Paul Dorrance (Diagnosis)

Paul Dorrance is a man of forty-nine who lives in New York and has more trust in a piece of paper than in the word of his doctor and a specialist.

He lives in a flat in New York’s Wall Street which aptly describes his personality: dominated by work and under constant observation of his fellow members of society.

The moment he finds out that his time on earth is very finite indeed, he realizes that he has not achieved anything substantial in life (except in his profession).

To circumvent the situation of ‘dying without living’, he has the odd idea to marry his mistress of the past fifteen years,[i] Eleanor Welwood, for whom he actually does not feel much more than friendship and pity Dorrance sees himself as a vigorous man, whereas Eleanor is described by him as the “faded woman”[ii].

During the part of the story where Paul Dorrance thinks that he is doomed to die, he talks about himself as the ‘old’ Dorrance. The old Dorrance is a man that lives only to gain money and to be an appropriate member of the Wall Street society. A man that stays in his niche; a man fellows can trust.

In contrast, the ‘new’ Paul Dorrance desires to have a family: a wife and maybe children. He wants to travel and see the world. Realizing that he has missed everything substantial in life makes him pensive for a moment.[iii]

Still, it is conveyed that Paul Dorrance is an empathetic man; he feels pity for Eleanor’s decision to live with him.[iv] He sees himself as an ill and incurable man.

Nevertheless, Dorrance does not give Eleanor the chance make an informed decision about her future: he does not show her diagnosis before he proposes to her. At that time she does not know what lies ahead of her.

One could say that this act is rather more selfish than characterized by empathy.

[i] Cf.Wharton, Edith; Robinson, Roxana (2007): The New York stories of Edith Wharton. New York, NY: New York Review Books (New York Review Books classics). p.386.

[ii] Ibid. p.395.

[iii] Ibid. p.385.

[iv] Ibid. Cf. p.388.