Washington Square by Henry James Term Paper

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Washington Square by Henry James. The writer explores the importance of Mrs. Penniman in the novel with a focus on her role's impact on the character of Catherine. There was one source used to complete this paper.

From the beginning of writing fiction authors have built their stories around the protagonist. Usually there is one person who is closely involved with the protagonist as well. This is what draws the reader into the story and helps define the boundaries and the structure of the plot. Every once in awhile the world is treated to an author who can provide an important non-protagonist character who contributes as much to the story as the protagonists do. This is the case in the classic tale of Washington Square by Henry James. In this story James works to present a story of love, defiance, obedience, greed and heartache. While this is being developed James provides the reader with the character of Mrs. Penniman who plays a crucial part in the entire story. Mrs. Penniman impacts the life of Catherine in an almost constant manner, in both positive and negative ways. She is the one who causes Catherine to make many of the choices she makes regarding her handling of her love of Morris, and the hatred her father feels for Morris. Mrs. Penniman is a central figure to the entire plot of the story though she is not by most definitions a protagonist.

To fully understand the impact and influence that Mrs. Penniman (Catherine's aunt) has in the story it is important to have a grasp of the story itself. This is a story of a plain girl named Catherine who falls in love with a pauper named Morris Townsend. Her father is furious because he believes Townsend is really only interested in the fortune Catherine's mother left her when she died. Catherine has been raised to not defy her father, and in that upbringing she has not developed a self-confidence that initially allows her to do so. Mrs. Penniman is the sister to Catherine's father, and therefore Catherine's aunt. She plays a most crucial part in the entire story because if it was not for her direction, meddling and interference the story would stop at the first objection by Catherine's dad to stop the lovers from being together (James, 1990).

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Mrs. Penniman has a streak of imagination that in the era the story is set in would be considered wild by any standards. She is a widow and she is lonely and she has a bit of a chip n her shoulder when it comes to the bossy and controlling attitude of her brother, Catherine's father. Because she is a bored old woman she decides to turn the relationship of Morris and Catherine into an amusing hobby and she spends the entire book going between the two of them and playing them like a puppeteer who is charge of the puppet strings.

In addition to her meddlesome attitude she becomes completely taken by Townsend. Perhaps this is because she is lonely herself, or she believes if she were a bit younger she could catch the eye of someone like him as well. Whatever the reason she spends the book manipulating Catherine to please Morris (James, 1990). If Morris wants Catherine to love him Lavina works her niece to do so. If Morris feels the time has come to let her go, which happens several times in the book, the aunt works to help keep him in their lives through their own contact. She gives him whatever he wants and she works to maintain his contact in Catherine's life so that she can continue to have him in her life as well.

Mrs. Penniman encourages Catherine to continue a relationship with Morris regardless of her father's objections. Where she wavers and waffles however is in her advice about openly defying her father (James, 1990). She starts out by telling her niece that she should just love and marry Morris with or without her father's approval, but at later times she encourages the niece to continue to….....

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