Washington Square Lesson Plan

Why does Catherine refuse her other suitors?

Discussion can focus on evidence drawn from chapters throughout the text, the description of the suitors in Chapter 32, and on Catherine’s meeting with Morris in Chapter 35. Students are invited to examine the reasons Catherine has for getting married versus her reasons for remaining single. In Chapter 35, is Morris right in saying that Catherine did not marry because, already being “rich” and “free,” she had “nothing” to gain by marrying? What do these words reveal about Morris’s view of the reasons for marriage? When Catherine agrees “I had nothing to gain,” is her meaning the same as Morris’s? If students feel it isn’t,...