The entire trajectory of the story exists in the gap between Paul’s idealized life and his reality. The story opens with Paul’s reality: He finds his Pittsburgh existence unbearably drab, unfulfilling, and oppressive. However, his job as a theater usher offers him a glimpse into something idealized: discussions of worldly and aesthetic pursuits, lavish lifestyles of drink and food, surroundings of elegance and beauty. At first, the real and the ideal are not only remote from one another but seemingly beyond reconciliation, as such an ideal life is seldom offered to someone of Paul’s class and location. The story’s contemporary Pittsburgh, with its many steel factories, was a very working-class city and not usually known for its lushness.

Still, Paul tries to close the gap. Indeed, the story is driven by his impulse to do so. His efforts, however, have the strain of artifice; Paul’s realized ideal is never truly realized, as it is essentially a performance, just like the concerts that first inspire his venture. He sets out with money that, because it is stolen, is only the façade of wealth. His quarters at the Waldorf, in addition to being bought with the illicit funds, he attains only because he lies to the staff about his identity.