 Let's examine the character of Mrs. Almond in Henry James's novel, Washington Square. Now, she is one of the more minor characters. She is an essential character. She's a more marginal character. However, she is important because firstly, we know that she is Dr. Sloper's favorite sister. Okay, so Dr. Sloper looks down on the sister that he lives with, Mrs. Penman. She's too romantic. She's quite gullible. Whilst Mrs. Almond is presented as the voice of reason. In fact, she's quite critical of the way Dr. Sloper treats his daughter with regards to the whole Morris engagement affair. Okay, so she tells Dr. Sloper, like, you're way too mean and way too cruel. However, she does also clearly see through Morris' motivation. She knows that Morris is in it for the money. However, she also is quite motherly in her affection towards Catherine. She's one of the few characters that actually sees Catherine's plainness, maybe a little bit of her dullness, her lack of romanticism as a strong trait. Okay, she actually thinks that's something that, you know, she really likes about Catherine. And she's quite motherly in the sense that, you know, she even tells Dr. Sloper, look, even if she makes a mistake and marries this guy, you know, we can still be there for her. Okay, so her character is really important because she seems to be and she's presented as a voice of reason in this whole drama that revolves around Catherine's engagement to Morris. Okay. And of course, we can argue that she's a foil to Mrs. Penman's character. So Mrs. Penman is very gullible. She's very overly romantic. She's always thinking about, you know, these, you know, dramatic things. And she's also very taken in by Morris' character. However, Mrs. Allmond is much more clever and she's able to clearly see through things. But also, unlike Dr. Sloper, who doesn't really have an emotional connection with his daughter, he doesn't even care about her feelings. Mrs. Allmond actually takes a very paternal interest or rather a maternal interest in Catherine's well-being. Okay. And of course, remember, she's really important because it's her daughter's engagement, her daughter Marion marries Morris' cousin, Arthur Townsend and is at that engagement party. That's where the ball starts rolling and where Catherine meets Morris, who then she falls in love with. Okay. So also she's important in that respect. Now let's look at a few quotations relating to Mrs. Allmond's character that you can consider if you decided to write about her or if you wrote about her in relation to one of the other characters, one of the other main characters within this story. So the first quotation, of course, is how she plays a central role, a pivotal role in how Morris and Catherine's parts align, how they cross. Okay. And we're told Mrs. Allmond's party was the beginning of something very important. Now this is a declarative sentence. Remember declarative sentences, sentences that say it's a fact, feeling or mood. So this declarative sentence obviously creates a buildup. Oh, okay. And this party, something really important is going to happen, something pivotal. And of course, the pivotal moment is Catherine meets Morris, who she falls in love with. Okay. So it's Mrs. Allmond's party that brings them together. The next quotation relating to her character and why she's important is when she does accept and agree that Morris is highly motivated by Dr. Sloper's money because she says that if she, if Catherine, so if she doesn't get the money ellipsis, he will hate her. So she knows that Morris would not be happy if Dr. Sloper disinherits her after they marry. Okay. And this is emphasized through the alliteration of H in he, hate and her. So of course, we can see that she doesn't have a very, you know, romantic view of Morris. She's not misguided. She knows what he's in it for. But also she has a human understanding of what Catherine is experiencing emotionally and she wants to support Catherine. But unfortunately, she doesn't have that much of a say over her life. The next quotation relating to Mrs. Allmond's character is when she does tell Dr. Sloper he's too horrible and crawl to her and really rejecting Morris in the way he does. She tells Dr. Sloper, you have no sympathy. And the adjective sympathy obviously shows that, you know, she is able to stand up as a woman to Dr. Sloper and she's very direct with him. And maybe he likes her because she's direct with him as opposed to Catherine is constantly submissive to him. Okay. And what this is illustrating again, she's been the voice of reason here. She's basically saying you're being too cruel to Catherine. You're punishing her excessively for loving this guy. Yes, we know that he's after her money, but you know, you shouldn't punish her the way you are. Okay. So she she's able to stand up for Catherine. The next quotation, which obviously shows the level of affection she has for Catherine. Okay. So also a lot of the other characters kind of see Catherine is not deserving of their affection. Okay. Her father doesn't treat her kindly. Mrs. Penman finds her too boring. She's not romantic enough. Morris wants to use her. Okay. But Mrs. Armand actually sees her very affectionately. She states she is like, so she's talking about Catherine here. Okay. So she is like a copper kettle, a copper kettle that receives a dent. You may polish up the kettle, but you can't face the mark. So here she's using the simile, the copper kettle. And remember, of course, even the kettle being copper, it's not like a golden kettle. Right. So she's obviously using a really effective simile to show that Catherine isn't like eye catching, like gold or even silver. She's a copper kettle. Okay. So she's not like, you know, she's a bit plain, but she still has emotions. Okay. And if you keep on denting it, and of course, she's telling Dr. Sloper, stop hitting her so much. Stop mistreating her because these dent stay and treat her more kindly. Okay. So going back to the simile, it's a really powerful simile, where we can see that Mrs. Armand actually doesn't see Catherine's plainness and maybe her more muted character as something to dislike. Okay. She accepts it fully. And as she states, she is like a copper kettle that receives a dent. You may polish up the kettle, but you can't, if faced, you can't rob off the mark. Okay. So we can see here, she has a really motherly attitude towards Catherine. She's almost sees Catherine as a daughter. Okay. And she tries to really understand Catherine's perspective. The final quotation, which illustrates Mrs. Armand's character is when she says, look, if, you know, she marries Morris in the end and she falls, she becomes a fallen woman. Okay. So she falls just like the way Dr. Sloper is fearful. We're still going to be there to pick her up. Okay. We can see here, she's so motherly and so loving towards Catherine because she says, if she was to have a full ellipsis, we must spread as many carpets as we can. And of course, here she's speaking in a metaphor. She's basically saying, look, if Catherine makes a massive mistake, we need to be there to hold her hand when she realizes the grave error she's made in marrying a guy who was clearly just after her for her money. Again, here we can see that she's very empathetic. She has a lot of empathy for Catherine, which her father lacks for her. Okay. So we, we as readers are supposed to really like Mrs. Armand. She's a voice of reason, but also she has a lot of sympathy towards Catherine, which many of the other characters within the story don't really. Okay. So that's really it when it comes to writing and considering the character of Mrs. Armand in Washington Square.