Critical Analysis of Daisy Miller

In Daisy Miller, written by Henry James, he tells the story in the third person point of view from a limited perspective, he had many several opinions on each character, particularly the essential elements of the events, especially the main character called Daisy Miller. she concerns the contrast between the American and European societies in the second half of the nineteenth century, a simple clear picture of an innocent natural way of life, henry James lived in both societies and this novel helps us to explore how this experience could make him reach to create such characters.

Settings: the action of this Daisy Miller book's chapter takes place in 1870s in the little town of Vevey in Switzerland, we can notice exactly that it's happening in a particularly comfortable hotel, tourism was the main industry of that little town which rested on the lake Geneva, bordered by a myriad of fashionable hotels, all inferior to the Trois couronnes, and where winterbourne one of the main characters in this novels lived since he was a young boy. toward the end of June, so many American tourists used to descend upon the town that drew comparisons to many other famous places around the world. But no action in the novel really takes place there.

Characters: starting by the two main characters who I think they played a good part in proving the importance of their character in the literature’s field, who are supposed to be Daisy and Fredrick, and there were other secondary characters as Randolph, Mrs. Costello, and Eugenio the courier. And what follows is what exactly we could notice from the events of the first chapter:

Frederick winterbourne: as henry James writes, he’s a twenty-seven-year-old American who has lived in Europe for a considerable time, he's in every scene of the novel, starting by listening to his friends saying that he continues to live in Geneva to pursue further studies, but he responds, he pursues a certain foreign woman who is older than him, he’s a young American who had grown up in Geneva, henry James put him as the novel's central narrative and possibly we say that he's the protagonist, not having any passions or interests other than appreciation of female beauty, bound more closely by restrictive European social customs but still, he is amazed by Daisy's pretty face, not just in their first meeting but every time he sees her, he's impressed, I mean, can we think of any human being that would for any reason not to care about Daisy Miller?

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But, on the other side, he's intrigued by Daisy because of her independence. Daisy Miller: what lies behind every controversy about Daisy Miller is her unequal distribution of her caring towards winterbourne, she’s an American innocent, a young very pretty independent-minded woman from USA exactly from Schenectady new York, enchanted with the European sights , greedy to see and experience whatever she can, with her cheerful and talkative personality , treating people in different ways as for an example the courier Eugenio, her attitude and the way she talked to him show more familiarity more than people treat their servants. the first chapter gives the reader a clear opportunity to explore her personality and her perspective, the way she decided to take such a decision as a trip with a stranger, and we can see that henry James made a deal with himself that it's okay to show Daisy Miller's qualities in the way he describes and as we all notice in the events of the book so he can create a character than can make his book worthy to be the face of a profession that would die commercially in that century if he didn't create characters like Daisy Miller. Henry James admired as she is the real American girl he observed, he admired in his novel that Daisy Miller is independent, a freedom-loving creature despite all the lines she crossed, it was a clear affirmation of her important position in the literary world at large, and she would be understood best not as an isolated arrogant selfish creature with a desire for pleasure, but as a part of a literary tradition, even when we do not know enough about what influences conditioned her conception, she was revolutionary in her native Anglo-Saxon environment. We should notice that Daisy is moving in and being influenced by a new and different world, not necessarily the same as the world of the American dowagers who surrounded her.

Mrs. Costello: Winterbourne’s aunt, a shallow, self-important woman who seems genuinely fond of Winterbourne, a very proper and very wealthy character who sees manners and respect for their actual traditions as something they can't pass by and forget, making a commitment to those traditions was something she can be proud of. She’s the voice of snobbish high society. She also fulfills the role of “confidante,” a frequent figure in Henry James’s novels.

Randolph Miller: who’s Daisy’s younger brother? We can notice from the first chapter that Randolph is a loud, ill-mannered, ungovernable little boy of about nine or ten years old.

Eugenio: The Millers’ supercilious interpreter/guide, often referred to as “the courier. He has better judgment and a greater sense of propriety than either Daisy or Mrs. Miller and often treats them with thinly veiled contempt. the novelist henry James begins the story with a quick look to where Frederick winterbourne's life took place, having a breakfast coffee in the garden of the trois couronnes in Vevey, this young twenty-seven-year-old American arrived the day before to see his aunt Mrs. Costello winterbourne, she decides to remain in her hotel room healing her headache, the story really becomes more than blurry expectations when a boy in knickers red stocking comes by and begs some sugar cubes from winterbourne's table, and that was the moment he met the woman that fill all the blanks in this story, he didn't know a nine year old will be his reason to meet with that boy's sister, Daisy Miller, in a moment we see henry James traveling to the point when winterbourne now decide that American girls are the best as well, he knew he's good enough introduction to present himself to the girl, they talked as he wanted to know more about her, after that she became quite sociable to tell him about her family and her travels, how she and her mother and the little Randolph who's supposed to be her brother traveled to Rome for the winter, coming from new York, he figured out her real name was Annie P.miller but they called her Daisy, her good sense of humor, her name that represents the flower it mirrors, her manner thoughts made him know much about her, but still he couldn't make sure if she's innocent or designing, we notice how that conversation turned into an invitation for a trip to the old castle called “the chateau de chillon”, he twice refers to her as a 'pretty American girl' as he talks to her in a way that can be acceptable in Vevey but would not have been in Geneva as a symbol of their locale and winterbourne's birth place as Eugenio comes to collect the Miller children but he ends up seeing Daisy illuminating his disapproval of her 'want of finish' and her tendency to throw the rituals of custom somewhere away from her independence. And for winterbourne? he only wants an excuse to spend time with her. he's attracted to the pretty American girl as James writes '...she was strikingly, admirably pretty. 'How pretty they are!' thought Winterbourne, straightening himself in his seat, as if he were prepared to rise.' the novelist describes winterbourne’s position and physical posture, as a metaphor for his sexual arousal at the sight of Daisy, his expectation was in need to be true in reality, his desire for her to be innocent and redesigning reflects not only on her personality but on his...something like lust for her, it is truly a lust, James writes his desire to consume all of her physical features, as winterbourne describes everything that took a place in his mind that moment, we find that it's not just a simple description, he even chooses particular words for example such as (commas, semi-colons, and hyphens, relish, addicted), we could even feel how he was delicate from his words and notes, a complete observation that we take in his sentences and how it refers to his need to judge the young pretty American girl Daisy Miller.

We see in the last lines of the chapter how he continues his judge as he finds the lack of polish in her face as a sign of a young uncultivated and natural American face.