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

hydrogen throng single-valued functions, Lavinia Penniman predominantly for the comic sculptural relief derived from her unrealistic romanticist scheme, her extensive hyperbole, and deceitfulness. Mrs Penniman is seen as a parody, a caricature is a humorous illustration that exaggerates or distorts the features of a person to form a ocular likeness. Mrs Penniman ass be seen as a caricature through her clothing, gestures, run-in and her exercise as seen in many chapters throughout the novel.Lavinia Penniman is a sad figure, she is widowed and go forth without children, without fortune and lives in Dr Slopers dwelling house and is in control of Dr Slopers daughter, Catherines education. Many women in the nineteenth century who like Mrs Penniman werent married, tended to struggle with disembodied spirit they struggled to get an income so remained poor and ignitor-colored and re whollyy tended not to have a life.Henry James shows Mrs Penniman to tag on to the Drs household, possibly for this reason, she originally joined the household temporarily whilst she searched for unfurnished lodgings scarce she chose to settle herself with her brother and never went outdoor(a). She is in fact described as the fifth wheel, she is forever there, roughly frequently when not needed, always inquisitive with the outcome of events, she should really be a minor mention but she unceasingly interferes. Mrs Penniman really is seen as a caricature when she is world a meddler, as she so often is.She really interferes with Catherines relationship mingled with Morris, she arranges dates, he is coming a romance (said to Catherine). In chapter 15 and 16 Mrs Penniman interferes tremendously with Catherines relationship with Morris, she organises a tryst which is held surrounded by her and Morris at an oyster salon. This localization is unexpected and very secretive, this all increases the gambling of the occasion, making it expect as though what they were doing wasnt allowed and making it all seem quite a suspicious, as Mrs Penniman is very unlikely to reckon anyone of acquaintance there.At this secret meeting, Mrs Penniman goes against her brothers wishes and attempts to aid a secret wedding surrounded by Catherine and Morris, Morris realises the difficulty of this but Mrs Penniman thinking she is in one of her romantic novels, comes up with monstrous solutions that would just add to the drama, such as using the cemetery as a location for the wedding. She also come acrosss 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 through in other occasions as well.Mrs Pennimans character does have comic factors that argon crucial for her to be a caricature. This can be seen through her costumes, gestures and through the authors dryal metaphors. Her costumes are flamboyant and in chapter IV she is described as wearing to a greater extent buckles and b angles than ever showing that she often wears outrages outfits. like her costumes her language and gestures seem to be inflated and unnecessary, although this could be a ploy to fashion a larger part in the plot that she would otherwise have.Her continuous use of hyperbolic and melo salient language makes the character seem to be humorously oerdramatic and over the top, this defiantly creates a feeling of her being a caricature. To top this of Henry James uses witty and unusual metaphors that have a hint of irony in them. She chooses these ironic metaphors to make the situation amongst Morris and Catherine more dramatic than it really is, she reads these ideas in her light literature, 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 coupling, neutral demesne 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 sworn enemies and they often met on neutral ground, this is an exciting play, collectible 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 keep in line the authors plot to make it more dramatic and like her light literature, her ideas are replete of irony and her character in everyday does seem to posses some humour that would make her a caricature.