Paul's Case

Free indirect discourse is a style of writing wherein the third-person narration seamlessly expresses the voice of a character, presenting unity between the narrative consciousness and that of the character. For example, when Paul is at last in New York, the narration states, “Everything was quite perfect; he was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be” (482). The narration includes no introductory tag—such as “Paul thought”—but instead voices Paul’s subjective perspective as though it is simply the objective reality being narrated. While narrator and character remain distinct, it is as though one speaks through the other.

Because this narrative technique creates an intimate psychological sympathy between narration and character, and because an author sometimes expresses their own personal perspective through narration, there is sometimes an implicit equation of the author’s mind with the character’s. In these cases, the author uses the language of the character—which is informed by psychology, class, gender, race, and material conditions—to convey their own ideas. An authorial biographical reading of “Paul’s Case” sees Cather employing this method to great effect, particularly because her own background is so similar to that of her character.