Washington Square

Henry James (1843-1916) was born in New York. Coming from a rather well-off family, he enjoyed good education and travelled extensively to England, Switzerland, France and Germany. He graduated from Harvard Law School. He started his literary career with a volume of short-stories, “A Passionate Pilgrim” (1871). In 1876 he settled in London. In 1915 he became a British subject to protest against America’s aloofness from World War I. Some of the most important novels are: “The American” (1877), “The Portrait of a Lady ”(1881), “The Princess Casamassima”(1886). After 1890 begins his major period of creation: “The Tragic Muse”(1890), “The Spoils of Poynton”(1897), “The Ambassadors”(1903), “The Golden Bowl”(1904). He is also the author of a series of critical writings and dramas.

“Washington Square”(1881) is one of James’s early novels which focuses on the theme of unfulfilled love. Love instead of becoming a reason for joy is seen as a source of enormous frustration, especially due to the social code of behaviour imposed by the Puritanism of the New World.

The story of the novel takes place in the Puritan America of the 19th century. Two of the main characters, dr. Sloper and his daughter, belong to the upper middle class, while the third protagonist of the novel, Morris Townsend, comes from a lower social class. He is the typical upstart created by this kind of mercantile society in which “the good match” is only possibility he has to climb the social hierarchy. Therefore, in a way, Morris Townsend is not only the representative of this society, but also its victim.

Dr. Sloper is a well-off bourgeois and his daughter, Catherine Sloper, his rich heiress. Morris Townsend is Catherine suitor. Although Catherine Sloper is favoured neither by beauty nor by intelligence, she has a kind heart and her love for Morris Townsend is true. Her tyrannical father keeps her under close scrutiny, being apparently more interested in the future rather than in his daughter’s happiness.