The Sentimental Trap:
Henry James' Washington Square

Henry James’ Washington Square will catch your attention immediately. With its singular and sarcastic representation of romance, love, and despair, Washington Square should be read for its witty language, as well as its largely character-driven plot. It will challenge your mind without giving you a headache, while at the same time giving you some good laughs at the silliness of sentiment and the foolishness of materialism.

Washington Square tells the story of Catherine Sloper and her failed romance with Morris Townsend, sabotaged by the meddling of Catherine’s Aunt Penniman and father, Dr. Austin Sloper. Catherine is rather plain and drab, with no other striking virtue than the large fortune she is to inherit at her father’s death or her marriage to a respectable man. Strangely enough, Catherine catches the attention of the very handsome and sadly impoverished Mr. Morris Townsend, who does his very best to court Catherine and even succeeds in making her fall in love. Despite the meddling encouragement of Catherine’s Aunt Penniman, Catherine’s father strongly opposes the match. Dr. Sloper, sarcastic to a fault, does not want his fortune squandered by the fickle tastes of Morris Townsend, who he believes is simply a fortune hunter. Meanwhile, Aunt Penniman does everything in her power to thwart her brother’s efforts to discourage the lovers because she is blinded by her own sentiment and dreams of romance.

Washington Square criticizes both sentimentality and the futile attachment to material possessions seeking rather a transcendence of both ideologies. Catherine’s father conveys a severe attachment to his material wealth that continues after his death and Mrs. Penniman loses herself in sentiment that blinds her from realizing Townsend’s motives for courting Catherine. Catherine, easily swayed by suggestion, falls into the sentimental trap, and it is only through trauma that she can transcend her role as a commodity in the lives of those around her in order to live a fuller and richer life. Even though Dr. Sloper feels he has triumphed over Catherine, it is Catherine who ultimately triumphs over all the other characters when she breaks free from their control.

--Dana Morency