When Catherine Ascended the Staircase in The Heiress

Throughout The Heiress, Olivia de Havilland gives a tender and gentle performance. She pulls at the heartstrings of the audience, causing us to pity her. She plays a woman who is past the conventional marrying age, making her a victim not only of abuse but also gendered ageism. When the film begins Catherine is a shy, soft, and timid woman. She did not even have the courage to look at the nameless butcher as he chopped the head off an already dead fish, instead wincing in fear and recoiling into herself. When the film ends however, Catherine has transformed into a jaded and fiercely independent woman.

This gentleness within Catherine, which Havilland conveys so effectively, is the root of all of her problems. She suffers, not because she is in the wrong, but because the world around her is cruel and unforgiving. It was not a welcoming world for awkward and kind women to come of age in. We see this evidenced in the treatment of Catherine at the hands of her father, Austin Sloper, and her love interest, Morris Townsend. Catherine’s callous and emotionally abusive father tries to stop her from marrying the first man who ever regarded her with any level of kindness and humanity. Austin berates her and claims that he was only after her fortune; this is based on the unfair comparisons between Catherine and her unnamed deceased mother, and the spawning of the belief that she will never be as good as her mother and that no one would actually love her for who she is. The only character who supports this marriage is her aunt, Lavinia Penniman, who viewed the marriage as a way out for Catherine, her one chance at happiness, and a way to escape the manipulation and mistreatment that would endure under her father. It’s even more heartbreaking to know that Catherine has internalized these beliefs about herself that her father has projected onto her. She was shy and afraid of Morris, in part because she had been taught that she was undeserving of such attention.

When the romance began to blossom between Catherine and Morris, it was genuine and real. Morris is portrayed to the audience as ambitious, seeking to increase his status in life, but he is also truly in love with Catherine. Her money was likely one of the contributing factors leading him to pursue her, but it is obvious that this was not the only reason, and definitely not the most important one. Morris relates to Catherine’s social awkwardness, as seen when they trip over one another as they dance. During the ball where they first meet, he’s the only man who stays with her. After already being abandoned by one dancing partner, when Morris leaves to get them drinks she fears that he was using that as a cover to leave her alone too. This proves to be false - he is later shown to be quite smooth-talking, yet also a deeply shy and uncoordinated man. This is why their falling out is so tragic. Morris was truly in love with Catherine. He was her key to happiness and freedom. He was supposed to be the man to take her away so she could begin anew, so the story goes. The two had planned to elope, but after hearing that Catherine told her father to disinherit her, Morris abandons her to make money on his own. He returns years later following the death of Austinn, whom Catherine left to die alone. Now, Catherine is a wealthy heiress and Morris has nothing. His greed and desire to accumulate wealth gradually outweighed his love for her, clouding his original feelings.

This series of moments - her father’s abuse coupled with being abandoned by the love of her life - lead Catherine to become an embittered woman. When Morris has the audacity to come back in hopes of gaining a part of her inheritance, Catherine is pushed to a breaking point. This is when the audience is led to what I believe is the best ending in a film. Earlier in the movie, Catherine very casually remarked; “Morris has become greedy! First he only wanted my money. Now he wants my love, too!” Morris, like her father, took too much. Catherine was ready and willing to give her love, but he rejected it. So when he returns for her money, she decides to give him nothing. 

 Morris stands on her doorstep, knocking and calling out her name non-stop, begging her to see him, but Catherine rejects all. The power dynamics had subverted. Her maid is frightened by Morris and begs Catherine to ‘see to him’, but Catherine boldly orders her to lock the door. She then grabs her lamp and ascends the staircase. The final words we hear Catherine utter sound completely ominous and alien to hear coming from her lips; “Yes, I can be very cruel. I have been taught by masters.” Then, the film ends. It is so powerful and satisfying because of the fact that Catherine was previously the victim. Now, she is the victor, through a beautifully brutal inversion of her past situation. She outlived her father, kept her money from Morris, and triumphed over both of them. Whilst it is tragic that she was changed into such a cold and callous woman, it was also inevitable. That’s what makes the film’s ending so powerful and timeless. She left these men, her abusers, with nothing, whilst she gained everything.