Daisy Miller was used by Henry James to represent the American Stereotype in that time and to differentiate American and European customs. She was the “American flirt” in this story; very young, unsophisticated, and bold. In the time that this novella was written, it was not uncommon for Americans to visit and explore Europe. Europeans held a negative opinion of Americans due to the Americans’ spontaneous and often poor manners. Daisy’s character represented all Americans and Winterbourne represented the Europeans even though he, himself, was American as well. The characters in Daisy Miller all had very differentiating personalities. Daisy, the title character, was used as a symbol of American customs. She was vibrant and shameless but also very innocent and ignorant to her surrounding customs. Winterbourne, the second leading character, had a calm demeanor and acted very stiff which showed how influenced he was by European …show more content…
Daisy had little social etiquette and was extremely spontaneous. She cared little about what the European people thought of her because she was not fond of European culture and saw nothing wrong with her behavior. Winterbourne was completely opposite of this. He was very civilized and exceedingly polite. Winterbourne was greatly influenced by other people’s opinions of him, especially the women in his life. As the story unraveled, one could see how intrigued Winterbourne was by Daisy’s beauty. He stated that he “hadn’t for a long time seen anything prettier than his fair country woman’s features.” Daisy’s prettiness was a recurring theme throughout the novella. Mrs. Costello’s negative views of Daisy fall partly unheard by Winterbourne because he finds Daisy too beautiful for any of those things to be true. In part, he believed her innocence was to blame for her behavior. Daisy was unaware of how a big of scandal her behaviors appeared to
In Leland S. Pearson, Jr.’s essay “Herstory” and Daisy Buchanan,” Pearson explains why Daisy’s character is incomplete in the novel. Particularly in this paragraph:
Daisy Buchanan is married to Tom Buchanan and cousin to Nick Carraway. During World War I, many soldiers stationed by her in Louisville, were in love with her. The man who caught her eye the most was Jay Gatsby. When he was called into war, she promised him that she would wait for him. Also that upon his return they will be married. Daisy, lonely because Gatsby was at war, met Tom Buchanan. He was smart and part of a wealthy family. When he asked her to marry him, she didn't hesitate at once, and took his offering. Here, the reader first encounters how shallow Daisy is, making her a dislikeable character. Another event that Daisy is a dislikeable character is when she did not show up to Gatsby's funeral. When Daisy and Gatsby reunite, their love for each other rekindle. She often visited Gatsby at his mansion, and they were inseparable. This led Gatsby on because he dedicated his whole life into getting Daisy back, and she had no gratitude towards it. At the hotel suite scene, Daisy reveals to all that she loves Gatsby, but then also says that she loves Tom as well. This leaves the reader at awe, because after...
The character of Daisy Buchanan has many instances where her life and love of herself, money, and materialism come into play. Daisy is constantly portrayed as someone who is only happy when things are being given to her and circumstances are going as she has planned them. Because of this, Daisy seems to be the character that turns Fitzgerald's story from a tale of wayward love to a saga of unhappy lives. Fitzgerald portrays Daisy as a "doomed" character from the very beginning of the novel. She seems concerned only of her own stability and is sometimes not ready to go though what she feels she must do to continue the life that she has grown to know. She tells that she only married Tom Buchanan for the security he offered and love had little to do with the issue. Before her wedding, Jordan Baker finds Daisy in her hotel room, "groping around in the waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pull[ing] out [a] string of pearls. "Take 'em down-stairs and give 'em back.... Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mine... She began to cry - she cried and cried... we locked the door and got her into a cold bath." (Fitzgerald 77)
In Daisy Miller, Henry James is presenting us the nature of Daisy’s character through her relations with other characters, especially Winterbourne, one of the mail characters. Daisy Miller is a wealthy, young, American girl from New York, traveling around Europe with her mother and younger brother. Daisy is spirited, independent, and well meaning, but she is also, ignorant, and provincial, almost laughably so. She offers the opinion that Europe is “perfectly sweet,” talks about the tiring details of her family’s habits, thinks Winterbourne might know an Englishwoman she met on the train because they both live in Europe. She has no social graces or conversational gifts, such as charm, wit, and she is really interested only in manipulating men and making herself the center of attention.
First, Daisy’s character is shown to the reader by her traits. Carol Wershoven says Daisy models a “golden” girl. She plays a trick of blankness, much like brass. She looks beautiful on the outside, but ugly and corrupt on the inside. Daisy thinks she wants people and money, but really, she holds no true desire. She has filled her life with useless items, and carries no space left in her to fill (AVL). Daisy takes no personal responsibility for her choices. She lives for the moment, and remains blind to the future (Hermanson AVL). Fitzgerald shows this in The Great Gatsby:
Fictional character’s names are often symbolic, alluding to the traits they possess. Daisy Miller's name is a symbol for a daisy flower. This is because she is fragile, pretty, and simple. The author continually refers to her physical attributes instead of who she actually is as a person, mirrored by how people usually focus on a daisy’s appearance. “And she was strikingly, admirably pretty (page 7).” said the narrator, not thinking anything of her deeper personality traits, or what she is capable of. The author seems to caution away from being like Daisy Miller by belittling her with his words. He uses negative connotation to affect the reader’s opinion of the character. For example the text says “ she began to prattle
Daisy is described from a male’s perspective as being careless and selfish. This is because the narrator, Nick, does not know much about Daisy and just forms an opinion about her from what other people have to say. Since the story is from his perspective, it evokes the readers to agree with his speculations,
Daisy Buchanan is The Great Gatsby’s most impenetrable and disappointing character. Although Fitzgerald attempts to deem Daisy worthy of Gatsby’s infinite devotion, in the end, she reveals herself for what kind of person she truly is. Despite her flirtatious charm and undeniable beauty, Daisy is merely an insensitive and self-absorbed woman. Gatsby convinces himself that he is wholeheartedly in love with Daisy, when in fact, he is only in love with the idea of her. Although Fitzgerald makes Daisy seem pure and innocent, in actuality, she is the opposite of what she is presented to be.
Myrtle is a “faintly stout” woman who “carrie[s] her surplus flesh sensuously,” a lady who, in defiance of her classless and dead surroundings, is “continually smoldering.” Consequently, projecting herself as one leading a superior life of vitality and substance in a place of human anguish (25). She is married to a struggling mechanic named George Wilson, who despite his unabating love for her, is a “ghost” in her eyes and someone she can order around, unable to provide for her the way Myrtle desires—materialistically. She even goes as far to say George “[is]n’t fit to lick [her] shoe,” highlighting her arrogance which stems from her fantasy of running off with the absurdly wealthy Tom Buchanan (34). In one instance, her pretense of being a lady of great wealth is magnified when Myrtle surrounds herself in the opulence of Tom’s apartment, and “gather[s] up her dog and her other purchases and [goes] haughtily in” (28). These descriptions of her actions show how she has let the facade of being of a higher stature completely envelop her true self. Myrtle also goes to the length of inviting “the McKees come up” to Tom’s apartment, further disguising herself as his true love, and as a result, attempting to lead the life Daisy Buchanan, his actual wife (28). In effect, she tries
Characters in The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald are often described differently than they actually act throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Daisy is told to be “by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville”. She was said to have great beauty, and its even said that she holds her popularity spot because of it. She is also described as a “fool” which means she is beautiful, just like an angel. As we read on, we come to see that Daisy is actually very careless, selfish, and only focuses herself on wealth and power. She never looked at the consequences of her actions; and she let others clean up the messes she made. She wanted her daughter to grow up just like her, even though it’s a life nobody wanted to live. She even gave up her true love to be with somebody who had money and a good repetition. As perceived in the novel, Daisy is the most despicable character in the novel of The Great Gatsby.
In 1878, Henry James wrote, Daisy Miller, a novella about a young American girl and her travels in Europe. Daisy Miller is a complex short story with many underlying themes such as appearance versus reality, knowledge versus innocence, outward action versus inward meditation, and Nature versus urbanity. In this short story, one is left to judge whether Daisy Miller, the main character of the story, is “a pretty American flirt” or a misunderstood, modern young woman. By probing into the complexities and contradictions of Daisy’s character, it is obvious that Ms. Miller is merely a misunderstood young woman.
Daisy's carelessness reveals her corruption as a human being. She uses her wealth and social status to escape whatever she chooses, like the death of Myrtle. Additionally, her actions demonstrate the dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain and attention. Daisy’s character, due to her money, inherently values her advantage over the lower class, revealing a nature of entitlement. Additionally, she gives no respect to anyone around her, sometimes n...
In Daisy Miller, Henry James slowly reveals the nature of Daisy"s character through her interactions with other characters, especially Winterbourne, the main character. " The author uses third person narration; however, Winterbourne"s thoughts and point of view dominate." Thus, the audience knows no more about Daisy than Winterbourne. " This technique helps maintain the ambiguity of Daisy"s character and draws the audience into the story. At first glimpse, Daisy is portrayed as a "pretty American flirt" whose innocence Winterbourne is unsure of, and yet he says he was "almost grateful for having found the formula that applied to Miss Daisy Miller" (James 1563).
The struggle that consistently conflicts the lives of all people is the inability to make statements one cannot support or a contradictory statement. This issue can be seen and is reflected in the novella, Daisy Miller, by Henry James. The story chronicles the life and the journey of Frederick Winterbourne, an American in Europe that falls in love with a mysterious woman, Daisy Miller. As the novella progressed, the duo would not be together and this caused unrest wherever they went. This relationship was all but perfect and the supporting characters in the novella proved this. They both shared mutual friends that could easily see the rift between the two. For example, their strained relationship was played out by Miss Walker who was in the middle of their escapades.
Daisy and Jordan are members of the elite class and are often presented as motionless, sitting or lying down, and when they do move it is leisurely. On the other hand, Myrtle is a member of the lower class and is depicted as annoyingly full of energy. During their journey to Tom and Daisy’s apartment, Daisy rapidly states “I’m going to make a list of all the things I’ve got to get. A massage and a wave and a collar for the dog and one of those cute little ashtrays where you touch a spring, and a wreath with a black silk bow for mother’s grave that’ll last all summer” (Fitzgerald, page 40). Myrtle’s abundance of energy is induced by her obsession with obtaining wealth. Despite drastic differences in how females are depicted based on their differences in wealth, both Daisy and Myrtle are treated as inferior to their husbands. This patriarchal view influences a feminist