I enjoyed reading the short story "Daisy Miller: A Study" by Henry James. This story was very long but I liked reading it. This short story was one of James’s earliest treatments of one of the themes for which he became best known for: the colonial or free American abroad (SparkNotes). In the years after the Civil war Americans aboard was a subject very much of the moment. The postwar boom, the so-called Gilded Age, had given rise to a new class of American businessman (SparksNotes). The American businessman’s elegant families were ready to make “the grand tour” and reveal themselves to the art and cultural of the Old World. During this time period, Americans were visiting Europe for the first time in record numbers. The conflict between the two cultures was a unique and a well-known occurrence. James had two different minds about the American character (SparkNotes). One mind of his was by character, he was more sympathetic with the European way of life, with emphasis on culture, education, and the art of conversation. He viewed his fellow citizens as rude, undereducated and ridiculously regional. They were unaware of enormous and centuries-old worlds outside of their own and expanding regions. James was also immersed by the emotional purity of the American national characters placing emphasis on sincerity rather than on deception.
The unlived life was James’ almost permanent subtext since the American abroad was his signature theme. In many of James’s novels and stories the characters focus their mind on an abstraction which is an idea or ideal that they feel they could figure out or achieve only if they could devote their spirit or intellectual capacities to it with sufficient understanding or patience (SparkNotes). The characters realize too late that whatever they sought to understand or achieve had passed them by and that they had wasted their whole life. Just like Winterbourne in the story that never fully arrived at realization. Daisy Miller was like a red herring that distracts Winterbourne from the business of living. The core of the story would have to be that Winterbourne and the fear or lack of passion causes him to hide from life behind the ultimately mystery of Daisy’s innocence or not(SparksNotes).
I noticed two motifs in throughout this story which were gossip and innocence. This story is about gossip that is understood as a piece of gossip throughout it entirety. The narrator is not only involves in the events described but one who doesn’t really care much about them. The narrator sees the whole episode with detached pleasure, as a pleasant way of distracting his listeners. Throughout the entire story Winterbourne is preoccupied with the question of whether Daisy is innocent. The word innocent appears repeatedly but always with a different shade of meaning. In the days of James the word innocent had three meanings. The first meaning could have meant “ignorant” or uninstructed.” It also could have meant “naïve” as it does today. A final meaning that innocent could have had is “not having done harm or wrong.” This story had hidden meaning throughout it but it was an awesome story to read once you get into it.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Daisy Miller: The Study.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2004. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.
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