 Whether you're a student studying Washington Square as part of your upcoming exams, or you're simply somebody that has really enjoyed reading Washington Square by Henry James, and you simply want to recap on key events within this entire story, what I thought would be really useful is creating a plot summary, so essentially a mind map of all the key events that happen within this story, okay, within this American tale. I thought it would be useful to essentially summarize in a nutshell what the key events of this narrative is, okay. I'll give you a very tragic narrative, especially for our heroine, Catherine Sloper, okay. So as I've mentioned, I have created a mind map here, which I'll be walking you through just now, okay. So remember, when it comes to Washington Square, of course, we have the tragic heroine, okay, or the tragic hero, Catherine, who is torn between a rock and a hard place, or rather she's stuck between a rock and a hard place, between this love that she's developed for Maurice Townsend, who we realize is actually a very mercenary, calculating man, versus the loyalty and duty that she fills towards her father, who also is equally quite harsh to her, Dr. Sloper, okay. So let's have a look at the key events that happen and how this tragedy essentially unfolds within this story. So the story starts off by telling us that Dr. Sloper actually had married out of love, and his wife had initially given birth to a son who died at three years old, so he died as an infant. Then she later gave birth to Catherine, and because Catherine was a girl, this was to Dr. Sloper's great disappointment. And a week later, a week after she gave birth to Catherine, she herself died, okay. So Dr. Sloper's real love ended up dying, okay, a woman he'd married out of his own choice, a love marriage, okay. Afterwards, we then learn that Mrs. Peneman, one of his sisters, she's a widow. She comes over to stay with Dr. Sloper. She stays in his residence. He's very wealthy. He's part of New York's elite class. So she stays with them in order to help out with the young Catherine, make her into a woman as Dr. Sloper wishes. And she ends up staying indefinitely, okay. So it was meant to be kind of a semi-temporary arrangement, but she ended up staying there while past Catherine's youth. Then when Catherine grows up and she's 21 years old, she does grow up to be a very healthy young woman. But equally, she also becomes all she is perceived by society and her own father as a very plain woman, okay. So Catherine grows up to be a very healthy but plain woman. Now, as an adult, when she's 21, she goes to Mrs. Almond's party. Mrs. Almond is the other sister of Dr. Sloper. However, she is the sister that Dr. Sloper actually really respects. However, Dr. Sloper sees Mrs. Peneman as a bit too romantic for his liking, okay, and a bit too kind of airy-fairy. However, Mrs. Almond, who is Dr. Sloper's favorite sister and of course Catherine's auntie, she throws an engagement party for her own daughter called Marion to a man named Arthur Townsend. And of course, remember that a lot of these marriages that happened during these times in American societies, this was in the 1800s, all of these marriages, there would be perhaps out of love, but more importantly, there would also be related to social status, okay. So people who married, especially in New York elite, and of course, this novel is to do with elite society. The element of class was very important, okay. It was more important to marry somebody who was just as wealthy as you, if not wealthier, rather than marrying out of love, okay. So Mrs. Almond throws an engagement party for Marion, her daughter, to Arthur Townsend. And it's at this party that Catherine ends up meeting Morris Townsend, who is related to Arthur Townsend, okay. So this is when she meets him. He's very handsome, very charming, very easy to get along with. And actually, Morris seemingly, he seems to fall in love with Catherine. And he begins courting her, visiting her and Mrs. Penaman every day at the Sloper residence. And Catherine, who has never received such attention, especially such positive attention from a really handsome man, really falls in love with this. So Catherine ends up falling for Morris. And Morris then proposes to her and they are soon engaged. However, Mrs. Penaman, who totally supports this relationship, realises and it becomes disclosed that Morris Townsend actually is penniless. He is living with his sister after squandering his wealth. So he doesn't have any money. And Catherine, who stands to inherit not only her mother's fortune, but also her father's fortune, is a very attractive proposition to him because if he were to marry her, remember during this time, a man, his wife would become automatically his property and her inheritance would become his. So Catherine is a really, really attractive woman for Morris because she is worth so much money. So after they are engaged and after Morris really falls in love with her, seemingly and gets engaged, Mrs. Penaman and Catherine, importantly, discover Morris's financial status. It doesn't have money. However, Catherine says, I still love you. And actually, even if my dad doesn't approve, I have actually a really nice inheritance from my mom. So more than happy for us to still get married because we can still afford our lifestyle. However, Mrs. Penaman accidentally discloses, so she tells Dr. Sloper that Morris has no job and he's actually been funded by his sister. And Dr. Sloper instantly refuses and rejects this engagement of marriage. He's totally against it. Firstly, he sees his daughter as too plain and not beautiful enough to attract men like Morris. But most importantly, he's also thinking that Morris is basically marrying his daughter out of mercenary gold. In other words, he's marrying her just to get his own inheritance or rather the inheritance is going to give to his daughter. In addition to the daughter's inheritance from his dead wife. Okay. So Dr. Sloper, who is presented as a gatekeeper into the Sloper residence but equally into upper class New York society. He rejects Morris from marrying his daughter. He totally, you know, he meets Morris. Morris tries to schmooze him to get him on his side, but Dr. Sloper has a wall and Morris is discouraged. Okay. Then Catherine, who Dr. Sloper encourages to break off this engagement. Catherine refuses to break off the engagement. And Dr. Sloper, who is completely dead set against their marriage decides the best thing he can do is to distract her by taking her away from New York society for one year. So it was initially six months and it transformed into one year. Okay. The state was extended across Europe. So he takes her away to Europe for a year to distract her. Okay. So Catherine refuses to break off the engagement and Dr. Sloper takes her away to Europe for one year in order in an attempt on his part to distract her from her love for Morris. However, whilst they are in Europe, Catherine still continues getting a letter twice a month from Morris. Okay. So she keeps on getting letters and while trekking. So there's a really important climactic scene. Actually, I've skipped. So after they've gone to Europe, one thing I've skipped is of course, when Dr. Sloper and Catherine go to Europe, Mrs. Pennamon is left alone in the house and what she decides because she loves Morris so much and she's totally, totally pulled over by him. Mrs. Pennamon decides to invite Morris to stay at the Sloper household and Morris very quickly gets accustomed to lounging about just hanging out doing nothing. And of course, again, his stay at the Sloper residence whilst both Catherine and Dr. Sloper are away illustrates Morris' intentions very clearly. He's not a man that wishes to work hard. He's a man of leisure and he doesn't want anything apart from Catherine's own money. Okay. So Mrs. Pennamon whilst the Dr. Sloper and Catherine are away, she invites Morris over and Morris lounges. And Mrs. Pennamon doesn't really question it. She doesn't say, oh actually, that's a bit strange. She just allows him to do so and she's totally, totally enamoured by him. She's not romantically enamoured. She's not in love with him. However, she sees him almost as a son she never had. Then of course, as I mentioned, whilst in Europe, Catherine still is getting quoted by Morris who's sending her letters. So he keeps on sending her letters. And at one very climactic scene in the novel, Catherine and her dad, Dr. Sloper are trekking. They're having a fairly treacherous trek through the Alps. And Dr. Sloper who up until that point, six months in, has never mentioned Morris, suddenly mentions Morris' name and says, do you still remember Morris and do you want to marry him? And when Dr. Sloper asks about Morris and asks if she would still marry him, Catherine says, yes, I still intend to marry him once we go back from our trip. And Dr. Sloper acts a little bit dark. This is where we see his really controlling perspective because he then threatens her and asks if she would like to be left stranded to starve on the Alps. So now here, not only is he exercising financial control over Catherine, but here we can see that is very emotionally abusive and also quite scary. So we can see that Dr. Sloper really likes having his own way and he doesn't want any form of disobedience from his daughter. Then of course, you know, there's a lot of tension afterwards and when Dr. Sloper realises that Catherine is resolved to marrying Morris, even if he disapproves of her. So we start seeing Catherine exercising a bit of individuality and showing a bit of independent thought from her father. Now, before they return, Dr. Sloper asks Catherine if she will marry Morris again and she says yes. And Dr. Sloper says, OK, if you're going to marry her or rather if you're going to marry him, just give me three days notice before you decide to marry this man who I disapprove of. Then when they return from Europe to New York society, Morris then asks if Dr. Sloper has changed his mind. So Morris is really hopeful that Dr. Sloper has changed his mind because he wants to have for Catherine to have both inheritances. He wants to make sure that Catherine has her mother's inheritance as well as her father's inheritance, which would make her fairly wealthy. And of course, he is very greedy. So he wants to take over all of that inheritance. Now, when Morris asks Catherine if Dr. Sloper has changed his mind and Catherine says no, there's this mask, this mask of niceness, this false facade falls from his face. And suddenly we realise that because he now knows that he will not have access to Dr. Sloper's wealth, which is considerable, he decides to break off their relationship. Okay. So his true intention surface. And Morris then behind Catherine's back goes to Mrs. Penman and asks her to prepare Catherine for their breakup. And subsequently he actually breaks up with Catherine and leaves. And of course, this leaves Catherine extremely heartbroken. Okay. So Catherine is extremely heartbroken. However, she hides the fact that they've broken up initially from Dr. Sloper and Mrs. Penman. Of course, they discover this and to Dr. Sloper's glee, he discovers that Morris, who he had known was not genuine, has ended up dumping her. Okay. So Dr. Sloper seems to also kind of take this glee from his own daughter's suffering. Okay. Then of course, Catherine carries on growing older and older and she never marries. Now remember, of course, in New York society during this time and even to an extent, of course, in modern day society, it's seen as something very strange when a woman never marries. Okay. It's, you know, if a man stays a bachelor forever, men are celebrated from being forever bachelors. However, if a woman doesn't marry and then she becomes a spinster, it's seen as strange and it will seem more so as strange in 1800s New York society. So Catherine basically becomes a spinster. So she gets older and never marries and Dr. Sloper himself grows old and ill. And then he asks Catherine one last time when he was very ill to never marry Morris. And Catherine says she can't give him that guarantee that she'll never marry him. Therefore he ends up altering his will before he dies and he leaves his money to charity as his way of punishing Catherine. Okay. This is the last punishment that Dr. Sloper inflicts on Catherine from beyond the grave. Okay. Then of course Dr. Sloper dies. Catherine is left with only to live off only her mother's inheritance. And now a much, much older Catherine who has accepted being single for the rest of her life, a much older Catherine is requested to meet Morris. So Morris, much older Morris as well approaches. Mrs. Pendiman says, oh, I'd really love to talk to Catherine now that we're much older and see who can rekindle a friendship. Mrs. Pendiman, of course, who loved Morris tries to get Catherine to meet him. Initially Catherine refuses, but then she accepts. She agrees. Okay. And when Catherine meets an aged Morris, she rejects his offer to be friends. Okay. And she embraces her solitude. However, we can see this as a really tragic ending for this woman who was, you know, who wanted to exercise duty towards her father, but also genuinely loved this man, Morris. Okay. So we can see, of course, the two male characters in her life to some extent took advantage of her and really mistreated her. All right. So that's really it when it comes to understanding Washington Square in a nutshell. Okay. These are the 15 points that I would suggest when you're writing out a mind map, especially if you're revising this novel to consider. Thanks so much for listening.