Individual vs. Society in Daisy Miller and Old Woman Magoun

Individual vs. Society in Daisy Miller and Old Woman

Henry James’ "Daisy Miller, A Study" and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s "Old Woman Magoun" contain morally ambiguous conflicts between individuals and society. Both of these short stories are tales in which strong, individual women directly conflict with their respective destructive male societies, attempting to uphold innocence while flouting societal rules and expectations.

Freeman and James both construct strong female individuals in different guises. Freeman’s Old Woman Magoun is old, wise, and practiced in the art cooking and child-rearing, embracing a traditional feminine role and drawing power from it. She practises this art because it is her right, and, passive-aggressively, she uses her cooking lore to kill Lily, removing innocence from the world. Quite on the other side of the spectrum we have James’ Daisy: young, innocent, practised only in the art of flirting, yet drawing her powerful independence from the practise of this non-traditional feminine art. She is allowed to practise her art, but only for a while. Daisy dies of an attack of Roman Fever contracted at the Colosseum; more symbolically, her innocence is lost from society when her character is crucified on a cross of social propriety.

Men and men’s desires represent societal aims in both stories. Freeman’s men are Nelson Barry and Jim Willis, both are members of old, highly placed, "degenerate" (179) American families. Their goal is to steal Lily from Old Woman Magoun and force her into a traditional societal role to satisfy their own ends, no matter that this will destroy Lily’s innocence. Barry desires "to have that girl" (184) for financial comfort; Willis desires her for more traditional domestic comfort. James embodies society in Mr. Winterbourne, a socially accepted young American who has "lived too long in foreign parts" (492). Winterbourne desires for Daisy to enter into and conform with society to satisfy his own ends, as well. He desires mental and emotional comfort: to judge her "eccentricities" (486) innocent, and that she "would flirt with me, and me only" (482).

Each individual’s conflict with society is resolved in different ways and in difficult lights. Magoun directly flouts society’s rules by committing infanticide, effectively removing purity from the destructive intents of male society. Yet her actions pose a question of morality to Freeman’s audience. Was Lily’s death justified? Meanwhile, the men are left comfortless and alone. Magoun, however, is also comfortless and alone, depriving herself of Lily’s innocence to save it.