The homes of Catherine in 'Washington Square' and Frado of 'Our Nig'

Abstract

The homes of Catherine in 'Washington Square' and Frado of 'Our Nig' are essential to the development and understanding of these heroines. Each novel places emphasis on different aspects of the homes as they relate to the most involved characters of the novel, particularly providing background to the life and status of both Frado and Catherine. These varying focuses allow the reader to understand milieu, observe personal qualities of individual characters, as well as function as framework for each novel's most dramatic events.

The home of Dr. Sloper, Catherine, and Lavinia in 'Washington Square' is depicted as an elaborate, upper middle class home. This reinforces the copious amount of money available to the characters and clarifies for the reader that Dr. Sloper and his daughter are of a high social status. The imagery developed in the portrayal of the home sets up the novel as a fable of American wealth. Dr. Sloper's ability to follow the “tide of fashion” in location combined with the environment created in describing the “handsome, modern, wide-fronted house, with a big balcony before the drawing room windows, and a flight of white marble steps ascending to a portal which was also faced with white marble” are examples of James's allusions to wealth (James 15). The author, most likely, intentionally introduces the grandiosity of the home at the beginning of the narrative so the reader immediately understands the atmosphere in which the characters and events ought to be interpreted.