of the rather detached and clinical description of this conflict between Paul and his world, the author’s distaste for the materialistic and rather coarse society she describes becomes evident. While Paul is clearly presented as emotionally disturbed and as almost pathologically lonely and isolated, he is also, in part, the victim of a society that is somewhat deadened in its imagination and finer sensibilities. Paul is like an aesthete for whom there is no place to belong, no home, and who finds no kindred spirit anywhere. Had he been able to find a group like Oscar Wilde’s “art for art’s sake” movement or the Bloomsbury group, both artistic cults that flourished during Cather’s lifetime, he might have found a friendly haven in a bohemian subculture, part of an aesthetic minority group. As it is, he is simply a doomed misfit.

"Paul's Case" is a narrative about a young man named Paul who has an intense passion for art and beauty. This passion drives him to steal money and escape to New York, where he indulges in a life of luxury and opulence. When his theft is uncovered, Paul decides to commit suicide rather than return to his mundane, middle-class existence in Pittsburgh. The story delves into significant themes that question Paul's character. Is he a victim of America's destructive values, or is he morally flawed and accountable for his actions? While his teachers, father, and friends consider him a 'bad case' with an abnormal personality, the story questions whether their perception of 'normal' is overly restrictive. Additionally, it explores whether the business and industrial world, represented by Cordelia Street, stifles cultural and aesthetic appreciation, or if Paul himself chooses to live in an illusion, losing touch with reality.

The American Dream
The American Dream is a central theme in the story. Paul's father and the residents of Cordelia Street, a "perfectly respectable" middle-class neighborhood, uphold values of hard work, family, and church. In their spare time, they share stories about their bosses, the "captains of industry" who rose from poverty to lead large corporations and live in luxury. Paul detests the monotonous lives of Cordelia Street's residents, who believe that hard work will eventually lead them to such glamorous lives. Yet, Paul shares their aspiration of becoming wealthy and living a worry-free life. He enjoys listening to the "legends of the iron kings" and, despite disdaining the "cash-boy stage," desires the "triumphs of the cash boys who became famous."

Paul briefly manages to live a life of leisure and beauty, but not through hard work—only through deception and crime. This allows him to access what he perceives as his true home, the high life of New York City, epitomized by the Waldorf Hotel. In this luxurious setting, Paul feels that "his surroundings explained him." He realizes that "this was what all the struggle was about" and that "money was everything." Cather encourages readers to reflect on whether the American dream of wealth corrupted Paul, instilling in him a destructive love of materialism that ultimately leads to his downfall.

Deception
Paul achieves his dream, albeit briefly, through deception, and Cather suggests that this achievement may also be a form of self-deception. At home, he lies to his father to cover his trips to the theater, and at school, he fabricates tales about the life he wishes to lead. In New York, although he feels liberated from "the necessity of petty lying," he is living the biggest lie of all: that he is a wealthy boy from Washington awaiting his globe-trotting parents. He believes that "this time there would be no awakening," which could be seen as a delusion or a foreshadowing of his suicide.

Choices and Consequences
The theme of free will is closely tied to Paul's pursuit of the American Dream and his use of deceit to achieve it. Is Paul a sensitive teenager overwhelmed by his surroundings, or is he a dishonest thief who shirks responsibility for his actions? In the story's final line, Cather writes that Paul "dropped back into the immense design of things," implying that his demise was inevitable. The portrait of theologian John Calvin in Paul's bedroom, known for his theory of predestination, supports this notion. However, Paul also appears to choose his destiny; for instance, he decides he would make the same choices again if given another chance. The reader is left to ponder whether Paul had no alternative but to flee Pittsburgh and life itself, or if his affection for illusion and artificiality reveals his personal flaws.

Beauty
To Paul, beauty is synonymous with life, and he finds it only in illusions: "the natural nearly always wore the guise of ugliness,...a certain element of artificiality seemed to him necessary in beauty." Paul feels most alive and at ease in art galleries, theaters, symphonies, and operas. When admiring paintings or listening to opera, Paul "loses himself." His identity fades as he merges with his surroundings. For Paul, art is a form of worship; the narrator describes the theater as his "secret temple." In the narrative, beauty holds immense power, captivating Paul and giving him a sense of freedom. However, it can also be destructive, making everyday life seem "worse than jail."

Alienation
Paul's dreams of beauty and glamour isolate him from most of humanity. Cather illustrates his alienation through his discomfort around those who should be closest to him—his family, neighbors, and classmates. In the opening scene, during his faculty hearing, Cather highlights this by noting how Paul recoils from his teacher's guiding hand. He feels "loathing" for his own street, and while neighbors gather for friendly chats on Sunday afternoons, he sits alone on the bottom step, "staring into the street." In school, he boasts about his friends at the theater and cannot "bear to have the other pupils think" he takes his studies seriously. Paul holds "contempt" for the mundane world, convinced he doesn't belong in it. He feels at home only among the wealthy strangers in New York's glittering parade, yet even there, he has "no especial desire to meet or to know any of these people." Though he is among them, he remains an outsider to their society.

Limitations and Opportunities
Paul's sense of alienation stems from the constraints he feels are imposed on him. His father, focused on business, disapproves of Paul's interests. He allows Paul to work as an usher only because he believes "a boy ought to be earning a little." Paul resorts to lying to sneak away to the theater, implying that if his father knew his true intentions, he would have prevented Paul from going. Upon arriving at the theater, Paul feels a sense of liberation, "like a prisoner set free." Eventually, he is barred from his cultural pursuits altogether, which he sees as an opportunity to escape and live the life he desires. When Paul discovers that his father is coming to New York to bring him back to Pittsburgh, a fate he considers "worse than jail," he concludes that death is his only means of escaping such restrictions.