Cathy Ames

Catherine "Cathy" Ames, later known as Kate Trask or Kate Albey, is a fictional character and the main antagonist in John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden. She is married to the main protagonist Adam Trask, and the mother of his twin sons, Caleb and Aron. Beneath her charming, attractive facade, she is an evil woman who manipulates and destroys people for her own amusement and profit. Steinbeck characterizes her as a "psychic monster" with a "malformed soul".

In 1951, Steinbeck wrote a series of letters, known as The Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, to his editor Pascal Covici during the process of writing East of Eden. On March 26, Steinbeck first mentions Cathy to Covici: "This is a woman and you must know her; know her completely because she is a tremendously powerful force in the book." The majority of these letters demonstrate that Steinbeck was most fascinated with Cathy's character, mentioning once that he must get back to writing about his "dear Cathy".

Steinbeck depicts Cathy as small-breasted, delicate, blonde and beautiful, with "oil-soaked" skin that gives her a "pearly-light" and a sense of allurement. Her beauty and charm fool most of the people she encounters, but a few characters detect her true nature by looking into her eyes, which Steinbeck describes as cold and emotionless. Samuel Hamilton, a supporting character in the novel, takes note that "the eyes of Cathy had no message, no communication...they were not human eyes". Cathy is described as having "small, stubby round feet with fat little insteps that almost resemble hooves", enhancing her satanic imagery.

As the novel progresses, Cathy becomes increasingly less attractive. She develops crippling arthritis in her hands, and by the end of the novel she is described as "a sick ghost".

Cathy is the only daughter of a respectable family in a small Massachusetts town. Throughout her childhood, she pointedly causes harm to anyone who holds a relationship with her. She uses her precocious sexuality to manipulate and destroy men; she frames two young boys for attempting to rape her, and drives her naïve Latin professor to suicide by toying with his affections. At a young age, she learns to mimic emotions she is incapable of feeling so she can manipulate people into giving her what she wants. She attempts to run away once, at 16, to Boston, but her father tracks her down and reluctantly whips her as punishment. Afterwards she is a model student, and even certifies to become a school teacher. Consequently, her parents trust her enough to give her the combination to the family safe. Soon afterward, she robs the safe and burns down her family home while her parents are trapped inside, killing them.

She then runs away from her hometown and entrances a whoremaster named Mr. Edwards. The two become lovers for a time, until Edwards begins to suspect that she is being dishonest with him. He hires a detective who discovers a newspaper story about the death of Cathy's parents and her mysterious disappearance. Finally fed up, Mr. Edwards gives her a savage beating and leaves her to die by the roadside in rural Connecticut. That night, Cathy is rescued by Adam Trask and his brother Charles. As Adam nurses Cathy back to health on their family farm, he succumbs to her beauty and resolves to marry her. Cathy accepts his proposal in order to gain protection from Mr. Edwards. Charles sees through her and tries to warn his lovestruck brother, who refuses to listen. Part one ends with Cathy drugging Adam into a deep sleep and then having sex with Charles.

After moving to California with Adam, Cathy becomes pregnant (the novel is ambiguous as to whether by Charles or Adam) and in turn attempts a primitive abortion on herself with a knitting needle. The doctor prevents her from bleeding out, and says he will to go to the police if she does not carry out her pregnancy. Though she warns Adam that she plans to leave as soon as she is able, he brushes this off as homesickness. She leaves her family a few weeks after giving birth to twin sons, and shoots Adam in the shoulder when he tries to stop her.

Cathy then changes her name to Kate Albey and joins a whorehouse. She endears herself to the kindhearted madam, Faye, who eventually makes her new charge the main beneficiary in her will. Kate begins secretly poisoning Faye, and finally kills her by overdosing her on pain medication. She then assumes full ownership of the whorehouse, which she turns into a den of sexual sadism.