Conference Presentation

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Conference Presentation

• Daisy Miller
• A story by
• Henry James
• English 170W
• Presented by
• Arlene Pan

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Summary - Switzerland

• The story begins with Daisy Miller and
  Winterbourne being introduced by Daisy's younger
  brother, Randolph, in Switzerland.
• Randolph thinks that New York is much better than
  Europe but Daisy thinks that Europe is absolutely
  wonderful.
• Winterbourne thinks Daisy is beautiful, but he
  finds her demeanor confusing he believes that
  she is a flirtatious young lady.
• Winterbourne is infatuated with Daisy even though
  his aunt, Mrs. Costello, and the society,
  disapproves Daisy's family has a close
  relationship to their courier, which is
  scandalous.
• Mrs. Costello believes Daisy to be shameless for
  going off with Winterbourne, who was a stranger
  to her only a half hour before.
• Winterbourne then tells Daisy that he has to go
  to Geneva the next day. Daisy is disappointed and
  berates him, but asks him to visit her in Rome
  later that year.

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Summary Rome

• Winterbourne and Daisy meet in Mrs. Walker's
  parlor she is an American expatriate who's moral
  values have become adapted to those of Italian
  society.
• Rumors about Daisy meeting with young Italian
  gentlemen make her a social pariah. Winterbourne
  learns of Daisy's intimacy with a young Italian,
  Giovanelli.
• Daisy doesn't care about the open disapproval of
  the other Americans, and her mother doesn't seem
  to notice the underlying tensions. Winterbourne
  and Mrs. Walker attempt to persuade Daisy to
  separate from Giovanelli, but she refuses.
• Winterbourne takes a walk through the Colosseum
  and sees Giovanelli and Daisy. Winterbourne is
  upset with Giovanelli and asks him how he could
  dare to take Daisy to a place where she runs the
  risk of "Roman Fever."
• Daisy says she does not care and Winterbourne
  leaves them. Daisy falls ill, and dies a few days
  later.
• Winterbourne receives Daisy's last letter before
  her death telling him she cared about his
  perceptions of her. Winterbourne then thinks he's
  spent too long in European society and goes back
  to Geneva.

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The Quote

• Though he was impatient to see her, he hardly
  knew what he should say to her about his aunts
  refusal to become acquainted with her but he
  discovered, promptly enough, that with Miss Daisy
  Miller there was no great need of walking on
  tiptoe.
• He found her that evening in the garden,
  wandering about in the warm starlight like an
  indolent sylph, and swinging to and fro the
  largest fan he had ever beheld.
• It was ten oclock.
• He had dined with his aunt, had been sitting with
  her since dinner, and had just taken leave of her
  till the morrow.
• Miss Daisy Miller seemed very glad to see him
  she declared it was the longest evening she had
  ever passed.

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The Interpretation

• Preparing to see Daisy, Winterbourne's excitement
  is obvious, but his excitement is muddled, also,
  by his aunt's disagreement of his associating
  with her Winterbourne was unable to decide how
  to tackle this predicament. This tells us that
  Winterbourne likes Daisy, or is infatuated with
  her beauty, but doesn't know what to think of
  her, due to outside influence. Reading further,
  we are given more insight on Daisy Millers
  character by the insinuation that there was no
  need to for subtlety when it came to Daisy.
• We are presented with Daisy in the garden almost
  surrounded by a halo of light and then compares
  her to an indolent sylph a lazy, slothful, but
  graceful girl. This presents a differing view
  with negative connotations. The contrasting
  oxymoron shows Winterbourne's indecision. The
  last line shows us that Daisy is interested in
  Winterbourne giving way to belief that this is
  not just what Winterbourne feels, but Daisy's
  interest as well.
• In a New Critics view, Winterbourne is indecisive
  and relies heavily on other opinions, while Daisy
  can be innocent in her gestures while having
  ulterior motives.

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Questionable?

• One of the many questions of Henry James's story
  of Daisy Miller is that while Daisy is
  represented as an innocent young girl who was too
  ignorant of her surroundings
• Was Daisy as innocent as she was portrayed?
• Was Daisy a deviant?
• Or... were those ploys perhaps to validate her
  actions?
• Was the objective to portray a society that had
  distinct ideas of gender roles?

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Gender Roles?

• In Louise Barnett's Jamesian Feminism Women in
  'Daisy Miller', she states While those women
  who accept their circumscribed existence pay
  varying prices of neurotic illness,
  ineffectuality, and hypocrisy, the women who
  ignore social prescription is punished by
  ostracism and death, which is exactly what
  occurs in the book with both Daisy and her
  mother. Daisy's mother is ostracized for her
  daughter's behavior and Daisy eventually dies.
• Society expected not only women, but everyone to
  abide to a certain code of conduct. Morality was
  a bigger issue for women, so this became a more
  gender-specific concern or condemnation. Women
  could not be in a specific circumstance, or they
  became a social pariah, subject to sanction by
  the masses.

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Validation?

• In Joanne Vicker's, Woolson's Response To James
  The Vindication Of The American Heroine, she
  states that James allows Daisy to die from the
  Roman fever in order to play on the ambiguity of
  her morality and her interest in Giovanelli and
  Winterbourne (291).
• Vicker points out that Henry James wrote the book
  with the intention of allowing Daisy to die so we
  would never find out if the portrayal of Daisy
  was ignorance, innocence, or deviant. In this
  way, the readers would never discover the
  intentions and the story would still continue in
  mystique.
• I believe that Henry James did portray Daisy as a
  character who's fault was both ignorance and
  deviance. She was a mixture of both, but did not
  understand the consequences of the actions. She
  was a child who only understood happiness.

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Ignorant or Deviant?

• In Carol Ohmann's DAISY MILLER A Study Of
  Changing Intentions, she questions if Daisy was
  ignorant or deviant. Daisy strayed from the
  social path and then led a life of being the
  social pariah. Ohmann also speaks about how
  Henry James faces his writing as poetic and then
  changes the metaphysical figure of Daisy to be
  less critical of her character and creates her to
  be more in tune with nature (10). Many of these
  aspects portray Daisy as a child with no ill
  intentions who was unfortunate to be unable to
  adapt to the changes surrounding her.
• I believe that Daisy Miller was a child who did
  what she wanted with no thought to the
  consequences. She was ignorant and her only blame
  lies in her carefree nature and the restricting
  society that she became infatuated with.