Daisy Miller Research Paper

This part talks about the positive aspects of innocent philosophy. Henry James spoke highly of this personal character when he wrote this novel. When Daisy met Winterbourne the first time in the garden, she got familiar with Winterbourne so quickly. There is a description of her eyes: “It was not, however, what would have been called an immodest glance, for the young girl‟s eyes were singularly honest and fresh. (Henry, 1879:11)” A proverb said that eyes are windows of one‟s heart. So, she gave a positive personality at the beginning. Daisy was perfectly direct and unshrinking girl. She gave her impression on Winterbourne directly: she thought he was not a „real American‟; she wouldn‟t have taken him for one, he seemed more like a German. (Henry, 1879:12) She is also a tolerant girl. When she heard that Mrs. Costello would …show more content…
Although James wrote a novel with an international setting, he was concerned about how Americans behaved in an international setting. Europeans were more cultured, more concerned with art, and more aware of the subtleties of social situations. Americans were innocent, and more concerned about moral issues. When he wrote Daisy Miller in 1879, he thought American spirit more important than European elegant. That was mainly because capitalism had led people to seek fortune at all adventures at that time. The social convention was so bad that the author appealed a new kind of spirit. He could only realize this dream in his novel. James used the image of America as the youthful innocent land. James himself lived in Europe and he knew the rigidity of European culture that the rules under which it lived did not allow any change, and vitality. He saw the decadence of the European culture at that time. But later his view became more complicated. The author seemed to value both