On monday’s class, Professor Kahan began class by giving background information on the famous composer Mendelssohn. We discussed Mendelssohn’s well known Symphony No. 3, which was played during sunday’s Philharmonic. Mendelssohn came from a very wealthy family and was very educated. His music was very well known during the mid 1800s, or the Victorian Age. Besides Symphony No. 3, Mendelssohn also wrote another very famous composition. This work is known as The Wedding March which is the song played during the bride and grooms exit of the church. This song, amazingly, is still used and favored today in many, if not all weddings.

After the discussion of Mendelssohn, we started to talk about the novel Washington Square and our opinions on it. We mainly focused on Catherine Sloper’s character, the protagonist of the novel. She is known as a plain and ungraceful girl who has a fine taste in clothing and is soon to be an heiress. Even though she likes to dress well, she does not do it to impress others. She does it to please herself. He father, Dr. Austin Sloper, does not like when Catherine dresses this way because she makes it seem like she “wears her money.” We also discussed why Henry James chose to set the book in New York in the 1850s. Since the book was written in 1880 during the rise of the civil war, the author chose to set the book before the civil war occurred to show New York during its prosperous times.

The we watched scenes from two movies: Washington Square and The Heiress. We compared how these two movies differ with the presentation of characters and how they act during the film. I felt that in the film Washington Square Catherine’s role was very much like the character in the novel in the sense that she was very unsociable and ungraceful. In the film The Heiress, I felt that Catherine should have been more awkward and unsociable.  In Washington Square, Marian, Catherine’s cousin, introduced her to Morris Townsend. In The Heiress, Catherine’s Aunt Penniman introduced her to Morris Townsend. One particular difference that truly shocked me was Catherine’s dress in the movie Washington Square. Instead of Catherine wearing a cherry red dress just as her mother did in the past, the director of the movie disregarded this and had Catherine wear a huge and extravagant yellow dress. I was glad Professor Kahan decided to show us these scenes from the two movies in order to give the class a taste of what the broadway show would be like.

This session of seminar went by rather quickly.  We watched two movies, both based on the novel, Washington Square.  Both films followed the story of the novel; one was a black and white movie, The Heiress, and the other one was, Washington Square, a more recent film.  Personally, I enjoyed watching segments of The Heiress more but Washington Square was enticing as well.

I rarely enjoy black and white movies and I avoid them when I watch TV.  This is what made the class significant for me; when I saw that The Heiress was black and white I thought watching the clips would be very boring.  Yet the film was oddly alluring, I thought that even though the film was old, it portrayed itself as a modern film.  In addition, I really liked the way the actor performed Morris.  The character was simply likable, I did not like Morris when I read the book but this actor drew me in. I would root for him throughout the course of the movie.

The film, Washington Square, was enjoyable but I would not watch it on my own time.  Especially because of the actress that played Catherine, to put it simply, she was a terrible performer.  Every time she spoke I felt uneasy; she just made the film needlessly awkward.  I cannot really put my finger on the reason for her awkwardness, but I assume it was because she overreacted to everything; very melodramatic.

Hopefully, we will watch more movies for seminar in the near future. Who knows, a new favorite might arise out of this class.

In seminar on Monday, we discussed the various aspects of Washington Square in preparation for seeing “The Heiress” on Wednesday night. As a segue, we talked about Felix Mendelssohn, a famous composer. He was born in 1809 and was very affluent. He was extremely well educated, spoke several languages and had taken the “Grand Tour,” just as most affluent children did back in those times. The “Grand Tour” allowed children to venture outside of the local town and see all that the world has to offer. Mendelssohn took this time to compose several symphonies, including “The Scottish Symphony,” which we heard at the concert on Sunday afternoon. He then went on to write incidental music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which has been infused into American Culture as the “Wedding March.”

Washington Square was originally written by Henry James in 1880, but was set in 1850. This was primarily because any time after that, there would have to be mention of the Civil War breakout, and that could have possibly had an adverse effect on the characters and the society in which they lived. Throughout the novel, the point of views switched back and forth. The narrator never stayed neutral on his opinion of the characters. For example, Austin was portrayed nicer in Europe, yet, back home, he was a sour Grinch. In addition, the character of Catherine was looked down upon because she was a “romp,” or as we say today, a “tomboy.” This was very unexpected of a young lady in the Victorian Era.

To further familiarize ourselves with Wednesday night’s play, we watched two renditions of the Washington Square novel. The first was the 1949 film “The Heiress,” staring Olivia de Havilland as Catherine, and Montgomery Clift as Morris. The second was the 1997 drama “Washington Square,” featuring Jennifer Leigh as Catherine and Ben Chaplin as Morris. While these two movies follow the same plot, the stories are interpreted two completely different ways.

In “The Heiress,” Catherine is portrayed as a very plain and quiet girl who is introduced to a random man, Morris, at a family gathering. In contrast, Washington Square depicted Catherine as a lively, active, tomboyish, young woman. Her mannerisms and actions reflected those of a seven year old child, rather than a grown woman. In this rendition, Catherine is introduced to Morris by her cousin Marian, rather than her aunt.

Another major difference in the two pieces was the interpretation of Mr. Sloper. According to the novel, Austin is a gentleman that is very astute and opinionated, often seeming a bit snide and conceited at times. He is portrayed similarly in the 1997 movie. In contrast, the 1949 film portrayed Austin as a witty and comical man, in the sense that he is chipper and less uptight. Both movies have me curious to see how the characters unravel in The Heiress on Broadway.

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.

Monday’s class opened with a discussion of the concert the class went to see on Sunday, 10/14, Cultures in Harmony.  The piece we zeroed in on was the third piece we heard that day, “Scottish”, by Felix Mendelssohn.  Dr. Kahan explained to us that Mendelssohn was a well-respected and highly sought – after composer in his day, during the Victorian Era in history.  His music spoke to the people of the time…it was emotional, but not too emotional, something I could understand after listening to one of his pieces.  In addition, Mendelssohn was very well – educated, and as a requirement of his education, took the Grand Tour, a tour all around Europe, during which he was introduced to the history, architecture, and cultural styles of many different countries within Europe.  Being a lover of music and interested in the orchestral and symphonic aspect of music, Mendelssohn took his experiences in Europe and turned them into music.  The piece we heard at the concert, “Scottish”, was Mendelssohn’s interpretation of Scottish culture and their way of life.  It was interesting to me to put into perspective that an artist’s work is not only an influence on a certain time period or group of people, but is a result of the time period he or she lives in and the people he or she interacts with.

After our introduction to Mendelssohn, we moved onto the main discussion of the class, that which concerned Washington Square by Henry James and its play counterpart, The Heiress.  We first examined the actual book and the script of the play and identified some of the similarities and differences between the two.  One of the main differences, something that I had always taken notice of and interest in, was that when reading a book, one can either infer or absolutely know (depending on the author’s style) the emotions and responses of a character within his or her mind.  We are made aware of his or her reactions to another character or a conversation they are having.  Personally, I love to read, and that was something I always enjoyed – being able to know a character fully and the ability to relate to them.  While I also enjoy seeing plays, if one does not know the background of the story he or she is seeing, it is not always possible to really know what is going on or a particular character’s reaction or personality.  While many of the conversations remain unchanged from Washington Square to The Heiress, it is not so easy to bring over the character’s personalities from the novel to the play.

We then watched clips from two different movie versions of the story, ironically enough, one named Washington Square from 1997 and the other named The Heiress from 1949.  Once again, there were similarities and differences.  I find the differences much more fascinating.  First of all, Catherine’s red crimson dress, which was such a vital aspect of the original story, was completely cut out of the Washington Square movie.  They also didn’t really stay true to the characters.  It seemed to me that in this movie version of the story, they tried to modernize the characters a bit, something that I usually enjoy, but in this particular story, just annoyed me.  Catherine was very perky, and Morris Townsend was just seemingly unintelligent and boyish.  I much preferred The Heiress version from 1949 that we saw clips from.  Catherine was much more poised and elegant and the director didn’t stray from particular story aspects like it seemed they did in Washington Square.  To me, analyzing the two versions is enjoyable and gives me a chance to evaluate how different people can interpret the same story.

I enjoyed reading the story of Washington Square and I look forward to seeing the Broadway production of The Heiress tomorrow night.