- Lost in a world of fantasy, young working-class Paul dreams of escaping his dreary existence in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh. As fate would have it Paul gets his chance by stealing some money and subsequently running off to glamorous New York City.—Anonymous
- Set in the year 1906, 'Paul's Case', is about a young teenage boy who struggles to fit in at home and in school. The story begins with Paul (Eric Roberts), suspended from his high school. He meets with his principal and teachers who complain about Paul's "defiant manner" in class and the "physical aversion" he exhibits toward his teachers. One of Paul's teachers also mentions that Paul's mother died back when he was a child in Colorado.
Paul works as an usher at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. His job is one of the only parts of his life he enjoys. He stays for the concert and enjoys the social scene while losing himself in the music. After the concert, Paul follows the soloist backstage to have a talk with her inside her dressing room about her acting career.
It is soon revealed that Paul and his father have a poor relationship. Upon returning home very late one night, Paul enters through the basement window to avoid a confrontation with his father. Paul's relationship with his father is full of tension. While in the basement, Paul gets nervous that his father will come downstairs with a shotgun and kill him. Paul stays awake for the remainder of the night, imagining what would happen if his father mistook him for a burglar and shot him, or if his dad would recognize him in time. Not only does Paul wonder if his father will recognize him in time, but he also entertains the idea of his father possibly regretting not shooting him when he had the chance to do so.
Paul despises the people on Cordelia Street where he and his father live as they serve to remind him of his own lackluster life. Although his father considers him a role model for Paul, Paul is unimpressed by a plodding young man who works for an iron company and is married with four children. While Paul longs to be wealthy, cultivated, and powerful, he lacks the stamina and ambition to attempt to change his condition. Instead, Paul escapes his monotonous life by visiting Charley Edwards; a young actor that frequents Carnegie Hall (and whom Paul clearly has a crush on). Later on, Paul makes it clear to one of his teachers that his job ushering is more important than his schoolwork, causing his father to prevent him from continuing to work as an usher.
Paul takes a train to New York City after stealing money from his new clerical job that his father sets him up with. Paul buys an expensive wardrobe, rents a room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and walks around the city. He also meets a college guy from San Francisco at the hotel bar, who describes the city's lively social scene. His few days of impersonating a rich, privileged young man, brings Paul more contentment than he had ever known because living a prosperous life is Paul's only hope and dream. However, on the eighth day of his stay in New York, after spending most of his money, Paul read from a Pittsburgh newspaper that his theft has been made public. His father has returned the money and is on his way to New York City to bring Paul back home to Pittsburgh.
Paul then reveals that he had bought a gun on his first day in New York City, and briefly considers shooting himself to avoid returning to his old life in Pittsburgh. Paul, after seeing his father arrive at the hotel, checks out and takes a train out of town. Rather than return to Pittsburgh, Paul disembarks somewhere along the way, and walks along a snowy track through the woods and finds himself at an overpass over some train tracks. Paul commits suicide by jumping off the overpass and in front of a moving train. Paul made the ultimate decision of taking his own life because the thought of returning to his old repressed lifestyle was too much for him to handle.
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