Catherine, meanwhile, is drawn to warmth, symbolized by the fire in the room at the time she is telling her father of Mr. Townsend. She (or perhaps the narrator; it is left ambiguous) even notes that the fire is warmer than her father's eyes and fixed smile, and finds the relief, comfort, and perhaps even the familiarity in the fire that she cannot find in her father or in his reaction to her announcement, which is not well received. Catherine is as much a creature of the heart as Dr. Sloper is of the mind, and while his evening paper is the object in the room with which he is shown to have a connection, for Catherine it is the fire. Their different temperaments are also clearly visible in their summations of Mr. Townsend's character; Dr. Sloper sees the calculation of his past as his "chief feature," while Catherine sees...
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