Washington Square Commentary

Literatura Norteamericana I

Washington Square
To start with, this fragment belongs to the novel “Washington Square”, a tragicomedy
which was written by Henry James and published in 1880.
Thefragment is taken from chapter 6. It deals with the second time that Morris
Townsend visits Dr. Sloper’s house when he is not at home. Aunt Lavinia has invited
him again in order to make him joinCatherine, since aunt Lavinia feels like the gobetween in this relation. Lavinia does not join Mr.Townsend and Catherine in the
parlour, and so Morris has the great opportunity to charm Catherine, andthis is
precisely what he does as one can observe in the text.
It is reflected how each one behaves when they are all alone. Mr. Townsend tries to
seem interested in Catherine although his attitudeis not the typical romantic attitude
that a man in love could show. He feels relaxed and secure, trying to charm Catherine
through trying to pretend that he is interested in her taste, herpersonality and so on, as
one can observe in line 11 when Morris says: “Tell me about yourself, give me a little
sketch”. On the other hand, Catherine´s attitude is more reserved although she ends upconfessing some of her likes like going to the theatre or operatic music, (lines 13). It can
be observed the differences between both. Catherine cannot believe that a man like Mr.
Townsend, who apparentlyis a very attractive and a brilliant man, can be interested in
her.
At the start, she seems to be quite shy whereas Mr. Townsend does not show in any
moment any kind of insecurity since he ismouthy and knows that Catherine rarely has
had an occasion like this to be conquered by any knight.
The most outstanding of this fragment is the way in which Mr. Townsend tries to
impress Catherineshowing her that they may have many things in common, as it can be
observed in lines 17 and 18: “Morris Townsend agreed with her that books were
tiresome things; only, as he said, you had to read a...