Talk:Washington Square (novel)
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[edit] Recent revisions
Don't much care for the recent rearrangement of the article, but I won't get into an edit war over it. We've now got some too-short paragraphs and sections and generally less interesting prose. The article was rated B-class (better than over 85% of all other articles about novels, and worse than only a handful of those articles) before the revisions. And those revisions hardly seem like an improvement to me. Sorry for the harsh opinion, but it's my honest opinion. Casey Abell 12:33, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Doctor Sloper's attitude towards Catherine
I apologise if I'm using the wrong format; I'm new here. Below is partial documentation (there's more) for the "questionable" assertion that during the grand tour Catherine learns that her father, whom she always adored, despises her in return. Actually, I thought this a quite commonplace observation! Still, I already find editing wars distasteful, so this is merely FYI. Cheers.
"She had spoken up to this moment without vehemence or outward sign of emotion, gently, reasoningly, only trying to explain. But her emotion had been ineffectually smothered, and it betrayed itself at last in the trembling of her voice. "It is a great thing to be separated like that from your father, when you have worshipped him before. It has made me very unhappy; or it would have made me so if I didn't love you. You can tell when a person speaks to you as if--as if---"
"As if what?"
"As if they despised you!" said Catherine, passionately. "He spoke that way the night before we sailed. It wasn't much, but it was enough, and I thought of it on the voyage, all the time. Then I made up my mind. I will never ask him for anything again, or expect anything from him. It would not be natural now. We must be very happy together, and we must not seem to depend upon his forgiveness. And, Morris, Morris, you must never despise me!'" Ilyaunfois 22:09, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
- The problem is that Catherine is not an accurate judge of character, at least for most of the book. In fact, Morris despises Catherine far more thoroughly than her father does, something Catherine is only too oblivious about for almost all of the novel. So a flat statement that Doctor Sloper despises his daughter is very questionable, especially if it's based solely on Catherine's opinion.
- In fact, the doctor's attitude towards his daughter is a complex mix (as you might expect from James) of condescension, disappointment and protectiveness. To characterize his attitude as a unalloyed "despising" is much too simplistic, in my view. If the doctor was only a simple ogre towards his daughter, then the book would be much more straightforward...but it wouldn't be a James novel. The real subtlety of the book is that the doctor is entirely correct in protecting his daughter from the worthless Townsend, and he helps prevent what would have been a disastrous and hurtful marriage. Yes, he does this in a heartless and brusque manner that rightly earns James' disapproval, but he wouldn't even have cared about the matter if he had completely despised Catherine.
- So I reverted the sentence about the doctor despising his daughter, especially based on Catherine's very questionable judgment. I think the article already does a good job of describing the doctor's attitude towards Catherine as the complicated mixture that it is. Casey Abell 13:56, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Major Themes And Literary Significance
A major theme of this work is the dilemma of choosing between faith in love, and obedience towards her family; it is a common theme of James. IMO the most subtle theme is that of self-doubt, both on the part of Catherine, and actually on the reader. I don't think it can be unequivocally stated that Dr. Sloper is right about Morris's bad character, as implied in this article. The reader has the doubt -- was Morris really a cad? Or is it possible that he actually loved Catherine, sacrificed his love for her security?
This was James's fifth book, following one of his most popular works, "Portrait of a Lady". The novel itself was not extremely popular, although by that time in his career James had a dedicated following. The book was considered somewhat tedious by certain critics. However, a few critics cited the novel as his best work to that time. Today "Washington Square" is regarded has one of James's masterworks; it has been called the only novel in which a man has successfully invaded the feminine field and produced work comparable to Jane Austen's.
The book was allegedly inspired by a story Henry James heard at a dinner party.
[edit] Judgements on the Character
I have to agree with the others that the judgements made regarding characters' feelings towards one another are fairly one-dimensional. The author of this article is incredibly unfair to Catherine, whom I do not feel is "mentally dull" at all. I agree with the previous commentors that the reader is often fooled into believing who is who and how they really feel.
