Critical Thinking Blog 1 - Daisy Miller

I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed Henry James and Daisy Miller. The story is incredibly fascinating not just with the double standards in gender, but also the different stereotypes and thoughts of Europeans vs. Americans.

I decided to look at the character of Winterbourne for my first blog entry because as fascinating as Daisy Miller is, with her "fighting" of the manner that is expected of her, Winterbourne masquerade's as a crusader for American virginity (to mess with a quote from A Knight's Tale...you'll notice as many movie references as I can stick in one blog) when at the end he comes off like a man of skewed morals.

His intentions do start out as honorable. He persues Daisy in the way he's been taught and for some strange reason feels the need to "advance further, rather than retreat" (James 394). Daisy challenges him and treats him differently from the girls he's used to and throughout the novel Daisy constantly does things to make the man jealous like telling him flat out "I have always had...a great deal of gentleman society" (396). Winterbourne's character is a man who needs to classify and put people into categories. Since the novel spends all the time making assumptions and judgements of others in the form of gossip Winterbourne needs the stablity of placing people into the categories that is assumed of them, but not Daisy.

He cannot classify Daisy and is constantly going back and forth on whether she is innocent. James says "He was inclined to think Miss Daisy Miller a flirt" (397) and doesn't immediately shed that image of her. He also tries incredibly hard not to notice Eugenio or Giovanelli who also have the same relationship with Daisy as him. It is not until the end that Winterbourne truly shows his true self when he classifies Daisy as a tramp on discovering her and Giovanelli at a monument at night "It was as if a sudden illumination had been flashed upon the ambiguity of Daisy's behavior and the riddle had become easy to read. She was a young lady whom a gentleman need no longer be at pains to respect" (426). It is with that quote that Winterbourne catergorizes and labels Daisy as a woman of ill repute even though after her death Giovanalli continues to proclaim her "the most innocent" (428). This would immediately contradict Winterbourne's assumptions since who better to know her behavior than her rumored lover?

At the end while talking to Mrs. Costello it is revealed that Daisy only cared what Winterbourne thought about her, and upon looking through the story again her agitation when he thinks Giovanelli her lover is a big indicator of her feelings (420). He does say "I was booked to make a mistake" (429) which makes the reader believe that he has missed out on the great love of his life but it is not true. He ends up moving on to a "very clever foreign lady" and is now the subject of gossip, much like his former love. Winterbourne's ability to move on from Daisy and return to his life in Geneva as if nothing had happened proves that this was a passing phase. He has labeled and cast her off, continuing on while she's dead...uplifting huh?

The question I pose to the readers (if you made it this far I applaud you) is whether Winterbourne judged Daisy inappropriately? In looking at their relationship thorughout the story was he quick to judge and what does that reveal about his character?