10.15.12

Today, we spoke a little bit about why Washington Square is considered by many people a classic. We spoke about the narrator in the novel and how he was often ironical. I liked the narrator because I think he made a fairly normal story that could be boring more entertaining to read. I think the reason why I enjoyed the novel so much was because the style that Henry James wrote in reminds me of the way Oscar Wilde wrote. One reason why I think both authors write in a similar fashion is because James preferred European culture to American culture and Wilde was a European (Irish) author.

Towards the end of the class, we watched scenes from two movies based on the novel. I preferred the older film, the Heiress, to the more recent Washington Square. I had a lot of problems with the scenes we watched from the more recent film. I didn’t like the way Catherine was portrayed, she was too jittery and I saw Catherine as more of a quiet girl. I didn’t like that they changed the color of the dress to yellow. A major point of the dress was that it was red as a tribute to her mother. I also didn’t like Morris in this film either, I feel he was too stuck up and wasn’t doing a good job of hiding his confidence.

I enjoyed the scenes from the Heiress. I felt Dr. Sloper was sarcastic but, in an enjoyable way. In the party scene, you can tell Catherine is nervous but, she isn’t jumpy like the Catherine portrayed in Washington Square. I also thought the slight accent Morris had was charming but, not in your face. Even though I didn’t picture Morris with an accent, it was a nice touch to make the movie different from the novel but not completely different so that it loses touch with the original story.

I’m excited to go to the play and see how they portray the different characters. I’m not going to do any research so that I can have a completely fresh impression on Wednesday.

-Amber G.