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Chapter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Washington Square, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gaining Independence
Loss and Idealization
Class, Wealth, and Social Status
Reason, Romanticism, and Blind Spots
Women’s Limited Freedoms
Summary
Analysis
One summer evening some years later, Aunt Penniman surprises Catherine with the news that she’s lately seen Morris at Marian’s house. She says that Morris is much changed and has not been successful in life; his “evil star was against him,” he claims. He had been briefly married to a European lady and is now a widower. He wishes to see Catherine again, calling her “the real romance of his life.” Catherine is shocked by this and weeps silently, surprised at the force of emotions she had thought were long buried.
Aunt Penniman stirs up the two ladies’ comfortable spinsterhood with news of Morris. Morris seems to avoid blaming himself for any misfortunes in his life. If Aunt Penniman reports his words accurately—though it’s possible she infuses them with extra romance and drama—he also still has some feelings for Catherine after all these years. Though Catherine has happily moved on, the stirred-up emotions take her by surprise.
Themes
