How we cite our quotes: (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There it was, what he wanted—tangibly before him, like the fairy world of a Christmas pantomime, but mocking spirits stood guard at the doors, and, as the rain beat in his face, Paul wondered whether he were destined always to shiver in the black night outside, looking up at it. (1.17)
This is our first hint that Paul's major life goal is to spend all his time at fancy hotels. If the alternative is wet boots, sure, we get it. But maybe there's a happy medium?
Quote #2
Suppose his father had heard him getting in at the window and come down and shot him for a burglar? Then, again, suppose his father had come down, pistol in hand, and he had cried out in time to save himself, and his father had been horrified to think how nearly he had killed him? Then, again, suppose a day should come when his father would remember that night, and wish there had been no warning cry to stay his hand? (1.21)
Okay, so Paul maybe cares about his relationship with his father after all—but this sure is a funny way of showing it.
Quote #3
When these stories lost their effect, and his audience grew listless, he became desperate and would bid all the boys good-bye, announcing that he was going to travel for awhile; going to Naples, to Venice, to Egypt. (1.33)
If nothing else, Paul's stories are probably entertaining—but his classmates can't possibly be buying them, right?
Quote #4
Not once, but a hundred times, Paul had planned this entry into New York. He had gone over every detail of it with Charley Edwards, and in his scrap book at home there were pages of description about New York hotels, cut from the Sunday papers. (2.41)
Usually, you don't put your scrapbook together until after the vacation. Not Paul, though.
Quote #5
The flowers, the white linen, the many-coloured wine glasses, the gay toilettes of the women, the low popping of corks, the undulating repetitions of the Blue Danube from the orchestra, all flooded Paul's dream with bewildering radiance. (2.51)
We're seriously questioning Paul's financial planning skills, here. Three thousand dollars sounds like a lot of money until you blow it all on silk underwear and champagne.
Quote #6
He reflected drowsily, to the swell of the music and the chill sweetness of his wine, that he might have done it more wisely. He might have caught an outbound steamer and been well out of their clutches before now. But the other side of the world had seemed too far away and too uncertain then; he could not have waited for it; his need had been too sharp. (2.59)
Look, we get agitated if our email takes longer than two second to load, so we totally get this need for instant gratification. At the same time, maybe this inability to plan for the future has something to do with Paul's feelings of powerlessness.
Quote #7
The thing was winding itself up; he had thought of that on his first glorious day in New York, and had even provided a way to snap the thread. It lay on his dressing-table now; he had got it out last night when he came blindly up from dinner, but the shiny metal hurt his eyes, and he disliked the looks of it. (2.61)
Proving Chekhov wrong (maybe), here's a gun that never goes off. Paul is after a way more dramatic gesture.