The heroine in Washington Square

Washington Square makes me think of Jane Austen. In this novella, Henry James tackles the Jane Austen themes, like sense vs sensibility, love vs money, courtship, marriage, inheritance, pride, prejudice, moral development, self-realisation, and so on. 
We have a heroine, of course, by the name of Catherine Sloper: “A dull, plain girl she was called by rigorous critics—a quiet, ladylike girl by those of the more imaginative sort; but by neither class was she very elaborately discussed.” (Ch.3) 
Catherine Sloper is definitely not Elizabeth Bennet. 

“She was a healthy well-grown child, without a trace of her mother’s beauty.  She was not ugly; she had simply a plain, dull, gentle countenance.  The most that had ever been said for her was that she had a “nice” face, and, though she was an heiress, no one had ever thought of regarding her as a belle.  Her father’s opinion of her moral purity was abundantly justified; she was excellently, imperturbably good; affectionate, docile, obedient, and much addicted to speaking the truth. […] Catherine was decidedly not clever; she was not quick with her book, nor, indeed, with anything else.  […] Catherine, who was extremely modest, had no desire to shine, and on most social occasions, as they are called, you would have found her lurking in the background.” (Ch.2) 

Plain, in every sense of the word. 
It appears that Catherine is not simply quiet and introverted like Fanny Price and Anne Elliot, but she’s also not quick or eloquent—the narrator keeps alluding to her inarticulateness and inability to express herself. 
For example: 

“Her great indulgence of it was really the desire of a rather inarticulate nature to manifest itself; she sought to be eloquent in her garments, and to make up for her diffidence of speech by a fine frankness of costume.” (Ch.3) 

She’s good, though, the narrator says. 

“At this time she seemed not only incapable of giving surprises; it was almost a question whether she could have received one—she was so quiet and irresponsive.  People who expressed themselves roughly called her stolid.  But she was irresponsive because she was shy, uncomfortably, painfully shy.  This was not always understood, and she sometimes produced an impression of insensibility.  In reality she was the softest creature in the world.” (Ch.2) 

Softest creature in the world. 
The main conflict of Washington Square is that Morris Townsend, a handsome and penniless jerk, wants to marry her, and her father, the brilliant but cold Dr Sloper, disapproves. The conflict of the novella forms a square, as we’ve got these 2 characters, with Catherine stuck in between, and we also have the sentimental and meddling aunt Mrs Penniman, who tries to put Morris and Catherine together and imagines being in some kind of drama. 
Look at this passage from Reading Lolita in Tehran: 

“One by one, James strips away from Catherine the qualities that make a heroine attractive; what he takes away from her he distributes among the other 3 characters. To Morris Townsend he bestows “beauty” and brilliance; to Mrs Penniman, a Machiavellian love of intrigue; and to Dr Sloper, he gives irony and judgment. But at the same time he deprives them of the single quality that distinguishes his heroine: compassion.” 

Azar Nafisi’s making an interesting observation there. 
I don’t know what Catherine thinks or how she feels, because, unlike Jane Austen, Henry James doesn’t come close to his heroine. The book at the moment is more about the mind game between Dr Sloper and Morris Townsend, and their tactics.
However, look at this line from chapter 10: 

“Catherine received the young man the next day on the ground she had chosen—amid the chaste upholstery of a New York drawing-room furnished in the fashion of fifty years ago.  Morris had swallowed his pride and made the effort necessary to cross the threshold of her too derisive parent—an act of magnanimity which could not fail to render him doubly interesting.”  

(emphasis mine) 
I know the story, having seen The Heiress, but this is a hint that she is not as simple and subservient as people think she is.