 Let's examine the character of Morris Townsend in Washington Square So he is one of the main characters whilst of course Catherine is our protagonist our tragic heroine in this narrative. He is the other antagonist Okay, remember that dr. Sloper is an antagonist even if he's Catherine's dad He is not kind to her. He's quite spiteful. He puts her down. He stands in the way of her happiness. However Morris Townsend is no better Morris Townsend is a very attractive young man Who's quite opportunistic? He sees Catherine as an opportunity to Re-inherit a great amount of wealth after he has squandered his own wealth Okay, so he is the cousin of Arthur Townsend who's marrying Mrs. Almond's daughter, okay, so this is Catherine is the niece of Mrs. Almond and her daughter Marion is marrying Arthur Townsend Who's the more successful cousin of Morris Townsend? However, Morris Townsend basically went on his own travels earlier on in his life and totally squandered all of his money And he uses his good looks and his charm in order to schmooze his way through upper New York Society and he targets Catherine specifically once he realizes that she has a huge inheritance She's going to be an heiress of a large fortune from her dead mother But equally a larger fortune from dr. Sloper, however, there is instant friction between dr. Sloper and Morris Townsend. He is unable to charm dr. Sloper dr. Sloper sees through him. Remember that dr. Sloper is what we would call a gatekeeper to elite New York society He's able to instantly tell that Morris Townsend is an opportunistic man and Morris Townsend once he realizes that Catherine if he marries her He would only benefit from the inheritance left over from Catherine's mother But not the fortune that Catherine's father would leave because he would disinherit He is too greedy and he decides to break off the engagement completely He then disappears and then resurfaces when he's much older to try and rekindle a friendship with Catherine However, Catherine is now older and much wiser rejects their relationship So if you're studying the character of Morris It's good to try and remember key quotations and also some word level analysis You can do and also structural analysis you can do if you're writing about his character So as you can see behind me I've selected the most relevant quotations Which you can consider if you're thinking about studying or writing about Morris Townsend's character in Washington Square So let's go over them the first quotation, which is very important Which highlights of course his status in society is we learned that Morris Townsend was poor and this is a simple sentence This is a structural point. Of course, this is illustrating is within elite New York society Morris Townsend Stink to be stands out not because he's attractive But most importantly he actually stands up because he doesn't have money, right a gentleman in New York society in the 1800s Needed to have money same goes for today Okay, a man of upper-class status one of the elements of being part of this Elite crop of society is you do need to have money and Morris squandered all of his money Okay, so of course here. It's established to us really early on that Morris is definitely mercenary He's a wolf. Okay, and he sees Catherine as sheep that he can you know use devour and discard And what this is illustrating is that he is an antagonistic character The other quotation which illustrates Morris's character is when he you know anticipates that dr. Sloper is you know going to try and change Catherine's mind about marrying him and Morris manipulatively tells Catherine is quite manipulative and quite cunning he tells Catherine Oh, he will tell you that I'm a mercenary. Okay, he will tell you I'm a mercenary mercenary somebody who does things out of the money Profit they can get from doing that action. Okay, so of course this adjective mercenary shows that Morris is actually Revealing his intentions, but he's doing so in a really clever cunning way He's saying oh, you know, I hope you don't believe I'm a mercenary. I love you Catherine I totally love you and I totally want to be with you. I'm not with you for your money Okay, and then he later on reveals that he definitely was with her for her money again What this is illustrating especially this adjective is that Morris is very cunning very conniving and very very Manipulative as a character. Okay, he's very very cunning the other quotation which illustrates that he is very duplicitous He's too faced is when Catherine is talking remember that Catherine is plain She's a bit dull. He frankly finds her quite boring. Okay, and he states in his mind So he's thinking this gracious heaven what dull woman Morris exclaimed to himself and of course here the hyperbole Gracious heaven and this exclamatory sentence from an exclamatory sentence descendants that shows a strong emotion ends with an exclamation mark We can see here that Morris is very too faced is very duplicitous as a character Okay, we're not supposed to like him We can clearly see that he has one clear intent in marrying Catherine Which is just to take all her money remember that men during this time in society in 1800s New York society Once they married a woman the woman subsequently became their property and everything that they had they inherited Okay, so he stood to gain a lot from marrying Catherine from fooling her tricking her into marriage and then taking over all her money The next quotation which is related to his character is when he Realizes after she's come back from the year-long trip in Europe with her father He realizes that the dad has never changed his mind and he will never Inherit the money from dr. Sloper He the game is up the gig is up and suddenly his charming appearance changes And he now figures out how he's going to dump Catherine because Catherine is looking at him And she's telling him look, you know, we can still get married because I still have my mom's inheritance It's fine. It's fine And Morris realizes he's not going to inherit as much as he thought he would from marrying her And Catherine looks at him and it seemed to her that a mask had suddenly fallen from his face Okay, so it seemed to her that a mask Had suddenly fallen from his face the mask is a really powerful metaphor We can see that Morris up until this point was prepared to pretend pretend pretend until he married her Then he would take her inheritance and suddenly when the prospect of inheriting dr. Sloper's money was no longer there This mask of charm this mask of handsomeness Suddenly fell from his face and his true intentions were revealed. He never loved Catherine And now he's going to ghost her. Okay, he's going to uh, well not necessarily ghost her But he's definitely going to break up with her The next quotation is of course when now Morris is talking to mrs. Pennamon and he's like, oh, you know, I'm going to have to break up with her I don't want to be the the reason why her dad disinherits her. Oh, what was me? And he says he's pretending as he's talking to mrs. Pennamon and he says a man should know when he is beaten I must give her up. Okay, and this is an exclamatory sentence I must give her up and of course also the verb beaten what this is showing is that he is basically Um put in the blame of his actions on dr. Sloper. He's very slippery character He tries to do things that are very conniving and now here when he says, you know, oh, man I must know when he's beaten this verb is taking the blame for his own actions away from him And basically saying it's dr. Sloper's fault that Catherine that i'm going to have to jump Catherine. Okay Again, what we can see here is he's very conniving. He's very manipulative. Okay, and he gets away with it in dr In mrs. Pennamon's eyes dr. Sloper obviously sees this and totally sees through this But mrs. Pennamon says, oh, I can't see what you mean. Yes. I'm so sorry Catherine initially believes him but I think as the years go by in the novel We realize that maybe dawns on her that he his love was never that quite genuine. Okay The final quotation relating to his character is when he is telling mrs. Pennamon Look, you're going to have to dump her for me. I'm not going to dump her let her down easily and he says You know, this is the reason I don't want to know how much Catherine loves me ellipsis It would be too painful So he's using these declarative sentences. Remember declarative sentences sentence that states a fact feeling or mood He's using these declarative sentences to also not even break up with Catherine himself. He's telling mrs. Pennamon Oh, you know, um, I don't want to know how much she loves she loves me. It would be too painful Please break up with her on my behalf. Okay. Again, this is showing him to be a coward He's very cowardly in his behavior. He's very um dishonest and definitely he's a real Mercenary in his behavior. Okay, so of course we as the audience and not as the audience as readers Should definitely see him for what he truly is. Okay, so he's a mercenary and he's also somebody who uses his charms To get what he wants in new york society, which can be quite superficial very much based on appearances He was able to do so beforehand But now he came across a real opponent in dr. Sloper and he wasn't able to maneuver his way in order to get Catherine's wealth. Okay, so that's really it when it comes to Morris Townsend's character. Thank you so much for listening