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• Peter: Is a pale young man who wakes up feeling ill because he drank too much the

previous night and he can’t remember anything about what he did.• The girl: Her name is not mentioned in the story. She is sitting on the couch and

doesn’t seem to have drunk in excess the previous night.• Secondary characters: Jim Pierson, Elinor, the maitre d’hotel, the waiter and an old

man. They were all at the party but are not much important in the story.

Themes

• Male/ female relationships in New York society in the 1920s: At this time, women in the USA were achieving greater equality with men. This was the time of the ‘flapper’ or young woman who cut her hair short, wore short dresses, smoked,

drank and went out to parties.• The place of alcohol in society: By that time alcohol drinking was officially

prohibited by the government but people continued drinking anyway, even in public places.

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. Why did she say that?

Ending

• The story ends with Peter asking for a drink and realising the situation he was involved in.

• 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