Summary of Henry James's "Washington Square"

Women could non vote, involve themselves in politics, or argue with their husbands, and they had no legal rights to possessions or their aver children in case of divorce (Bartley and Loxton 29).

A doctrine that utilise at the time was known as the doctrine of reissue spheres:

This doctrine, which was born among the English upper-middle classes, called for the separation of work and family life. It held that a woman's kosher place was in the home and not in the body of work; a man's natural sphere was in the creation of commerce--or, at any rate, at his job--and not at home (Reskin and Padavic 19).

Catherine broadly accepts this role for herself, though in the course of the novel the bearing her gender marks her for exploitation and control chafes more and more.

Women wish well Catherine were controlled by fathers until given to husbands, and they had precise choice in the matter. Virginia Woolf would later on write about women of the period and state,

Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; lots she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from c everyplace to cover; she is all only when absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the buckle down of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. many of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thought

If his daughter and sister do not do as he wishes, he can disinherit them. Homelessness and poverty are very real possibilities for both Lavinia and Catherine in the world they inhabit, the Washington Square home governed by a domineering father whose imagination of child-rearing is shaped by the idea of obedience (Goldfarb 44).

This does not mean that Catherine does not variety over the course of the novel. James does not make Dr. Sloper a completed man--Dr. Sloper is not al manners right, for instance--and he does not make Catherine a simple figure exclusively rather a more complex woman who emerges at least a circumstantial in the course of the novel. Perhaps this suggests that women in the nineteenth cytosine were growing as well and gaining some power.

Catherine seems to have little idea of he wealth in the early dowry of the novel, as is evident when she and her father argue over her crush and he tells her it would be best if she not appear to have :eighty thousand a year" if she does not: "Her construct of her prospective wealth was as yet very indecisive" (James 46). She begins to challenge her father over the issue of Townsend and dares to correct him: "I think we shall marry pretty soon" (James 230). In the end, she has the carriage to reject Townsend even in the face of her aunt's preference for him: "Everything is at rest(predicate) and buried. It was too serious; it made a great change in my life" (James 376). Catherine does change in the course of the novel, graceful more self-aware, more willing to challenge the power of the males ruling her life. The changes are gradual--this is not a world of action but a world of the slow interaction of characters:

He looks, at first glance, as if he did, but at a second he is a bit too handsome, a bit too soft, a bit too glib. And because he is mercenary and poor in a world where it is only permissible to be mercenary and rich (Auchincloss 51).

His way of playing with the unfortunate girl is even more deplorable than Townsend's and c
Ordercustompaper.com is a professional essay writing service at which you can buy essays on any topics and disciplines! All custom essays are written by professional writers!