Washington Square (1-59)

The beginning of "Washington Square" reminds me of the Brooks Introduction on Melodrama, especially the fact that the author "applies pressure to the gesture...to make it give up to consciousness its full potential as 'parable'. Even though the story is about Catherine, the author had to first recount the story of how Dr. Sloper came to be and how Catherine was born and how he had felt towards her. He also introduced several key characters, such as Mrs. Penniman and even Catherine, with the same pressure that allows the readers to fully understand their character. While this may seem like a violation of the "show not tell"  principle in storytelling, it is only with such understanding that we are able to fully comprehend the drama of an otherwise ordinary romance story.

It is the occasional peeks into Dr. Sloper's mind that we discover just how much he dislikes Catherine, his very own daughter whom he unfortunately named after his wife and later found out that she can never fill her shoes as what he had expected. This can be seen quite clearly in the beginning of the book, where the author writes that Catherine was "decidedly not clever ... had no desire to shine (pg. 10)" and that "she disappointed him but the Doctor, on the whole, had been very kind to her (pg. 11)". It is so early on in this book that we see tensions between Dr. Sloper and Catherine. Had he named her after someone else other than his ex-wife, this would have been an entirely different story. This tension would soon be intensified after Catherine was introduced to Morris Townsend. Morris was extremely handsome, well-mannered and eloquent, and the fact that he seemed to fancy Catherine made it all the more impossible for her to resist. Ironically, Catherine's "average-ness" seem to be the cause for escalation in the story. Morris Townsend may not have been so successful pursuing other New York women, but his charm on Catherine was multiplied exponentially. This would slowly lead to their engagement prior to the Doctor's consent and mark the start of his increased interference in their affairs

Going back to Brook's piece on Melodrama, all of these wouldn't have been revealed had the author not painstakingly write every thought that each character ever had. While this might be difficult to read, based on the fact that the story follows not only the chronological sequence of events but also the multiple consciousness streams of the characters, it is the foundation at which drama is created and it is also what drives the plot.