The author who wrote “Editor’s Easy Chair” talks about how Daisy Miller “represents a young American woman…and describes the unconscious manner in which she devastates the accepted usages of society, doing, with perfect innocence and pure maidenhood, what in Europe is done only by women who are not innocent. She is one of the young women who amaze European society and give a strange reputation to American girls” (Harper 780).
Winterbourne is the stereotypical European and when he notices that Daisy Miller is attractive he says "American girls are the best girls”. All he can think about is how pretty she is. He is blind to anything else except for her beauty.
He is not familiar with how American act and so he is confused by her yet charmed at the same time. James writes that “Poor Winterbourne was amused, perplexed, and decidedly charmed”. He couldn’t decide if she was just a pretty girl from the states “Or was she also a designing, an audacious, an unscrupulous young person”.
Through Winterbourne James paints the picture of Europeans having no instinct or reason to be able to help them decipher whether American women. Winterbourne decides that “Miss Daisy Miller looked extremely innocent” but some people had told him that they weren’t. He finally decides that Daisy Miller is “a pretty American flirt”.
Although Winterbourne is unfamiliar with Americans he compares Daisy to the relationships that he has had with European women whom were “coquettes” and were dangerous and terrible women. He says that Daisy is unsophisticated and a flirt and see where this takes him.
Daisy on the other hand doesn’t seem to notice that she is acting any different than the other girls. When Winterbourne suggest that someone stays with her younger brother so that they both can go see the monuments she naively says that Winterbourne himself can stay with him. The fact that Daisy Miller is not a coquette like some other European women astonishes and amazes Winterbourne, the classic European man. He doesn’t quite know what to do with her and he can’t figure her out.
I didn't realize there was a movie. That'll give me and my boyz somethin' to do tonight. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteBoth your post and the pictures in your post leave me wondering how old she was supposed to be. I can't remember and I don't recall if it ever actually said. I imagined her quite young and so easily excused her naievity. If I had imagined her the age of the girl in the movie picture though I might have interpreted her more like Winterbourne did - like a coquette. On the other hand, James makes it quite clear she is definitely out of her element in European society.
I was also wondering how old she was supposed to be- Winterbourne constantly commenting on her naivety and the fact that she is traveling with her mother and 9 year old brother lead me to believe that she's much younger than Eliza was, which excuses her behavior to some extent.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is key that Daisy doesn't seem to notice (until she is told) that she is acting differently than the other women. Personally, I think she is exremely aware and simply doesn't care, rebelious to other people's expectations. I think she relishes the attention, and it's exciting for her to be viewed with such adoration and then even bewilderment and astonishment. But this point is the main focus of Daisy Miller, I think: The perception of The Other.
boyz = homies... although they do call me Daddy. haha.
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