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