As Washington Square spirals toward an unhappy ending, it becomes more and more depressing. Eventually, our heroine loses both of the men in her life. Morris mutates into a fortune hunter and Catherine is devastated. She winds up an old maid. Daddy still belittles her and keeps a cold shoulder to the end.
Nobody ends up happy.
Disney miscalculated in sending Mr. James's work after the audience that fell for Jane Austen. Mr. James was far darker, anticipating the psychological malaise of the 20th century. Ms. Austen's world is one of love, order, and closeness, not angst and breakdown. Austen-mania is about escaping from modernity, not diving toward it. While the conclusion of Washington Square is faithful to the book, it is staged in an oddly feminist fashion.