The Price of Independence — Washington Square

Catherine returns from Europe to Morris Townsend waiting in the front parlour, no longer admitted to Dr. Sloper's study. She is briefly radiant, happy to see him and ready to marry without another scruple, yet their conversation quickly exposes a mismatch. Morris is restless, proud, and obsessed with proving the Doctor wrong now that his commission business is flourishing. He wants permission to confront her father as an equal and win reconciliation on his own terms.

Catherine, changed by the voyage, refuses. She has accepted that her father will never relent and asks nothing more of him. More painfully, she has accepted that he is not very fond of her, that his devotion still belongs to her brilliant dead mother, and that she cannot compete with a ghost. She speaks gently but with a new firmness Morris has never heard, begging him not to approach the Doctor because it will only make things worse.

Morris hears her clarity as defeat, laughs at the insult of her father's dislike, and calls the Slopers a queer family. Catherine asks only for kindness, reminding him of what she has sacrificed and pleading that he never despise her. Morris promises easily, but the chapter leaves the reader wondering whether he loves Catherine or the victory her marriage would confer. Her independence is real; his wounded pride is louder.