Henry James's Daisy Miller: Innocence vs. European Society

Introduction to the Novella. Daisy Miller (1878) tells the story of a young American woman abroad in Europe for the first time. A member of a family of recently acquired wealth ("new money"), she fails to conform to the standards of decorum set by the American expatriate society in which she finds herself. James published the story Daisy Miller in 1878 to an appreciative audience. The story appeared first in magazines and then as a separate pamphlet that sold 20,000 copies. This was after the publisher James first approached rejected it as an "outrage on American womanhood." It turned out to be "the most prosperous child" of James's works (Edel 216). It has become one of James's most famous works of short fiction, widely anthologized and frequently read by high school and college students. The story appeared in 1974 as a mildly successful film starring Cybill Shepherd.

The Contrast of American Innocence and European Worldliness. Daisy Miller illustrates James's interest in the contrast between the innocence of America and the worldliness of Europe. It is important to note, however, that unlike most of his "international" works, such as The American and Portrait of a Lady, this story does not offer so much a contrast between Europeans and Americans as between "old money" American expatriates in Europe and those of "new money." James lets us know that Daisy Miller has new money, not only by what she does, but equally by the way her mother and younger brother behave. Her brother Randolph says to Winterbourne, "My father's rich, you bet!" (James, Daisy Miller 275). Meanwhile, Daisy's mother shows appropriate concern for Daisy's health due to her going out in the evening but fails to see as Winterbourne does the social sin Daisy has committed in being seen in the company of an Italian man of lower social rank. Mrs. Miller also betrays her new money status in her conversation. Her speech is coarse, as in "I ain't used to going round alone" and "They've got going at the piano; it seems as if they couldn't leave off" (307).

Daisy herself betrays her new money roots in a more appealing way, interpreted first by Winterbourne as "innocence." He is attracted to her energy and vitality, and it does not hurt that she is physically beautiful, graceful, and well dressed. Somehow the coarseness of her mother and outbursts of her younger brother are tempered in Daisy. Nonetheless, Daisy fails to conform to social norms, and this raises key questions in the story. For example, does Daisy fail to conform because she will not or because she cannot? Her language and behavior throughout suggest a flaunting of convention, as when she accuses Winterbourne of being stiff and then will not let him stand in the way of her meeting Giovanelli alone. She also openly flouts convention when she refuses to enter the carriage with Mrs. Walker. So, on the one hand, Daisy chooses to disobey social mandates. Yet the question remains as to whether Daisy could ever escape her commonness.

The Inescapable Stigma of "New Money". Even with the best behavior, Daisy would still be from new money and thus be labeled common. Winterbourne's aunt uniformly dismisses Daisy and her family: "They are hopelessly vulgar. Whether or not being hopelessly vulgar is being 'bad' is a question for the metaphysicians. They are bad enough to dislike, at any rate; and for this short life that is quite enough" (294). Well into the story, Winterbourne himself is swept away by the idea that there may be some fundamental ill breeding in Daisy's background, something that she cannot escape. He goes "back to the question whether this was in fact a nice girl. Would a nice girl—even allowing for her being a little American flirt—make a rendezvous with a presumably low-lived foreigner?" (301). And later, "he asked himself whether Daisy's defiance came from the consciousness of innocence or from her being, essentially, a young person of the reckless class" (314). Daisy may be incapable of conforming to society, and her own realization of this could then invite her frustration and open flouting of convention. Her mother and younger brother, her father's new money, her roots in Schenectady—all indelibly stamp her as socially deficient.

The Societal Critique. But the story is not only Daisy's. It examines the value and morals of a society that rejects someone on the basis of standards that deny personal freedom and honest expression. Daisy's freshness and vitality—the very traits Winterbourne initially admires—would need to die before Daisy would find acceptance by the group. Of course, the nature of any group is that it demands a degree of conformity among its members. James in his own life accepted this fully, understanding that high society and fine conversation ride on the wings of exclusivity. Nonetheless, the story turns a critical gaze on Winterbourne and his society. Mrs. Costello suggests to Winterbourne that his living in Europe for so long has made him lose his sense about American women. Oddly she uses the word innocent to describe his situation. "You have lived too long out of the country. You will be sure to make some great mistake. You are too innocent" (282). This statement will haunt Winterbourne later on, when he considers, in an often-quoted line, "I have lived too long in foreign parts" (321). His statement resonates with a meaning far different from that intended by his aunt. His statement evokes not innocence, but the loss of innocence, of freshness, of vitality. The death of Daisy symbolizes for him another death, the death of his "American" self.

Psychological Realism and the Limited Perspective. Here James weighs in not only on the social differences that distinguish one society from another, but also on the moral differences. Winterbourne succeeds in high society in a rarefied expatriate Europe where Daisy fails—mortally so. But in a moment of dramatic irony, when the moonlight falls on Daisy and Giovanelli in the Roman Coliseum, the light also illuminates Winterbourne: "It was as if a sudden illumination had been flashed upon the ambiguity of Daisy's behavior. . . . He stood there looking at her—looking at her companion, and not reflecting that though he saw them vaguely, he himself must have been more brightly visible" (317-318). Symbolically James has placed Winterbourne under the microscope. The reader is asked to assess Winterbourne, to question his seeming impregnability. From the viewpoint of his aunt and Mrs. Walker, Winterbourne is a great success. For the reader, his momentary reflection on living too long in Europe should be a point for prolonged meditation.

That Winterbourne is the one watching Daisy, much as we are watching Winterbourne, deserves some attention, for it represents a technique common in James's work. James skillfully lets us see his protagonists through someone else's eyes, such that the perspective becomes as interesting as the protagonist. In this case, Daisy is the apparent protagonist. The reader watches her precipitous decline, but that decline is all through the eyes of the only character whose thoughts the reader can access directly, Winterbourne. Never is the reader privy to Daisy's thoughts. This limited omniscience characterizes James's work. Unlike other works of his day, in which the reader enjoyed access to multiple characters' thoughts, roaming as freely as the mind of God, James sought a psychological realism where access could be had only through a single perspective. This is not true for all of James's work, but it is characteristic of some of his best work. The effect is startling, for the reader struggles to apprehend the "truth" of the story, only to realize that the truth must be pieced together through one's imagination and critical acumen. In this story, the narrator is reliable only insofar as one can account for his character and experience. In the telling of the story Winterbourne brings with him all the advantages and liabilities that a man of position and respectability can have, no more, no less. He is not to be dismissed because of his privilege, but that needs to be acknowledged as he describes a young woman in a completely different station whose thoughts he can but imagine. In the end the story is Winterbourne's, a story he creates and one that reflects on him.

Symbolic Naming and Gender Dynamics. To heighten the contrast between the story's two main characters, James chooses contrasting names. The name Daisy evokes springtime, youth, vitality, and above all innocence. Winterbourne evokes the end of the year and dying—age, loss of vitality, wisdom, and loss of innocence. The names perfectly describe each character. Whereas Daisy enters high society full of energy and vitality, Winterbourne looks upon life with a jaundiced gaze. Much as Winterbourne might like to help Daisy, the bridge he cannot cross to meet her is precisely that of his awareness of societal demands and ultimately his respect for them. He is like an old man, "stiff," as Daisy calls him. He cannot loosen up, because his long residence in Europe has predisposed him to respect a strict social code, one that has rewarded him with a position of considerable respect and privilege.

Gender and Social Obligation. Gender widens the gulf between Winterbourne and Daisy. As a wealthy male of good breeding, Winterbourne comes and goes as he pleases. As much as the story describes the wide gulf that separates old money and new, good breeding and "commonness," so it illustrates the difference between a man in high society and a woman. No one questions Winterbourne's passing from one romantic conquest to the next, or his being seen in mixed company or walking around at night free of social obligation. The onus is on Daisy to conform. She is considered coarse and common and even vulgar because she goes out at night and chooses the company of an Italian lawyer rather than that of a count or marquis. Daisy resists the confines of her allotted station. It is her resistance to these gender confines that sets her apart from the other female characters in the story. Whereas Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker express horror at her walking about town at all hours, she finds it comical. Her resistance is demonstrated in her refusal to enter Mrs. Walker's carriage. Mrs. Walker is described in terms that suggest her ultimate submission to feminine decorum: a "lady, smiling sweetly" with "devoutly clasped" hands (303). When Daisy refuses to enter Mrs. Walker's carriage, she is also refusing the feminine decorum on which Mrs. Walker insists.

Daisy expresses her ultimate refusal to adhere to gender norms when she prevents Winterbourne from interfering with her friendship with Giovanelli. She says, "I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do" (300). This refusal goes right to the heart of the situation, for women in this society generally did submit to the whims of men very much like Winterbourne, men who could enjoy the freshness and spontaneity Daisy struggled to maintain. At the story's conclusion, a theme is touched upon that is developed more fully in others of James's works: that new American wealth seeks out European sophistication, while European sophistication and depleted wealth seek American money in any form available. Giovanelli remains in the shadows of this story, an undeveloped character. He speaks but a few lines. This, after all, is Winterbourne's story, and Giovanelli cannot play a significant role in a story where he is hardly recognized as human, let alone an equal. Giovanelli, however, sees the whole situation with startling clarity. He exemplifies the wise European of James's stories as he sees Daisy first of all as a possible source of wealth through marriage, but then becomes quickly disillusioned. After Daisy's death, the "subtle Roman" says to Winterbourne, "If she had lived, I should have got nothing. She would never have married me, I am sure" (321). In this moment we see a typical situation in James's fiction, when a European of relatively modest means seeks out an American fortune, unconcerned about the history of the finances, so long as they are intact.

Giovanelli, as the one who knows, augments James's contrast of American innocence and European sophistication. But Giovanelli's knowledge does not prevent him from grieving over Daisy's death. "Giovanelli was very pale; on this occasion he had no flower in his button-hole. . . . At last she was the most beautiful young lady I ever saw, and the most amiable. . . . And she was the most innocent" (321). His emotional response rings truer to the situation than Winterbourne's. His honest emotion is one more reminder that Winterbourne has indeed lived too long in foreign parts. James's story speaks to a specific combination of foreignness and privilege that robbed Winterbourne of the freshness and spontaneity Daisy struggled to maintain.

Questions for Discussion or Writing.
1. Find another story or novel by Henry James with an American in Europe as the main character. How does the protagonist in that story negotiate Europe similarly or differently than Daisy? Consider factors such as manners, class, wealth, speech, and gender.

2. Some critics contend that today's readers cannot relate to James's stories of manners and high society of the Victorian era. What about this story seems to you to be dated? How so? What about this story remains relevant even today?

3. To what extent do you find Daisy to be a sympathetic character, that is, a character who deserves our liking and sympathy? To what extent is Winterbourne? Are there any clues that suggest who has the sympathy of the narrator (the I mentioned at the beginning of the story).