{"id":526,"date":"2020-09-26T03:36:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T03:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/?p=526"},"modified":"2020-09-26T03:36:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T03:36:04","slug":"daisy-miller-on-daisy-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/2020\/09\/26\/daisy-miller-on-daisy-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"Daisy Miller on Daisy Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Henry James\u2019 <\/span><\/span>Daisy Miller<\/span><\/span>, the romantic interest of protagonist Winterbourne,<\/span><\/span> named Miss Daisy Miller,<\/span><\/span> is a young lady with a bold personality. She<\/span><\/span> is described from the perspectives of numerous other characters in the novel<\/span><\/span> to provide the reader a chance to determine their own feelings about her<\/span><\/span>. However, listening to Daisy speak may be the most useful tool to decide how the reader feels about her.<\/span><\/span> To Winterbourne, she is an intriguing, witty, and beautiful woman<\/span><\/span>\u2014but her looks seem to be the driving force of his fascination. According to Winterbourne\u2019s<\/span><\/span> snobby <\/span><\/span>aunt, Mrs. Costello<\/span><\/span>, the Miller family<\/span><\/span> is \u201chopelessly vulgar\u201d as they are \u201cintimate\u201d with their courier and Daisy is only a \u201ccommon\u201d pretty.<\/span><\/span> Mrs. Costello is a part of the high social status, so she <\/span><\/span>has an understanding of<\/span><\/span> the kinds of people that are also in her community. When Daisy speaks, it is often formal dialogue, especially with Winterbourne. She believes speaking this way<\/span><\/span> will give the impression that<\/span><\/span> she <\/span><\/span>is a classy woman, not a young lady with a liking to tease others.<\/span><\/span> This also exudes the impression that she is from a higher class than how she <\/span><\/span>actually lives<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span> Daisy is self-absorbed and has \u201cmain character sy<\/span><\/span>ndrome<\/span><\/span>\u201d: meaning that she is the center of her world<\/span><\/span> and other people are to do deeds for her, not the other way around because that would not make sense to her as she is <\/span><\/span>the \u201cmain character\u201d<\/span><\/span> of life<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span> She says to Winterbourne, \u201c<\/span><\/span>I like a lady to be exclusive; I\u2019m dying to be exclusive myself.<\/span><\/span> Well,<\/span><\/span> we <\/span><\/span>are<\/span><\/span> exclusive, mother and <\/span><\/span>I.<\/span><\/span> We don\u2019t speak to <\/span><\/span>every one<\/span><\/span>\u2014or they don\u2019t speak to us. I <\/span><\/span>suppose it\u2019s about the same thing\u201d (James 20). Perhaps Daisy teases <\/span><\/span>men <\/span><\/span>so often because<\/span><\/span> a lady is exclusive. She likes interacting with men, but being a lady is important to her. Being a lady also extends to her family<\/span><\/span>\u2014her mother\u2014for that factors into the image of who she associates with and where she comes from. It is certainly not the same thing <\/span><\/span>for a person to not speak to many others versus other people approaching that person. If someone does not seem approachable, others will not want to introduce themselves.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0If a person wants to interact with another specific person, it is her responsibility to introduce herself and make that interaction happen.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0On the same note, when Winterbourne discusses taking a trip to Rome, Daisy reaction is, \u201c<\/span><\/span>\u2019I don\u2019t want you to come for your aunt,\u2019 said Daisy; \u2018I want you to come for me\u2019\u201d (30). She has known <\/span><\/span>this man for not even a full day and they by no means have a close relationship to each other<\/span><\/span>, yet she wants him to do things for her. It would be very nice if they could reconnect in Rome, but her poutiness to his proposition<\/span><\/span>\u00a0is very off-putting all because she is not the star of the show, if he does not visit Rome specially for Daisy. When Daisy speaks, it is<\/span><\/span> certainly conveyed to the reader how she views herself and how she wishes for others to view her.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Henry James\u2019 Daisy Miller, the romantic interest of protagonist Winterbourne, named Miss Daisy Miller, is a young lady with a bold personality. She is described from the perspectives of numerous other characters in the novel to provide the reader a chance to determine their own feelings about her. However, listening to Daisy speak may … Continue reading Daisy Miller on Daisy Miller<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138877],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2020"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}