Does Henry James present Catherine Sloper as that of a conventional character in the early chapters?
In his novel ‘Washington Square’ Henry James presents his foremost heroine, Catherine Sloper, in an extremely different way than most 19th Century authors. James has strangely presented her as an unconventional heroine; this is shown in many of her features, characteristics and proceedings in her life. The way James introduces the reader to the novel, in the opening chapters, lets the reader truly see the characters and understand them in great detail, this technique of using narrative methods allows the reader to see that Catherine Sloper is an unconventional character.
James portrays Catherine as an unconventional heroine early on in the novel on page three. This is a look at her birth and the situation that surrounded it, her mother died, “leaving Austin Sloper a widower”. Dr Sloper took this badly, partially down to the fact that he was a well-known doctor, so this reflected poorly on him. As a result of this, his love for Catherine seemed to be slight and limited. Dr Sloper was disappointed of his daughter before his wife died, showing that she really didn’t stand a chance. To add to the idea that she didn’t have much of a chance of becoming loved like she should be, Dr Sloper’s opinion on women in general wasn’t particularly great, his opinion on the female sex, wasn’t exalted. His opinions of his daughter help to argue the point that she is unconventional. The Doctor is detached from Catherine and unconventionally allows his sister, Mrs Penniman to “take charge of her nieces education”. He doesn’t get involved with her and only wishes that she became a “clever women”. His descriptions of her don’t make her appear to be particularly special in his “eyes”, which is what the majority of fathers think of their daughter. His opinion of her moral purity was “abundantly justified”, showing that he had an excuse to praise and boast her, yet he didn’t and didn’t think it anything exceptional, just normal.
