You were perfectly fine
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Transcript of You were perfectly fine
You were perfectly fine
Dorothy Parker
About the author
• Dorothy parker (1893-1967) was born in New Jersey. She was a prolific author, started her career at the age of 23 working for Vogue. She is remembered for her cynical, urbane humour and sharp observations of human
behaviour.
About the story
• The story is set in 1929 in middle of the prohibition and shows the side effects of a night of heavy drinking and the consequences it can lead to. A man named Peter drank too much the previous night, gets up with a hangover and can’t remember anything.
Events
• Peter wakes up and finds a girl sitting on the couch and asks her about the previous night.
• She tells him he made a lot of silly things but, anyway, he was ‘perfectly fine’
• She reminds him what nice things he said to her on the taxi ride they went and he wants to kill himself.
Characters
• Principal characters: Peter and the girl.• Secondary characters: Jim Pierson, Elinor, the
maitre d’hotel, the waiter, an old man.
Themes
• Male/ female relationships in New York society in the 1920s
• The place of alcohol in society
Title
• ‘You were perfectly fine’ is the phrase the girl repeats over and over again all along the story, and, actually, the behaviour of Peter was just the opposite.
Ending
• The story ends with Peter asking for a drink and realising the situation he was on.
• We’ll never know if what the girl said was actually true or not. The story ending can be interpreted in several ways.
Connections among stories
• Couples• Love• Lies• Criticism towards society