Henry James Story Daisy Miller: the Individual and Old Society - Case Study Example

Daisy Miller: Individual v Society Henry James’ Daisy Miller, a short novel, was written in 1879 and is the story of young American woman from New York and her rich family, sans the father, travelling around in Europe, a world still steeped in old tradition, hypocrisy and artifice. The story is seen from the perspective of the character named Winterbourne, a young American who had however spent however most of his life in Geneva, Switzerland. The story is focused on the character of Daisy Miller, a young American girl whose ways are typically that of a young American – free, modern, artless, flirtatious and mindless of conventions. These traits are a stark contrast to the highly conventional, pretentious European society of old, making her the center of gossip and ill contempt. Even Winterbourne, who first found Daisy’s beauty attractive subsequently developed prejudice against her seemingly careless and wanton ways, although she really did nothing extraordinary that many young Americans are not doing today. In this story, the individual, a denizen of the new world, is unintentionally pitted against a decadent, prudish, traditional and old society as her course takes her into its midst. The conflict in Daisy Miller stems from the fact that the young female protagonist of the story is thrown into a culture and society distinct from her own. In the 1870s, the time when the story was written, Europe was an old decadent society steeped in traditions and conventions and America, especially New York where Daisy’s family originated, was a new, modern, coming-of-age nation. It was in this context that the young, modern American youth is thrown into as she travel as a tourist together with her mother, young brother and courier. Daisy Miller, which is said to be Henry James’ most well-known study of the ‘young feminine nature’, is described as a girl’s heedless rash indifference to the kind of decorum being observed in European civilized society. Although at first blush, her actions would seem to be one of the typical American traits of moral innocence, it turns out to be a want of discriminating judgment which tragically ended in her untimely death (Berkovitch Cambridge University Press p. 163). Nonetheless, there was nothing terribly wrong in Daisy’s actuations from the modern-day perspective except perhaps the fact that she threw all caution to the wind when she went to the Colosseum in the middle of the night with her friend when the malaria epidemic was rampant. The matter with Daisy is that she personifies everything that is considered low, vulgar, uneducated and uncultured in European society. Although she is a daughter of a rich family and dresses fashionably, she is provincial in many ways by European standard. She incessantly talks in a monotonous manner about her family, its habits and idiosyncrasies and has virtually no conversational talent. She is childish and is not skilled in repartees and is not witty. In addition, she is a flirt and relishes being the center of attraction. Yet, Daisy is also spirited, independent and has no mean bone in her. Henry James, in attempting to explain Daisy’s character in response to a letter from a British woman named Eliza Lynn Linton, described Daisy as “innocent.” Linton, who had been in a furious debate with her circle of friends over the real Daisy Miller, wrote to James to clarify the issue being then debated in British circles whether Daisy went wild with Giovanelli simply because she was too innocent, and was not conscious of her reputation with the public or because she intentionally wanted to defy society who treated her with contempt for being different from them. In short, is Daisy “obstinate and defying, or superficial and careless?” (Helsinger, et al, 1983 p 185). According to James, Daisy Miller went with Giovanelli the way she did, not because she is defiant nor does she took pleasure in being involved in a scandal but because it is her nature to be so. She never really noticed the scandal she has brought or created because she was too ignorant, she is not the contemplative type and has no sense of proportion of things. In other words, she is not aware of her effect of society nor has she got the aptitude to plan revenge against society by defying it. “The whole idea of the story is the little tragedy of a light, thin, natural, unsuspecting creature being sacrificed as it were to a social rumpus that went on quite over her head and to which she stood in no measurable relation. To deepen the effect, I have made it go over her mother’s head as well. She never had a thought of scandalizing anybody – the most she ever had was a regret for Winterbourne” (Helsinger, et al, 1983 p 185). What is striking about Daisy’s situation is that she has a mother who seems not to notice anything that’s going on with her daughter or if she does, does not give Daisy or anyone an inkling for that matter. Assuming that she is a liberal mother who finds nothing wrong with Daisy’s conduct, nevertheless she should have made Daisy aware of the scandal she is creating to protect her at least from the pain of being made a social pariah. After all, Daisy is a young, naive and inexperienced girl who still needs the guidance of her parents. And there’s the malaria epidemic hounding Rome at that time. As a mother she should have been cautious in allowing Daisy to go out at night where malaria mosquitoes may roam and infect her. Yet, she never figures anywhere in her daughter’s life. Also, the story of Daisy Miller addressed a 19th century issue that has something to do with gender and sexuality by creating an underpinning divergence between American individualism and masculinity, and between traditional society in Europe and femininity (Hong 2006 p. 13). To convey this issue, the author employed a third person limited omniscient narrator in the person of Winterbourne who is immediately attracted to the innocent beauty of Daisy Miller. The reader however only becomes privy to the thoughts and perceptions of Winterbourne only after he is introduced by the author to Daisy Miller. Immediately, he observes that although Daisy is “a pretty American flirt,” she is nevertheless “very unsophisticated.” Later however, this observation turns severe as he witnesses Daisy linking up seriously with an Italian nobody un-chaperoned and walking around the streets of Rome and going out with him at any time of the day and night. Winterbourne’s perceptions however are largely affected also by the European society’s general disgust for women who do not toe the line of the traditional view of the female gender. Walking around the streets in the company of a man, not a relative, and going out with him in the middle of the night un-chaperoned was considered a taboo by European society in the 1880s and Daisy, as a result, is condemned by the snobbish and uppity social circle of Rome. Also of noticeable importance here, is the fact that most social prohibitions applicable to women rarely apply to men. The European culture of the old seemed to have a disparity between how a man and a woman behave and act in public. The simple act of taking a walk in the streets of Rome is considered scandalous, for example, for women but not for men, one can only sympathize with Daisy Miller’s surprised comment when told she is creating a scandalous act in taking a walk accompanied by a man, “Well, it ought to be, then! If I didn’t walk I should expire!” The weakness or perhaps strength of Daisy Miller’s character lies in the fact that she is “too ignorant, too irreflective, too little versed in the proportion of things” that even she herself does not fully comprehend the kind of ripples she creates in society. There is a kind of total unawareness that the character displays perhaps borne out of the fact that she comes from a culture and society that tolerates nay, even cultivates these traits (Fowler 1984 p 36). A testament of this kind of total unawareness is when, as previously stated, Daisy decides to walk the streets of Rome with Mr. Giovannelli and the scandalized Mrs. Walker, a rich American woman living in Rome, goes after her in her carriage to try to dissuade her from continuing with her leisurely walk. As Mrs. Walker tries hard to get her in the coach, the unperturbed young woman said innocently “That would be charming, but it’s so enchanting just as I am.” However, innocent though she may be in the effect of her actuations on her reputation, there are times when Daisy displayed keen discernment of things. When Winterbourne, for example, becomes evasive on why he cannot introduce her to his aunt, the latter having dismissed her and her family as common and uncultivated for, among others, treating their courier as if a part of their family, and uses his aunt’s frequent headaches as alibi, Daisy uncharacteristically, but discerningly, exclaimed “She doesn’t want to know me!” This statement is said without embarrassment or pain which illustrates the fact that Daisy is not all that dumb but really a curious mixture of odd traits. The hypocritical and spurious nature of the old European society is illustrated in the sub-conflict in Daisy Miller of the male protagonist Winterbourne whose story of sexual affair with a married older woman appears as a background story. Winterbourne is actually the adulterous character and Daisy Miller the innocent character subjected to ostracism by a judgmental and superficial society (Levine 2002 p. 4). Between the two, it is Winterbourne’s character who should have earned the ire of society because of the objectionable affair he is keeping but society instead turns its disapproving eyes on Daisy Miller. “The light treatment of Winterbourne’s affairs reflects the unspoken assumption in American society that a man’s private life is his own business, whereas a woman’s should be to withstand public examination. The details of Winterbourne’s affair are cloaked by his own discretion (the discretion of the transgressor) and by the discretion of his friends and narrator. The multiple layers of prudent reserve effectively filter out the gossip of his enemies” (Levine 2002 p. 4). This double standard of treatment given by society and even by the narrator to Winterbourne and Daisy Miller, favoring the male who is the actual transgressor over the female, who appeared to be wanton in her ways but who is actually the innocent character is reflective of the double standard accorded to the sexes in real life. It is reflective as well of the superficial moral standards of society which quickly judges individuals by what they see on the surface and not by what the individual really is. On a much larger scale, the story presents a conflict as well of America, as represented by Daisy Miller, and Europe, as represented by Winterbourne. While America, at that time was a young, newly created nation where old values are being substituted for newer, more forthright ways of looking at things and where people employ less artifice, Europe was an old, decadent society where traditions and conventions abound and rule society. Daisy Miller’s character, spirited, open, flirtatious and unpretentious, although reckless, mirrors the New World and Winterbourne’s blasé, cultured, civilized, prejudiced, snobbish, but has a subterfuge adulterous affair represents the old world . Daisy Miller’s strength is her innocence but her weakest asset is her recklessness perhaps due to her youth which could likewise be said of a young republic like America at that time. On the other hand, Winterbourne’s greatest strength is his experience and sophistication and his worst weakness is his concealed corruption (Van 2004 p 202). In the late 19th century, Europe had created a conception, often a misconception, of American women, one that is mirrored in Daisy Miller. The disparity between American women with their European contemporaries was not only noted by Henry James in his Daisy Miller but in other writers’ works as well. The 19th century American woman was a subject of much discussion especially as the century is nearing a turn. American women were perceived as more vocal, more visible and more involved in their social life than European women. The American woman of the late 19th century was known to be a phenomenon unique only to the United States – an individual known for her innocence, independence and naïveté. It was also understood that Europeans had a low opinion of American women as “spoiled, empty- headed, ill-mannered, and too eager to be seen in vulgar places where she doesn’t belong.” As a matter of fact, Daisy Miller fit in to a tee Europeans’ idea of the American woman and Henry James, an American, was regarded as a traitor to his women compatriots. This compelled a writer to defend American women in 1898 with the following: “If James’ Daisy Miller is one type of our American girl abroad, certainly there is another, truer and quite as common. These girls, entirely without chaperonage, led the most blameless of lives. They were, with all their love of fun and adventure, studious, hardworking, and sensible” (Van 2004 p 202). Daisy Miller may not be the most sensible and intelligent girl there is but this does not justify society’s ostracizing or making her a subject of scandal. She is a mere individual living in the midst of a great, big society whose common censure against her is vastly disproportional to her person, age and accomplishment. Daisy Miller has proven once again that society can be cruel, judgmental, biased and intolerant. What Daisy Miller needs perhaps is gentle guidance and understanding for her youth and lack of instruction but instead the snobbish and uppity European society turns against her in a Goliath-like manner and cast its disapproving eyes in her direction. The irony here is that while it viciously rejected her, it tolerates and even shuts its eyes to the more serious case of adulterous behavior by Winterbourne, illustrating once more society’s penchant for exercising double standard against the sexes. This is not to say that Daisy Miller is without fault if being too ignorant, too preoccupied with flirting, being in-contemplative are serious faults. Certainly, her careless actions in traipsing around Rome in the middle of the night with the scare of malaria hounding the city warrants censure but a gentle guidance and warning by a society who really cares would have saved her life. As James said, Daisy Miller is a “little tragedy of a light, thin, natural, unsuspecting creature being sacrificed as it were to a social rumpus that went on quite over her head and to which she stood in no measurable relation.” References Berkovitch, Sacvan. 2005. The Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press p. 163). Fowler, Virginia C. Henry Jamess American Girl: The Embroidery on the Canvas. University of Wisconsin Press, 1984. Helsinger, Elizabeth & Sheets, Robin Ann & Lauterbach, Robin. The Woman Question. Manchester University Press, 1983. Hong, Grace Kyungwon. The Ruptures of American Capital: Women of Color Feminism and the Culture of Immigrant Labor. University of Minnesota Press, 2006 Levine, Jessica. Delicate Pursuit: Discretion in Henry James and Edith Wharton. Routledge, 2002. Van, Bailey. Angels of Art: Women And Art In American Society, 1876-1914. Penn State Press, 2004 Read More