t he was not born into. Another ironic aspect, which can be ascertained through symbolism, is Paul's need for beauty, for the good life. This need manifests Paul's deceit, leading him to attempt to portray himself as attractive and sophisticated. Paul thinks that the upper class are the beautiful people, one of which he wants to be. His strong desire to fill this need for beauty and to be one of the beautiful people leads Paul into being deceptive about who he is andwhere he comes from. It is this need which drives him to attempt to fit in with the upper class in New York. "[I]n Paul's world, the natural nearly always wore the guise of ugliness, that a certain element of artificiality seemed to him necessary in beauty." Paul himself is proof of his need for artificiality in beauty, in that Paul's whole masquerade of being rich, sophisticated, and well liked is just that -- a facade. His charm is completelyfalse, a simple front intended to fool people. He feels that his natural state, where he is from and his life on Cordelia Street, is ugly; the life of the performers in Carnige Hall, the actors, their life is beautiful. There are several aspects of the story which are symbolic of both Paul's deceit and his need to be a part of the sophisticated upper class. One such example is the instance in which he "shook over his fingers a few drops of violet water from the bottle he kept hidden in his drawer" Paul was so obsessed with his appearance, so consumed by desire to be admired and respectable, that he had to carefully wash off all traces of his mediocre life. After removing all reminders of the house on Cordelia Street, Paul continues on to use the violet water, which he thinks that only sophisticated people use, like those he seats at Carnige Hall. He keeps the water hidden away because it is so important to him, to the successful portrayal of his facade, that he can't risk any one else finding it. The washing is symbolic of the undesire...
