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American Lit II Home Page

Daisy Miller
Henry James
1879

Terms | Life | Times | Class Discussion | Group Questions | Pictures | Quotes from Critics

Image credit: http://math.gc.cuny.edu/FridayFilmFestival-Fall2003.html

Link to Hypertext version of the story -- preface is worth reading.

Terms to Know
Realism: A literary movement that focuses on the matter of fact, the every day life, and attempts to report it objectively. While purporting to ignore morality, simply illustrating reality has a way of instigating changes.

Two criticisms of realism include 1) it generally focused on middle to upper class life and thus didn't represent "real life." And 2) any attempt at objectivity is doomed because an artist will always be limited by their subjectivity.

From the period, consider the following:

Richardson, Charles F. "The Moral Purpose of the Later American Novel." Andover Review. April 1885: 312-325. Print.

"What, then, is modern American realism? . . . . realism stands without, not within; describes without evidence of personal sympathy; seldom indulges in exclamations, reflections, or sermons based upon the narratives which it offers; leaves the reader to draw his own conclusions concerning right and wrong; describes by implication, or minute rather than large characterization; is fond of petty details; devotes itself chiefly to quiet people of the `upper' or middling classes; and extensively patronizes Atlantic steamships and Continental [316] railways. It has been most conspicuous, though not the most important, development of later American literature, and its leader is Mr. Henry James" (Richardson 315-316),

For additional information, see the "Realism" paragraph entry in the Oxford Companion to American Literature. For a richer discussion, see the Naturalism and Realism essay from The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature.

Gilded Age: The name given to late 19th century America, denoting a time when fortunes were made (by a few) and capitalism was the reigning law of the land and the epitome of the American Dream. Twain, who with Charles Dudley Warner wrote a novel (1873) giving the age its name, believed that the supposed golden times were all surface ("gilded") which hid a system that enshrined a growing income inequality between the wealthy and everyone else ("hey . . . that sounds familiar . . ."). The term has come to define a historical period when "Robber Barons" (capitalists who exploited workers and worked the political system for their own gain) ruled and workers suffered, but when most of the middle-class thought all was well ("hey . . . they're playing that song again").

This term has a scientific component both in the technologies that allowed capitalists to accrue fortunes (trains, smelting, oil drilling, etc.) and in the adoption of Darwin's theory of evolution to apply to human relationships: social darwinism: aka the survival of the fittest. Those who believed in social darwinism argued that the titans of captial naturally rose to the top of the evolutionary food chain (the help of rigged trading schemes, corrupt government officials, monopolies, violence, etc. was conveniently ignored) and thus deserved their spoils.

International theme: The clash between the old world -- europe -- and the new -- America. This entails attitudes towards class, money, relationships, government: in short, life. James and Edith Wharton are two American authors who worked this literary vein. It developed in the latter decades of the 19th century, and is connected to the "Gilded Age" (above). In this period Americans developed the discretionary income (and resulting sense of class divisions) that dictated a trip to the old country, kind of a finishing school for the upper class -- and those who aspired to it. "Dahling, you just haven't lived until you've seen the Colosseum at night!" That sort of thing.

The Continent: Europe.

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The Life
Part of an amazing family whose father (friends with Emerson and like him, an early transcendentalist) Henry James Sr. was a writer and thinker and afflicted with the-grass-is-always-greener . . . syndrome. As a result, the family kept moving throughout europe, providing Henry Jr.(and the rest of the brood)a wide ranging education (reading and writing in several languages, etc.) and long exposure to life on the Continent. See R.W.B. Lewis's The James: A Family Narrative (1991) for a fine account of this influential family.

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The Times
Essay on the historical background of the story.
Henry James: Daisy Miller, in Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them, Volume 2: Civil Wars to Frontier Societies (1800-1880s), edited by Joyce Moss and George Wilson, Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in Literature Resource Center.

James's popularity and the story's influence can be discerned in this spoof published in Life magazine, November 1893 which features Daisy Miller.

Consider, as well, the following from period sources.

Thomas Colley Gratton, an Englishman visiting America in the 1840s and 50s, writes that in American women he observed 

a never-ceasing series of what they call flirtations, but which takes the most decided form of what we call coquetry, is carried on with intense ardour. As far as I could observe or learn, the initiative in these affairs is generally taken by the female partners in the adventure. The intrepid defiance of what is considered in Europe a prudent reserve shows great courage, but is not always successful. To make conquests, -- so to call the poor result of attaching a young fellow as a partner for the balls, or an escort to the lectures of the season, or a companion for walking about the streets, -- is the business of a "young lady's" life. To reckon the number of her "beaux" is her pride; to cast them off, her pastime. She is not, however, much to blame for this levity. They are common-place and insipid to an inconceivable degree. They are certainly little worth loving, for they know little of love but its name (53?)

It is quite startling, until one gets accustomed to it, to witness the way in which young girls go on, or get along, to use the American phrase. Their intercourse with men is without restraint. They invite them to their homes, receive their visits, walk with them and ride with. them alone, at all times and in all places. They go to parties and return home in the same carriage with any man of their acquaintance, quite unattended by any female relative or friend (Gratton 55)

In contrast, Ella W Thompson’s Beaten Paths; or, a Woman’s Vacation (1874) suggests that women felt confined in America.  Thompson believed that 

Thompson suggests that travel is a way out 

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Class Discussion

• What is Winterbourne like? What are his values?
• What are Millers like? What are their values?
• What is Daisy like? What does she value?
• Names: why Winterbourne? Why Daisy?
• Would this story work if set in America?
• The story mentions Geneva Switzerland several times -- and reminds readers that the religious leader Calvin lived there: why? By joining these two, what is James pushing the reader to associate?
• Does Winterbourne change by the ends of story? If so, from what to what? If not, why?
• Does Daisy change in the story?
• Has Daisy had an affair with Giovanelli? What's the purpose of this character? What role does he play in the story, both literally and (more importantly) symbolically?
• Does the narrator take sides here? Does she/he identify with Winterbourne's or Daisy's values? How can you tell? (or not)
• How is Daisy like Huck? How is she different? From the works we've read, can you connect Winterbourne to another character?
• Note that the subtitle reads "A Study" -- is it just a study of Daisy?
• Quite a bit of illness here: first list and then ponder. Metaphor? Symbol? For or of what?
• Since this story is known for addressing the "international theme," what contrasts to you see between europe and America? Another way of addressing this question is to ask how does this story define europe and how does it define America.
• Why does Daisy catch the roman fever at the Colosseum of all places? Why not just catch it on the streets of Rome?
• Why is she at the foot of a cross?
• "Two of the most crucial words in this story are "innocent" and "intimate," especially because the characters define them in various ways and apply them to Daisy's relations with others. Find the places in which these words are used and discuss the ways in which these loaded terms help to create tension (and misunderstandings) in the story." *
• How do the actions and images of different sections of the story reflect or forshadow each other?
• Given Facebook, Myspace, and reality television, does the story still generate heat? Can we see how Daisy's actions may have shocked both the characters in the story and readers?
• What's the European definition of "society" and "gentleman"? What's the American definition of "society" and "gentleman"?
• If two of the main tenants of realism are 1) objectivity in the presentation of the narrative and 2) a pictorial representation of "real life" without the sensationalism of a romance (and again, by romance I mean idealized narratives -- think Scarlet Letter [I mean really, an "A" appears Dimmsdale's chest?] and the works of Sir Walter Scott), then does "Daisy Miller" fit the bill?

* from http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/daisymillerques.htm

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Group Questions

1. "Two of the most crucial words in this story are "innocent" and "intimate," especially because the characters define them in various ways and apply them to Daisy's relations with others. Find the places in which these words are used and discuss the ways in which these loaded terms help to create tension (and misunderstandings) in the story."* For instance, consider Winterbourne's thoughts upon first meeting Daisy :

      Was she simply a pretty girl from New York State? Were they all like that, the pretty girls who had a good deal of gentlemen's society? Or was she also a designing, an audacious, an unscrupulous young person? Winterbourne had lost his instinct in this matter, and his reason could not help him. Miss Daisy Miller looked extremely innocent. Some people had told him that, after all, American girls were exceedingly innocent; and others had told him that, after all, they were not. He was inclined to think Miss Daisy Miller was a flirt--a pretty American flirt. He had never, as yet, had any relations with young ladies of this category. He had known, here in Europe, two or three women--persons older than Miss Daisy Miller, and provided, for respectability's sake, with husbands--who were great coquettes--dangerous, terrible women, with whom one's relations were liable to take a serious turn. But this young girl was not a coquette in that sense; she was very unsophisticated; she was only a pretty American flirt. 

1. Why end the story in the Colosseum -- and why include the cross?
2. The biographer Leon Edel writers that for the Europeans, the story showed "the general freshness and innocence of these products of the new society, their spirit of conquest, their belief in themselves and their ability for self-improvment: above all, the strange new egalitarianism, which nourished the legend that an American could do anything. These newcomers to the ancient civilization came from an order of wealth rather than of aristocracy" ( 218). Choose one of these ideas -- innocence, conquest, self possession, self improvement, egalitarianism, power of wealth -- and locate it in the novel with a quote.  Then explain how the quote illustrates this idea.   
3. How is Daisy like Huck? How is she different? From the works we've read, can you connect Winterbourne to another character?

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Pictures, Pictures, Pictures
Style gallery 1874-79

1 - 1874-76	2 - 1875-6	3 - c.1875	4 - c.1877
5 - 1878	6 - 1878	7-1876

1. Tight gowns with long trains of the mid-1870s are trimmed with pleated ruffles, bows, buttons, and braid, and are worn with hats with ribbon streamers.
2. French evening gown is festooned with flowers and is worn with mid-length white gloves and a black neck ribbon. The high-knotted hairstyle is typical of the mid-1870s.
3. Day dress of c. 1875 has a trailing overskirt and is trimmed with a profusion of ruffles and ribbons. Hair is braided into a crown high on the head.
4. Semi-sheer gowns of c. 1877 show back fullness beginning at hip-level rather than the waist as in 1874-5. The tight, princess-line dress on the right fits smoothly to the body from the shoulders to the lower hips.
5. Evening gown of 1878 has a long train and a squared neckline. It is worn with opera-length gloves.
6. Jacket and skirt costume of 1878 features a long train trimmed with pleated frills and ruching. Matching ruching trims the cuffs of the sleeves.
7. Wedding gown of 1876 features a train.

Pictures and text in this section taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1870s_in_fashion

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Quotes from Critics

Richardson, Charles F. "The Moral Purpose of the Later American Novel." Andover Review. April 1885: 312-325.

"What, then, is modern American realism? . . . . realism stands without, not within; describes without evidence of personal sympathy; seldom indulges in exclamations, reflections, or sermons based upon the narratives which it offers; leaves the reader to draw his own conclusions concerning right and wrong; describes by implication, or minute rather than large characterization; is fond of petty details; devotes itself chiefly to quiet people of the `upper' or middling classes; and extensively patronizes Atlantic steamships and Continental railways. It has been most conspicuous, though not the most important, development of later American literature, and its leader is Mr. Henry James." ( Richardson 315-316)

Ohmann. Carol. "Daisy Miller: A Study of Changing Intentions." American Literature 36 (March 1964): 1-11. Gale Literature Resource. 20 January 2009.

"Like so many Jamesian heroes, Winterbourne has lost the capacity for love, and he has lost the opportunity to come to life.

As Winterbourne judges Daisy, judges her unfairly, and completes her expulsion from the American set in Rome , our sympathy for her naturally increases. But I think James does not--save through a certain pattern of symbolic imagery to which I wish to return in a moment--guide us to any such simple intellectual alignment with his American heroine.

"Daisy's sensibility has very obvious limitations, limitations we hear very clearly in the statement that Europe is 'perfectly sweet.'" (Ohmann)

Edel, Leon. Henry James: A Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.

James described the story in this way in a letter: "the little tragedy [. . .] of a light, thin, natural, unsuspecting creature being sacrified as it were to a social rumpus that went on quite over her head and to which she stood in no measurable relation" (qtd. in Edel 217)

About the American girl of James: "What was new for the Europeans was the general freshness and innocence of these products of the new society, their spirit of conquest, their belief in themselves and their ability for self-improvment: above all, the strange new egalitarianism, which nourished the legend that an American could do anything. These newcomers to the ancient civilization came from an order of wealth rather than of aristocracy" (Edel 218).

© David Bordelon 2009