Who did read Daisy Miller by Henry James?

[natasssha]

Thanks alottttttttttttttttttttttttttttt fort ur help

[Drkshadow03]

Originally Posted by natasssha

Hello Friends , I need your imformation in case if you read this Novella....
I have a small essay about it ,
In what way daisy Miller idialistic ?

Or does Winter Bourne deserve to be loved by Miller?
thanksssssssss

I've read Daisy Miller twice now.

I see Daisy Miller as more rebellious than idealistic. One way to read the novella is through the contrast between American and European identity (in fact, that's a pretty good strategy for most of James's work).

Americans are often depicted as idealistic, naive, innocent, simple-minded, loud-mouthed, while Europeans in his novels are decadent, wise, cunning, and always full of mystery.

She is idealistic in her Americanness, believing the rules of another society don't apply to her. For most of the novel she has no clue about how others think of her; she has no sense of reality (which might be a good opposite to contrast idealism with). She does what she wants despite it not fitting in with societal limitations, and pays for it socially. She goes around with strange boys like Winterbourne, and the Italian guy later on without a chaperon. All of Winterbourne's friends, the Europeans and American expatriates, eventually reject Daisy and don't want her to come to their parties anymore because of this.

Does Winterbourne deserve to be loved by Daisy Miller is a tougher question! In many ways, you can read almost all of Daisy's actions as trying to impress Winterbourne, and trying to make him jealous. That even as she superficially challenges societal limitations, particularly gender roles, she also reifies them (her entire motivation is inspired by gender and her desire to impress this boy). The answer to whether he deserves her love is very subjective, and that's for you to figure out for yourself because I think that one comes down to the individual reader to decide.

Hope that helps!

[natasssha]

thanks a lotttttttttttt dear friend , DRKshadow and Antiquarian for your nice help .