The Immortal Villain of Washington Square In Washington Square, Henry James confronts us with an exceptionally hopeless kind of tragedy. The protagonists' oppressive circumstances usually arise from failures in individual or social enlightenment. Such stories are optimistic insofar as they suggest that progress could eventually elevate humanity beyond the reach of the kinds of situations described. In Washington Square, however, the oppressor is truth itself: a universal truth of human nature that, a century after publication, we are still reluctant to acknowledge. Catherine's tragedy is our universal susceptibility to the superficial: the gulf between the qualities that our reflective sensibilities recognize as good and admirable, and those that possess us with a passionate desire for another. As Catherine resignedly observes (regarding her father's frigidity): "we cannot govern our affections" (p. 141). Thus, evil can seduce us and virtue leave us cold. When this is the driving force of a tragic tale, the reader's search for an enlightened perspective is in vain. There is no lesson that improves; there will be no progress; and the reiterations of the tragic pattern will never cease. The evil force behind the hero's suffering is intrinsic to human nature. In most works of fiction, by contrast, truth or enlightenment is an ally. In Billy Budd, Billy's goodness exonerates him (although the military code, impervious to natural justice, prevails). The red badge of courage, as a rejection of the glorification of war, implicitly invites the hope that wars can end. In The Awakening, it is social prejudice that irritates the heroine. In Sister Carrie, although lack of material is the initial challenge... middle of the paper... d, reflecting the reader's discomfort with Dr. Sloper's ruthless incisiveness, asks, "Isn't geometry about surfaces?" (P . 112.) The response of Dr. Sloper, the man regarded by society and the narrator as "who was never wrong in his life" (p. 184), professor of the castle doctrine of physiognomy, expresses our immortal Delirium : “Yes, but it treats them deeply.” (P. 112.) Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The awakening. New York: Random House, Inc., 2000. Crane, Stephen. The red badge of courage. London: Penguin Group, 1994.Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. New York: Random House, Inc., 1999. James, Henry. Washington Square. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.Melville, Herman. Billy Budd and Other Stories. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1998. Wharton, Edith. The House of Joy. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1993.