Dear Serial Readers,
I must say this serial continues with its collection of unappealing characters. Morris does seem increasingly a cad, really, and Mrs. Penniman a meddlesome fool (something the narrator and the doctor seem to concur on). Sloper is willful, including his threat that he won't will his money to C if she marries M, but then so is Catherine in her subdued, dutiful way.
Sloper's distasteful views of his daughter's merits where she's "about as intelligent as a bundle of shawls" persist. I doubt he believes what he tells her at the end of this installment, that Morris should thank him because, by taking Catherine traveling in Europe, her "value is twice as great." He's already suggested she's somewhat dense. Still, that Sloper sees his daughter in terms of her value (monetary, cultural, aesthetic) is clear, and perhaps echoes how Morris sees her as well.
The last chapter surprised me. Sloper's alpine wandering made me think something dramatic would happen--he'd get killed in an avalanche. But when he returns to Catherine he confronts her about her marriage plans and expresses his anger. The installment ends just on the brink of their return to NY, what Sloper anticipates as "a most uncomfortable voyage." There's a bit of suspense here too--and I expect something will happen on that trip--maybe he'll fall overboard or die suddenly, and we'll get to see if Catherine has the grit to marry Morris after all. Her plan to wait indefinitely has its limits.
Next time: chapters 25-29. And since we're approaching the conclusion of this serial (only one more after next week), I'm thinking of returning to Dickens--The Old Curiosity Shop. What do you think, Serial Readers?
Serially yours,
Susan
3 comments:
I hadn’t noticed before Susan’s mention, but this is a most unappealing lot of characters. Despite them, the story grabs me, and I do feel some sympathy for Catherine, though her own little corner of pale stubbornness tries patience too. I enjoyed Susan’s fantastic end to Dr. Sloper in the Alps, having no such imagining myself, and I admire her restraint in judging him. I’d like to push him off a cliff, and Morris and at least one of the aunts along with him. If Catherine were pretty or charming—or SOMETHING—her father and her current suitor would still see her in terms of her use, seems to me.
I am liking Catherine a wee bit more; I like her persistence. But my favorite part is that she was happy to think that Morris did love her more than her aunt or her father because that belief "seemed, after all, invidious to no one." I also like that she thinks herself very bad, but both Morris and her father must be good; at least, she is shocked when her father says that he is not a good man. I was a bit surprised by that, too, and wonder how that will be shown, if it is.
Mrs. Almond seems more perceptive than Dr. Sloper or Mrs. Penniman. I also started to think about the value of a marital partner, and wondered whether one can love someone for money just as much as for looks, or for pleasant behavior. Those seem to be the top three concerns here, and are they presented as equally valuable? Perhaps they are.
I find myself disliking Dr. S. and Morris T the most when they use Catherine's desire to be good and caring against her, by cultivating her guilt. Mrs. P hasn't realized that she could pick a more effective method and that her niece is just different from her, so Catherine is--to my relief--impervious to her machinations.
I, too, expected more from the Alps: is James being willfully anti-sublime?
I think Old Curiosity Shop would be fun; I don't know whether I can keep up.
I have noticed, especially in planning to teach, that reading in installments has been an informative practice for me. I also discovered 19th-century British magazines on line through our library and I love looking at the sorts of magazines these would have been published in, including the ads, etc.
Dear Serialists,
I have been a lurking (and silent) Serial Susan reader for three books over the past couple of years, and oddly, all three follow the stories of widowed doctors and their daughters (Wives and Daughters, Miss Marjoriebanks, and now Washington Square). Forgive me for never posting a comment; the truth is that I rarely could keep up with the readings, and so invariably fell behind all of you. But I've appreciated the posts, and all the observations and questions that you have individually and collectively raised. Regarding Washington Square, I share the general dislike of Dr. Sloper, his manipulative sister Mrs. Penniman (given the centrality of money to this tale -- specifically Dr. Sloper's money -- this poor sister has an interesting name, no?), and Morris. I have more sympathy with Catherine. We know she is not clever or attractive; and when they return from Europe, Dr. Sloper says: "She didn't notice a stick or a stone all the while we were away--not a picture nor a view, not a statue nor a cathedral." (Sorry -- this is actually past Chapter 24.) But I was struck how her thoughts of Morris -- when she first meets him and on several subsequent occasions -- is that he is "beautiful." She is quite swept away by his beauty; that's the term she uses. This seems to be an interesting twist on the more common plot of the man being swept away by a woman's beauty, and the woman being drawn to him because of his wealth and status. This story inverts that entirely: Morris has the beauty, she has the wealth and status. Earlier in the book, Catherine is also dazzled by her father -- his brilliance and intellect, which she apprehends but feels she can never equal. It seems like the scene in the Alps changes her: the beginning of the end of her illusions about her father? I wonder if she'll also "wake up" to the truth about Morris. Leora
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