The Character of Catherine Slooper in Washington Square

Catherine Slooper, the protagonist of the novel Washington Square by Henry James, has been a highly controversial character. While many scholars argue that she is an ordinary woman others consider that she is an extraordinary heroine. In this essay I would like to demonstrate that she is both, an ordinary woman and an extraordinary heroine.

To some extent it is true that Catherine is an ordinary woman. As Henry James points in the novel “she was not ugly; she had simply a plain, dull, gentle countenance”. She is not sociable either, in fact, she is very shy; she is not very ladylike, for example when her father comes home she just runs wildly towards him; her father is ashamed of her because she is not really skilful and, as consequence she is not self-confident.

However, it is necessary to remember that Catherine has a huge variety of elements of strength which make her an extraordinary heroine. To start with, she shows us through two moments that she cares about love rather than about money. The first one is when she wants to marry Morris even though her father wants to disinherit her; and the second one is when at the end of the book, she does not promise her father that she is not going to marry Morris although she knows she is not going to do it, and even knowing that she is going to lose her fortune. This second act could be considered heroic in another way too: she does not say to her father what he wants to hear, so it is a way of saying that she is not going to obey anyone anymore. Regarding obedience and independence, it is important to mention the fact that she does not get married, although she has several opportunities, in order to show that she can take her own decisions. A third way of expressing heroisms is when although being a victim (broken-hearted), Catherine does not cry in front of