‘Mrs Penniman’s character is to some extent a mere caricature’ in Henry James’ ‘Washington Square’

Henry James uses, Lavinia Penniman predominantly for the comic relief derived from her unrealistic romantic scheme, her extensive hyperbole, and deceitfulness. Mrs Penniman is seen as a caricature, a caricature is a humorous illustration that exaggerates or distorts the features of a person to form a visual likeness. Mrs Penniman can be seen as a caricature through her clothing, gestures, language and her manipulation as seen in many chapters throughout the novel.Lavinia Penniman is a sad figure, she is widowed and left without children, without fortune and lives in Dr Slopers domicile and is in control of Dr Slopers daughter, Catherines education. Many women in the 19th century who like Mrs Penniman werent married, tended to struggle with life they struggled to get an income so remained poor and weak and really tended non to have a life.Henry James shows Mrs Penniman to tag along to the Drs household, possibly for this reason, she originally joined the household temporarily whils t she searched for unfurnished lodgings but she chose to diminish herself with her br other(a) and never went away. She is in fact described as the fifth wheel, she is always there, most often when not needed, always inquiring with the outcome of events, she should really be a minor character but she continuously interferes. Mrs Penniman really is seen as a caricature when she is being a meddler, as she so often is.She really interferes with Catherines relationship among Morris, she arranges dates, he is coming a courting (said to Catherine). In chapter 15 and 16 Mrs Penniman interferes tremendously with Catherines relationship with Morris, she organises a tryst which is held between her and Morris at an oyster salon. This location is unexpected and very secretive, this all increases the drama of the occasion, devising it seem as though what they were doing wasnt allowed and making it all seem rather suspicious, as Mrs Penniman is very unlikely to meet anyone of acquaintance t here.At this secret meeting, Mrs Penniman goes against her brothers wishes and attempts to encourage a secret wedding between Catherine and Morris, Morris realises the difficulty of this but Mrs Penniman thinking she is in one of her romantic novels, comes up with ridiculous solutions that would just add to the drama, such as using the cemetery as a location for the wedding. She also makes sure that she is a key figure in it all, as she possibly wants to be the heroine, she does this by inventing roles for herself, and this is done in other occasions as well.Mrs Pennimans character does have comic factors that atomic number 18 crucial for her to be a caricature. This can be seen through her costumes, gestures and through the authors ironic metaphors. Her costumes are flamboyant and in chapter IV she is described as wearing more buckles and bangles than ever showing that she often wears outrages outfits. Like her costumes her language and gestures seem to be hyperbolic and unnecess ary, although this could be a ploy to create a larger part in the plot that she would otherwise have.Her continuous use of hyperbolic and melodramatic language makes the character seem to be humorously overdramatic and over the top, this defiantly creates a feeling of her being a caricature. To top this of Henry James uses witty and singular metaphors that have a hint of derision in them. She chooses these ironic metaphors to make the situation between Morris and Catherine more dramatic than it really is, she reads these ideas in her light writings, and would like the relationship between Catherine and Morris to be like them.This can be seen several time from page 82 to 84, where she uses banished, the guilty couple, neutral run aground and exciting suspicion. All these seem to be similar to some of Shakespeares romantic relationships, such as Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo one of the lovers is banished, the couple is guilty, as they are utter enemies and they often met on neutr al ground, this is an exciting play, due to this which is effectively what Mrs Penniman is attempting to do.To conclude, Mrs Pennimans character is a caricature, her clothes, language and gestures are all hyperbolic and she always attempts to be at the centre of all occasions. She is a sad figure who attempts to manipulate the authors plot to make it more dramatic and like her light literature, her ideas are full of irony and her character in general does seem to posses some humour that would make her a caricature.