Mirabelle Buttersfield Character Analysis

The focal characters in Washington Square and Shopgirl shaped how the stories turned out. In Shopgirl the main character is Mirabelle Buttersfield. She is a young woman who is somewhat shy and dragging herself through life. In the novel Steve Martin describes her as an attractive wallflower. In Washington Square Catherine Sloper is the central character. She also has some of the same characteristics that Mirabelle has. She is young and also introverted. Her physical appearance is the opposite of Mirabelle however. Henry James describes her looks as, “She was not ugly; she had simply a plain, dull, gentle countenance.” The young women are lonely at times, but they don’t seek others, instead they wait for others to approach them.