The Washington Square: Catherine Sloper: Victim of Austin Sloper, Morris Townsend, and Aunt Penniman
At the beginning of Washington Square by Henry James , poor, plain Catherine is approached at a party by dashing and handsome Morris Townsend. Out of the blue he comes to her and starts to be entranced by her charms. She is alarmed, never having recognized any charms within herself to charm anyone, and pleased. The courtship soon begins. Catherine moves “outside” herself in loving Townsend, her love becomes a private possession to be concealed, hoarded, and quietly assessed. Catherine easily becomes an victim of everyone around her. Her father is displeased with her personality; claiming that it is not as vibrant as her mother’s. Morris Townsend
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She is not Morris's lover -- except in her fantasies. She is not a heroine, good or bad, except in her fantasies. She is a comic character, a foil to the others; silly, sentimental, artificial, and, as a matter of policy, false. She knows nothing about love ; her idea is romance -- forever urging Catherine to stage scenes and arrange secret interviews. Everyone in the novel knows she is not to be taken seriously. Catherine alone comes to see her for what she really is: "Her companion was a dangerous woman . . . "This will be the first step in Catherine's education.
After Morris's proposal, the Doctor forbids Catherine to see him. Aunt Penniman contrives to do so instead.
On receiving this news the girl started with a sense of pain. She felt angry for the moment; it was almost the first time she had ever felt angry. It seemed to her that her aunt was meddlesome; and from this came a vague apprehension that she would spoil something.
"I don't see why you should have seen him. I don't think it was right," Catherine said . . . .
Her aunt seemed to her aggressive and foolish, and to see it so clearly -- to judge Aunt Penniman so positively -- made her feel old and
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But prospects are beginning to look doubtful, and Morris, having proposed (on Aunt Penniman's advice) has got himself in pretty deep. Now comes a reprieve. The Doctor decides to take Catherine to Europe--a tactical maneuver, the standard cure for such cases.
Morris is all for it:
"Should you like to see all those celebrated things over there?" "Oh, no, Morris!" said Catherine quite deprecatingly.
"Gracious Heaven, what a dull woman!" Morris exclaimed to himself.
Catherine doesn't want to go to Europe because she doesn't want to be away from him. But how should that occur to Morris -- who has never known how it feels? He can't put himself in that place.
James is playing for time too. He wants to slow the action, but he doesn't want to stop it. So the father and daughter depart -- and the accomplices take their places. Aunt Penniman gets to be Catherine -mistress of the house, courted by Morris; Morris gets to be Dr. Sloper -- drinking the Doctor's wine, eating at the Doctor's table, smoking the Doctor's cigars while sitting in the Doctor's chair. They enjoy "uncontested dominion." They occupy Washington Square -- which is, after all, the sole object of Morris's
I looked around at everyone in the room and saw the sorrow in their eyes. My eyes first fell on my grandmother, usually the beacon of strength in our family. My grandmother looked as if she had been crying for a very long period of time. Her face looked more wrinkled than before underneath the wild, white hair atop her head. The face of this once youthful person now looked like a grape that had been dried in the sun to become a raisin. Her hair looked like it had not been brushed since the previous day as if created from high wispy clouds on a bright sunny day.
Once arriving in Bath, Catherine’s lack of acquaintances lead her to spend most of her time with Mrs. Allen. Mrs. Allen is Catherine’s guardian in Bath. As a guardian, Mrs. Allen’s responsibility is to find acquaintances for Catherine. Instead, Mrs. Allen says she wishes she knew people in Bath to introduce Catherine to. The situation that occurs during the ball is extremely humiliating for Catherine. Mrs. Allen and Catherine sit at a tea table together which is considered improper. Mrs. Allen’s role is to find gentlemen for Catherine to dance with. Again, Mrs. Allen complains about her lack of acquaintances. Catherine is determined to avoid these embarrassing situations by finding a friend. When Mrs. Allen introduces Catherine to Isabella, Catherine is pleased to have met someone. Catherine’s friendship with Isabella is based purely on opportunity and self-interest. They lack many of the similarities and traits that friends usually have. One would think that close friends would know a lot about one another, but in this case Catherine and Isabella know very little about one another. The only topics they converse in are fashion, men, gothic novels, and gossip. Close friends tend to know what the other is thinking. Since friends spend most of their time together, they start picking up small details that the other does or implies. Catherine does not notice the hidden mea...
This quote explained Edgars opinion on Catherine because she is over exaggerating with her emotions. She talks about dying and love. She also knows this will get a rise out of Edgar. But she also uses her intelligence because she realizes that Heathcliff will never love or miss her. Catherine puts her thoughts into a reality
“Tell April you’re sick,” she would say. And most often I would. But I didn’t seem blessed with her lack of principles. On many occasions April would find out that I really went to Jessica’s house and to the mall without her. These occasions taught me that it is more painful to be caught in a lie than to tell the truth in the first place. I wondered how it was possible that my aunt had never learned that lesson that I had just learned so painfully and so easily.
“Fine, but only for an hour” said Whitney. “I don't have a good feeling about this place anyways.”
Catherine is very pleased to meet Isabella after being disappointed in not seeing Mr Tilney again. The narrator informs the reader that Catherine is fortunate in finding a friend as ‘Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.’ (p.18 NA). Isabella being the elder of the two has much more knowledge of fashionable society than Catherine and is, therefore, able to teach her a great deal about the expectations of society at that time.
When they first met Henry perceived Miss Barkley as a woman in nurse’s uniform with gray eyes and tawny skin and described her as very beautiful, while on the other hand Rinaldi sees her as more of a “sex object” (Novel Summaries Analysis) with which she does not want to be seen as or associated as. Frederick once he grows into himself sees her for her true, genuine self and not for just some play toy. Miss Barkley knows grief just as well as Frederick seems to know and find in this novel. She also tried to make fantasies to allow being around the war easier to bear for herself. In the beginning Catherine pretends she is in love with Frederick to allow herself to escape the tragic memory of losing her fiance in battle (LitCharts.) so it is much inferred that losing her fiance caused a loss of innocence in herself as well. Miss Barkley is also seen through the beginning of the book as a little insecure and worried about Frederick’s true intentions. She states, “Oh, darling, she said. You will be good to me, won’t you?.... “You will, won’t you?” (Hemingway 27) This explains a loss of innocence in Miss Barkley because she was very hesitant on letting Henry in. He was putting out that he liked her, but she wasn’t so sure about it. Once she let him kiss her, she began to open up to him more thus in a way of losing her innocence and
Catherine is experienced when it comes to love and loss since she lost her fiancé in an earlier war. She cannot depend on another person so she tries not to depend on Fredric to bring order to her life and less chaos. This then allows her to be emotionally stronger when Fredric has to go off to war again.
The woman in the story wants to get well and makes several suggestions to John to help her in healing, however, John consistently refuses all of her requests and down-plays her illness. The woman in this story knows that she is not quite mentally well. She believes that she only suffers from "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency." She believes that her "case is not serious!" The woman's husband, John, is a physician and does not really believe that she is ill. With all good intentions, he controls her life and makes all decisions. He believes that he always knows what is best for her, no matter what she wants or desires, or what she believes may help her to heal. Several times throughout the story the woman must rush to put away her writings before she is caught for John believes that she is given to flights of fancy and imagination and must rest her mind. John believes that his plan of treatment will cure her mild case of mental illness, no matter what she feels will help her to recover. He dismisses her suggestions as unimportant and trivial. His wife wanted to stay in the downstairs room where there were roses on the window and pretty curtains, but John decided that the upstairs bedroom was best for her, so that was where she stayed. When she told John that she did not believe that she was getting well in the old house and that she wanted to go home, he told her that they must stay the remainder of the three weeks. She wanted to visit with her Cousin Henry and Julia, and John would not allow her to visit for she would not be able to handle such a visit.
Eddie thinks that B. is too friendly, he is worried that they might end up sleeping on the floor and their guests might end up having the beds. Eddie wants Catherine to finish school and once again this shows concern for Catherine, but B sides with Catherine, once again it is as if they have an understanding with each other. B knows that Eddie is being too over protective and that they cannot keep Catherine in cotton wool all of her life. Eddie does want the best for Catherine but B realises that she may not get another well-paid job like this one.
As a child, Catherine was a “wild, wicked slip...defying [the household] with her bold, saucy look, and her ready words...” (Brontë 44). Her and Heathcliff would create mischief together and run around the moors without a care in the world. This changes when Catherine spends five weeks at Thrushcross Grange with the Lintons. After spending this time with the distinguished family, Catherine dissociates from her former self, as well as Heathcliff, and readily accepts her lady-like image. Repressing her old, untamed life, she projects her flaws onto Heathcliff and acts cruelly towards him. She calls him “an unreclaimed creature, without refinement, without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone”
Catherine uses Henry to fill in the pain caused by the death of her fiance, breaking the convention that only males treat their partners as mere utilities. At the beginning of her relationship with Henry, she makes him role play as her former lover, with her saying “Say ‘I’ve come back to Catherine in the night,’” to which Henry obediently responds, “I’ve come back to Catherine in the night,” and Catherine rejoices, “Oh darling, you have come back, haven’t you?” (Hemingway 30). Catherine demonstrates that she does not possess true love for Henry. To her, Henry’s role playing is but a Nepenthe for the death of her late fiance. Later in the novel, when she seems to truly love Henry, she betrays her true intentions: “‘Don’t touch me,’she said. I let go of her hand.
Mrs Hurst had been sitting with Caroline, watching the emotions run through her sisters face; waiting for the tantrum to start. It never took long, when she realised she was not going to get something she wanted; normally there was a stamp of the foot, maybe an object thrown, more of often, it was taking her anger out on the loyal servants to Charles. Louisa Hurst knew her sister all to well. Now Caroline knew that Mr Darcy might still yet recover, she knew that plans would start to form in Caroline's mind on how to win him back. She had never believed the man had never wanted her and this made her even more determined to get him or more to the point get his fortune.
Throughout the novel there are instances in which Sophia is treated as a sounding board for expressions and ideas of love. She is the perpetually the object of romantic, sexual, and/or paternal love. I intend to support the above thesis partly by exploring these instances. For example, the narrator of Tom Jones, with characteristic magisterial authority, states that Squire Western loves his daughter. However, a good portion of the story primarily involves him in a quest to exert his unmitigated power over her. By examining this situation one may see how parental love is conditional on, or at least intertwined with, the submission of Sophia to the will of her father. It may be even be inferred that love as such is a bane to pers...
Shortly after meeting Catherine, Frederick attempts to get her into bed. By complimenting her hair, admitting that she had every right to slap him, and holding her hand, he uses these words and actions to get a kiss, the first step towards his goal. He does not stop to think that she might still be grieving for her lost boy and so he should take it slowly. Instead, he plunges right into trying to get her into bed without thinking about how she might feel. When he is hurt and in the hospital, he demands that the nurses pay attention to him although they are not ready for an injured soldier. He gets upset because they do not want to do anything without the doctor's permission. They were trying to do their job and he just made it more difficult for them. He also did not notice that Catherine was getting tired from working so much. All he saw was that they got to spend time together and so did not think that she might be wearing herself down. It was only with a lot of convincing that he finally saw that she needed some time off.