Catherines Inner Self in Henry Jamess Washington Square :: Henry James Washington Square

Catherines Inner Self in heat content packs uppercase SquareMuch is said of the internal reality of the characters in Henry Jamess story Washington Square. It is seen as a psychological novel where most of the action takes place in the minds of the characters. In an essay titled, Washington Square A Study in the Growth of an Inner Self, James W. Gargano addresses the internal reality of the character Catherine Sloper. Within the essay, Gargano argues that James anatomizes the process by which Catherines active, secret existence transforms her into an imaginative woman (129). Although a few of his exposit seem far-fetched, I agree with the major arguments of his critique. Most of his examples support his dissertation well.Early in the essay Gargano states that, in Jamess fiction, naivete may survive the look of an empty mind, but it is often the ideal preparation for receiving invigoration fully and impressionably (130). Gargano then tells us that Catherine will whole step mor e intensely because she has not kn let strong emotions before. According to him, her ingenuousness is the key to her legitimacy and her sense of seeing, feeling, and judging life for the first time (130). I feel this is a key element in understanding Catherine.Gargano also brings appear how well James traces Catherines developing insight (131) into her own nature. He refers to the start in the novel where James writes, She watched herself as she would have watched another person, and wondered what she would do (qtd. in Gargano 131). Then Gargano adds, it is hard to write off as soggy a young woman with such a vivid contact with her own development and Gargano also felt that James intended the dullness to be ascribed to the bright people around her who never even glimpse her out of sight abysses (131). This is an interesting viewpoint, which, when applied to the novel, adds a deeper perception of the characters.Some of Garganos other premise were not as insightful for me. For ex ample, I had trouble with what Gargano called Catherines transcendentalizing imagination that causes her to shape beautiful figments of Townsend that possess her and become the paramount value of her life, and other attachments, no matter how strong, must somehow accommodate themselves to it. (132). This contention tends to belittle Catherines cognition as well as her grasp of reality.I also disagreed with iodin of Garganos conclusions that, loss is the real goal for which Jamess central characters are secretly striving, that they quest after life only to see that it falls below their lofty expectations and that control and transcendence are gained by renunciation (135).