The book centers on the three person dynamic of the Sloper family. There's Austin Sloper, a semi-wealthy doctor whose two parts disdain, two parts sardonicism and one part charm. He has a daughter named Catherine, who he kinda loves between his fits of misogynistic contempt for her. Catherine isn't, in James portrayal, the most attractive person in a world, but she has a warm humanity to her that is easy to like. Lavinia, the aunt, serves as a buffer between the two, comforting Catherine and charming the mercurial Austin.
Entre Mssr Morris Townsend, a charming, amorous huckster, who is a toxic mix of seduction and bullsh*t. Before he entered the world of the Slopers, he was a grifter who relied on his wit and good looks to steal and gamble away women's fortunes. He originally doesn't look on Catherine too kindly, but upon hearing that her father has a steep trust fund for her after he dies, Morris suddenly deems her to be his Beatrice. Their courtship is a torrid yet fraudulent one, so transparent to all but Catherine that by the time he asks for her hand in marriage, I found myself yelling at the book for her not to. Upon hearing that a two-bit con man asked for her daughters hand in marriage, Dr Sloper becomes apoplectic and demands that Catherine not see him, sending their father/daughter relationship into a steep and brutal downward spiral. Lavinia is torn between her love for Catherine and the chance of a wedding and a bigger piece of the Dr Sloper trust fund pie.
As the story unfolds, the immense depth of the characters give it great intrigue and nuance. James masterfully sidesteps the temptation of typecasting by letting their actions speak for themselves. There are no easy enemies here: although Dr Sloper is at times a loathsome cur, you get the sense that deep down inside he really cares for his daughter, but is a member of his times and subject to the sexual morays of them, which were the presupposed inferiority of women and the demand for their submission. Even Morris, who by his own words and actions can be quite a slime ball, has an youthful, angst-ridden charm to him. Lavinia is no simple saint either, as in the course of this novel she ends up conning her niece nearly out of house and home.
Article comments
1 - wawan eko yulianto
thanks for the review. i'm reading washington square myself, and in agreement with most of the things you write here. to me, almost each of the characters in the novella has the quality that makes me clench my first in anger: dr. slopper's always-wanna-see-perfectionness, catherine's passiveness and innocence and naïveté, morris' too cultivated yet deceitful manner.
however, what makes me angry the most is the fact that catherine's blindness to see through the morris. she's just too unsuspecting yet stubborn.
i feel there's some kind of gap here. and i'm trying to reveal it. anyway, thanks for sharing your invaluable thoughts...
2 - Farnoosh Brock
Excellent review of Washington Square. I just finished this amazing, mesmerizing, supremely well-written novel and finished writing my book blog post on it but before doing so, I did a search and came across your website. I think Catherine is why I kept reading and reading. Excellent story really! Jamesophile you say? I like it! :)!