“I have broken off my engagement.”

[Gladys]

Morris Townsend, the gold-digger exposed, has deserted Catherine for New Orleans. Almost two weeks later, Dr. Sloper slyly questions Catherine on her leaving home to be married.


The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “Has he backed out?”

“I have broken off my engagement.”

A year after first reading the novel, I now realise that Catherine, who is 'much addicted to speaking the truth', does not lie here. Tragically, Dr. Sloper, who perfectly anticipates Townsend and Penniman, yet again misjudges Catherine, unbeknown to her.

Two decades later, at the reading of her father's will, Catherine learns this sad truth, while still ignorant of the great injustice she has done in underestimating his paternal love.

[Chatter]

.....while still ignorant of the great injustice she has done in underestimating his paternal love.[/QUOTE]

WHAAAT??
His love was not the real thing....that's the whole point of the book!

[Gladys]

His love was not the real thing....that's the whole point of the book!

From the opening paragraph of the book we read of Dr Sloper:



I hasten to add, to anticipate possible misconception, that he was not the least of a charlatan. He was a thoroughly honest man—honest in a degree of which he had perhaps lacked the opportunity to give the complete measure...

and in Chapter VIII:



The Doctor had a great idea of being largely just: he wished to leave his daughter her liberty, and interfere only when the danger should be proved.

I do appreciate that the films of 1949 and 1997, and many a reader, do not understand Dr Sloper as a thoroughly honest man and largely just. But if you wish to point the finger at those in the book whose love was not the real thing, then the dangerous Lavinia Penniman and the disingenuous Morris Townsend should be your target.

Morris Townsend was not the man Catherine loved: her love for him had been blind. She loved an illusion, fostered by Townsend, that marriage would have soon dispelled. Her optimistic love for Townsend disintegrated some weeks after he abandoned her, because her eyes were finally opened to the truth about this 'gold-digger'. Her father essentially acted in her best interests. Decades later, Catherine despatches Townsend without hesitation, although memories of her father's perceived denigration of her intellect and moral capacity remain excruciatingly painful.

While rather distant like many fathers past and present, Dr Sloper has his daughter's best interests at heart throughout. He is a loving father, who happens to find his daughter less intellectually stimulating than his brilliant and beloved wife, long-deceased. Once in a lifetime, under considerable duress, he inadvertently reveals this to Catherine saying, "That idea is in very bad taste," he said. "Did you get it from Mr. Townsend?" Poor Dr Sloper goes to his grave believing she has missed his one careless slur. Communication breakdown in a family is so sad.