The Heiress

by Ruth Goetz, Augustus Goetz

The background of the play is New York in the 1850s and the basic story tells of a shy and plain young girl, Catherine Sloper, who falls desperately in love with a delightful young fortune hunter. Catherine's lack of worldliness prevents her from realizing that the young man proposing to her is not entirely drawn to her by her charm. Catherine's father, a successful doctor, sees through the fortune hunter and forbids the marriage, but his daughter proposes an elopement that fails to materialize because the young man knows most of her expected fortune will go elsewhere if he marries her. Catherine retires into a little world of her own. But the fortune hunter turns up once more and again proposes to her. For a moment, Catherine leads him to believe that she will accept him, but when he calls by appointment, she locks the door, blows out all the lights and allows him to realize that she will not be fooled for the second time.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical

93 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGLISH: This play is based on the novel Washington Square by Henry James, which was adapted for the theater by Ruth and Augustus Goetz and broadcast in Spanish by Estudio-1, with Berta Riaza in the main role. The play modifies slightly the ending of the novel, making it more cruel.

The film with the same title, starring Olivia de Havilland, is based on this play.

ESPAÑOL: Esta obra está basada en la novela Washington Square de Henry James, que fue adaptada al teatro por Ruth y Augustus Goetz y emitida en versión española por Estudio-1, con Berta Riaza en el papel principal. La obra modifica ligeramente el final de la novela, haciéndolo algo más cruel.

La película del mismo título que esta obra, protagonizada por Olivia de Havilland, está basada en esta obra de teatro.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fuck Hedda Gabler, read this instead

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heiress written by Ruth Goetz, Augustus Goetz and Henry James, directed by William Wyler, starring Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson – this excellent feature won four Academy Awards in 1950, including for Olivia de Havilland for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the motion picture is also included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, if you like the following, I have more than five thousand more notes on films from the aforementioned and other pages, plus more than four thousand reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... maybe you even subscribe



9 out of 10

The Heiress is an excellent motion picture, it was nominated for more Oscars than the four it won, including for Best Film, Best Director, and Olivia de Haviland was crowned the Best Actress in a Leading role, that of The Heiress…she was known to me from Gone With The Wind https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... where she had a supporting role, that of Melanie

Catherine Sloper is The Heiress, ergo this is the memorable part in which Olivia de Haviland shines, she will have thirty thousand per year income, and that is many millions in the currency of our time, albeit there might be a trillionaire soon, the crazy Musk, so having a few millions might seem less than impressive for some
A survey showed that being rich is equaled with having more than 2.5 million by ordinary people, when asked – incidentally, people are more interested, aggrieved by what others have, and then there is research showing what happens when one wins more than one million at the lottery, we experience Hedonic Adaptation

You have much more on this in the psychology classic Stumbling on Happiness https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... written by the Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert, we think we would be happy, if only we moved to California, an island…
Alas, once those dreamed scenarios come to life, we get used with the good in those paradisical places and see what is wrong there: wild fires, hurricanes, high cost of electricity and almost anything else, the upside of this phenomenon is that we also adapt to bad situations, except loss of dear ones, unemployment, these are harder…

Back to The Heiress, Ralph Richardson plays doctor Austin Sloper, and he was nominated for the Oscar as well, this is the father of Catherine Sloper, a widower who keeps comparing his daughter to the late wife, disparaging the girl, and regretting the apparently intelligent, beautiful, impetuous, formidable, wonderful spouse…
Montgomery Clift was a fantastic thespian, if you are a cinephile, you should read Adventures in The Screen Trade https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... by William Goldman, this where we have passages on Clift, who passed on three offers and thus we have had:

The rise of Paul Newman – Somebody Up There Loves Me – Marlon Brando – On The Waterfront – and James Dean – Rebel Without a Cause – Burt Lancaster was another fantastic actor, powerful, sublime and he said that ‘he felt his knees buckle when he played with Montgomery Clift’, well, something like that, it is not an exact quote
Clift is Morris Townsend in this feature, and he is poor, so the suspicion is that he pretends to be in love with The Heiress, only to get to her fortune, her father is sure of that, and events appear to support this theory, although we could not be 100% sure, I would say, this is what makes this motion picture so wondrous…

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realistic and depressing play about love and money.

[Carolyn Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nuanced, emotional play that fundamentally is about love and loneliness, and what would or could drive you from one to the other. Well done!

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

You thought any clever, handsome man would be as bored with me as you were. And would love me as little as you did. It was not love that made you protect me. It was contempt. Am I to thank you for that?

The greatness of The Heiress has rendered me inarticulate. I cannot adequately put into words how much I loved it. So here are a few random thoughts:

• I think Catherine may have social anxiety. Her awkwardness around strangers and her conviction that she has nothing interesting to contribute to a conversation support my theory.

• As another reviewer has pointed out, Hedda Gabler has nothing on Catherine Sloper. She pales in comparison. I felt compassion for Catherine, and later awe. What a badass. Unlike Hedda, I always understood where she was coming from, probably because the reader witnesses the dynamics that shaped her.

• I have mixed feelings about Dr. Sloper. He’s politely callous in his treatment of Catherine, and as she says to him, paternal love was not his main motivation for protecting her from the fortune hunter Morris Townsend. I felt sympathy for his heartbreak at losing his wife and hate for his dismissal of Catherine. The scene in which he lists all the reasons Morris cannot love her is brutal. Sloper is a bully but one you can understand; that’s what’s so scary about his character.

• Catherine’s breakdown is one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever. And the ending one of the most satisfying.

[Gil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Heiress
By: Ruth Goetz, Augustus Goetz
Narrated by: Chris Noth, Amy Irving, Full Cast
Length: 2 hrs and 3 mins
Produced by L.A. Theatre Works.

Leave it to L.A. Theatre Works to turn what easily could be a boring play into something that is worth hearing, and will keep the listener listening.

LATW produces many plays into audiobook and everyone has a great cast and the production puts you right in the middle of the audience of the performance.

This time around Amy Irving plays Catherine who already has a decent income (especially considering that this is the 1850s and she's a woman) from when her mother passed away. She is set to inherit a large sum when Dr. Sloyer (her father) passes and people know it.

When a young treasure hunter seeks Catherine's hand, her father is determined to put a stop to the man's pursuit. Catherine believes his professed feelings to be real, her father knows otherwise.
A tale of love lost, this performance is well acted and performed. I decided halfway through that it was not my cup of tea, but since the performance was so good I had to keep listening. LATW always gets me listening to plays I would probably normally pass on.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Husband-and-wife writers Ruth and Augustus Goetz turn Henry James' "Washington Square" into a kick-ass melodrama (or is it a low-level tragedy), about an unattractive mid-19th century woman rejected by her father and jilted by a fortune hunter because marrying her would leave her with only a third of her inheritance. The sum that's too small for him, by the way, is equivalent to over $20 million a year in current dollars. The piece is a powerful character study of a woman's response to being denied the only roles society allows her. The Goetzes drew heavily on James' novella for dialogue and scenes, but created an ending of their own in which the fortune hunter gets his comeuppance.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This play lives and dies on the stage, not the page. Some plays are elaborate with wordplay, or elegant plotting, or filled with laughter and funny scenarios, or poetry mingled with dramatic settings that appeal to the reader almost as much to the audience goer. But this quiet drama of a woman who never really lives, whose life is stunted by a grief stricken father...and then is maybe exploited by a gold digging suitor...doesn't leap off the page into your brain. It could be a great night of theater in the right hands, but as a read, it's not much.

It is also possibly dated, not only in its topic and the issues, but also in the staging, the pacing.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever both the time of play staged in 1947 and the play's setting in 1850. I found the storyline compelling enough that I could not put it down. The plot and the characterization progressed as well. Interesting read on women and men and the societal pressures people faced in the era where the only way a man thought to make it"big" was traveling West for the Gold Rush. There were no long monologues or poetic prose but definitely entertaining.

[Es · Rating 5 out of 5]

It really is a sad tale but the character depth is so real. Especially with Catherine and Austin. You can see their intentions without the actual dialogue and that’s amazing. It is a beautifully written play.

[Shianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this last year at Arena Stage and immediately wanted to produce it. At first glance it feels like a sort of typical melodrama, but done well, the dialogue is cutting, the twists gasp-inducing, and the overall theme quite feminist in a way.

[Christoph · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Man is the cruelest animal“, Nietzsche once wrote and on that, Cathrine Sloper certainly would agree with him. Her "Yes, I can be cruel. I have been taught by masters" stands out from an emancipating but otherwise bland play.

[Paige Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly I was rage-reading this play until the end and now I'm a fan.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the play because I'm in it. But it's a pretty engaging, tightly-written play with well-written dialogue and a sympathetic main character.

[Lea McKenna-Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greats.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those "perfect" stories where everyone gets what he deserves.

💥 Recommended.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was unpleasantly shocked by this adaptation’s surprise ending, which felt like something out of Euripides or Sophocles.

[Leo Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!!! A strong woman!!!

[ShaTonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was better than I thought it would be.

[Jasmine Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a great play to read! Fascinating, nuanced, heartbreaking, etc
Good stuff!

[Magpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not brilliant, but not terrible. Made me want to revisit Henry James's novel and the inspiration for this play, Washington Square

[Lauren Merrifield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent play. The characters were all very distinct and realistic, and they had clear goals and motivations. I thought their dialogue was interesting and it moved the story forward at a good pace. There were no unnecessary moments or scenes to slow the action down. I appreciated the established relationships between the characters and how they moved and shifted throughout the play. I would love to see this live someday, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

[Stephen Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Heiress" is simply genius. It is written with such economy. My interest in this play was piqued by the latest Broadway revival starring Jessica Chastain, David Strathairn and Judith Ivey, which I saw twice. Since then I have also watched the film version starring Olivia DeHavilland (William Wyler, 1949). However--I prefer the stage play to the film. The momentum created by the writing is more keenly felt via live theatre and thus the impact is stronger. When I first saw the film version of "The Heiress" years ago, I found the ending to be very depressing. As if the protagonist / anti-heroine, Catherine Sloper, is throwing her life away to get revenge for being jilted. [I had a similar reaction to the end of Federico Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits", having first seen it in my early 30s and then having returned to it and watched it, repeatedly, in my early 50s.] However, now after having seen both the play, as well as the film version of "The Heiress", some 20 years later--I can see how Catherine, in rejecting Morris, also emancipates herself. She chooses not to settle. Perhaps she knows that she can do better. If she wanted to--She could "buy a man". On the other hand--Catherine's money could end up being a kind of curse--Wherein no man could be trusted because he would only want her for her wealth. In this case--Catherine would end up living a "long and lonely life"--As her aunt Lavinia Penniman infers in the final scene of Act II. Of course the matter is open to interpretation--Which is yet another reason why this play is so great.

The complexity of this drama also reminds me of the film "Sunset Boulevard" in the way I see something new in it with each viewing. Watching or reading "The Heiress" is like looking into a kaleidoscope and seeing different patterns each time. This play also speaks to core issues within capitalist society, IE where property is often valued above affection. The subtext of the play asks the question: Can anyone truly be trusted in a situation where the potential exists for financial gain? How many men (or women) would marry for money if the opportunity were to arise? And of course the emotional tone of the drama makes it compelling as well. Catherine is abused by her father; she is blamed for having killed her mother in childbirth. Her father criticizes her constantly throughout the play. And so it becomes obvious that Catherine has a low opinion of herself--And one ultimately understands why she is so stilted and awkward. But in the end--Dr. Sloper dies and Catherine becomes fabulously wealthy as a result. And who's to say that she won't use this to her advantage?

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heiress is a 1947 play by American playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel Washington Square. Two years later the play was adapted into the film The Heiress starring Olivia de Havilland. The play opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on September 29, 1947 and closed on September 18, 1948 after 410 performances. Directed by Jed Harris the cast starred Wendy Hiller, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Cookson. In the 1850s young Catherine Sloper lives with her father, Dr. Austin Sloper. Catherine is shy, unsophisticated and plain-looking; her father blames her for the death of her mother, who died giving birth to her. Morris Townsend courts her. Catherine believes him sincere, but her father believes he's after her inheritance. When the three confront each other, they agree that Austin will take his daughter to Europe for six months. He believes that either Morris or his daughter will give up, but they don't think so. On their return, Dr. Sloper sees that nothing has changed and threatens to disinherit her if she marries Morris. Catherine suggests to Morris that they elope immediately, she cannot stand to be in her father's house another night; but she also mentions the threat of disinheritance. For me the play and film are equal in the accurate telling of the story. I will never forget, however, the beautiful performance of Olivia de Havilland. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[Mylissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like this was supposed to be a critique of love since the minute the main character falls in love it doesn't go well for her and then eventually she gives up on it. Which I generally find rather unrealistic, if she desires it so much wouldn't she question whether its actually love since it happened over the course of one night and she was warned about this man. But maybe not.

However I felt the writing was strong and I'd like to see onstage because I think, done right, it would really hold the audiences attention.

[Michael McClain · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE HEIRESS is an old chestnut of a play and its writing is very precise and free of any unnecessary moments. I found the character of Catherine Sloper very empowering, especially since she was created during the 1940's and the 19th century (the play's setting) was still a time when a woman's job was to marry and settle down. For a woman to choose her own path through life against the wishes of her father, aunt and society is bold and I cheered for the decision she made at the play's conclusion.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright.

The performances were lovely. The subject was... well it was the usual con man trying to marry money.

It kept me entertained for a few hours, though it didn't blow smoke up my skirt.

I must say though, Chris Noth did not actually sound like Chris Noth. I wouldn't have known it was him unless I had known it was him.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this one. Not just because I played the title role once. It's a great story about getting used and deciding what to do about it. The story is about what everyone can expect when a shy, insecure, rather plain girl inherits a lot of money.

[Fishsanwitt]

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