The story of Washington Square by Henry James is told with a nuanced perspective of characters with individual rationalizations and sometimes undisclosed motivations. There is a subtle ambiguity to the internal logic of the participants in the story and none are altogether depicted as outright villainous.
In 1840s New York City, naive, introverted Catherine Sloper lives with her respected physician father, Dr. Austin Sloper, in Washington Square, a then newly established neighborhood near Greenwich Village. After the deaths of his wife and son, Dr. Sloper raises Catherine with his widowed sister, Mrs. Penniman, who is charged with Catherine's education. Although never disclosed directly to Catherine, the Doctor does not hold her personality or appearance in high regard, finding her a cheap substitute for her mother. This evaluation is never challenged in the narrative and Catherine is depicted as a simple, reserved individual.
Catherine's cousin Marian gets engaged to a man named Arthur Townsend. At the engagement party, Marian introduces Catherine to Arthur's cousin Morris, who flirts with her throughout the party. Catherine slowly becomes acquainted with Morris, who is both attractive and charming, and the two begin a discreet courtship. Dr. Sloper opposes the relationship with suspicions of Townsend's intentions on Catherine's inheritance. At dinner, Sloper evaluates Townsend and decides that he cannot be trusted. Despite her father's protest, Catherine continues to entertain Townsend and Mrs. Penniman invests herself in their relationship as well. When Catherine discloses to Dr. Sloper that they are engaged, the doctor renounces their marriage and threatens to exclude her from his inheritance.
Sloper takes his daughter to Europe for a year, hoping she will forget Townsend, while Aunt Penniman invites Townsend to visit the Sloper home often in their absence. While they are in Switzerland, Sloper attempts once more to talk Catherine out of her engagement, but she refuses to be discouraged, upsetting Sloper with her disobedience. Once the Slopers arrive back in New York, Townsend breaks off his engagement to Catherine rationalizing that without her full inheritance she will be at a disadvantage. It is never disclosed whether his intentions are pure.
Frustrated by her aunt's meddling and unclear of her ex-fiancé's motivations, Catherine continues her life at their home in Washington Square and never marries. She cultivates a life of her own that includes charity work and caring for her aging father. Dr. Sloper informs Catherine that he does not trust that she won't some day marry Townsend and has decided to diminish her inheritance as a final act of conviction against the man he does not trust.
Soon after Dr. Sloper's death, Aunt Penniman orchestrates one last meeting between Townsend and Catherine. Now older and wiser, she rebuffs his advances and continues her life without him. The story ends with no resolution to Townsend's true intentions and the reader is left to decide if the tragedy was averted by them never marrying.
