Washington Square Betrayal Quotes

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Recommended: Effects of betrayal

Betrayal is one of the most dominant themes in Washington Square. The betrayals range from high expectations which have been disappointed as well as promises which have been deliberately broken.
In the first few chapters Catherine is extremely obedient of her father; Dr Sloper. She admires him greatly and places him on a high pedestal. He is the greatest authoritive figure to her. However, as the novel precedes, things change and Catherine loses her pure characteristics such as being honest. Her respect towards Dr Sloper deteriorates. His hostility towards Catherine pushes her towards blatantly betraying him by agreeing to marry Morris Townsend against his will. Due to this, she loses his blessing and Catherine is threatened of losing her inheritance. …show more content…

He believes that Catherine lacks his character and almost disapproves of her because of this. When Catherine tells him about marrying Morris Townsend, he immediately disagrees. Although Dr Sloper is right about suspecting Townsend, he has no solid reason or evidence to prove that he is only after Catherine’s money. He therefore forbids Catherine from seeing Morris and deprives her of her happiness.
When Dr Sloper decides to meet up with Morris Townsend’s sister; Mrs Montgomery, she blatantly betrays her bother by telling Dr Sloper that Morris has brought her a lot of suffering as she constantly has to give him money. ‘’Don’t let her marry him!’’ IS Mrs Montgomery’s command to Dr Sloper as she knows that Morris will only cause Catherine pain and suffering as he did to her. Thus Dr Sloper takes great pleasure as his suspicions and allegations are right and have now been backed up. He doesn’t even care about Catherine’s heart being left

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