Analysis Of Henry James's Daisy Miller

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The personal novel I chose was called “Daisy Miller” by Henry James. The publishers were Harper & Brothers, which was published in 1879. There are a total of 43 pages. The way James’ novels are structured is that he begins it with a situation and a character. James would then, in effect, sit back and simply observe what would happen when a character was confronted with this new situation. This allowed him more freedom and allowed him the opportunity of "getting to know" his character by observing him in a series of scenes. Daisy meets Winterbourne in the garden at the Trois Couronnes and impresses him with her bubbling jabber. Daisy and Winterbourne head to the castle at Chillon together on a boat. How exciting! At Chillon, that clever Daisy…show more content…
In Henry James's Daisy Miller, Daisy symbolizes all American women who travel abroad to Europe, while Winterbourne symbolizes the European mentality of American tourists. Daisy Miller never leaves home without a parasol, even though it's often folded up. So we associate Daisy with her parasol, and it comes to symbolize many things. Most of all, it's about flimsy or superficial protection between her and the dangers of the outside world. Daisy and Winterbourne's romp through the castle could be read as a metaphor for the way that Daisy treats the established structures of polite behavior. Another name for malaria, and with historical importance in the Roman empire, this actual disease becomes a metaphor for the social dangers of impolite behavior. A carriage is a tidy haven of domesticity and comfort in which the young, vulnerable American abroad might go from sanctuary to sanctuary. It represents wealth but also security. Another foreshadowing is that numerous of residents informs Daisy about malaria and that she could die, but she didn't listen and took her last breath. "I haven't the least idea what such young ladies expect a man to do. But I really think that you had better not meddle with little American girls that are uncultivated, as you call…show more content…
He was a citizen of the world and moved freely in and out of drawing rooms in Europe, England, and America. He was perhaps more at home in Europe than he was in America, but the roots of his life belong to the American continent. Thus, with few exceptions, most of his works deal with some type of confrontation between an American and a European. The James family made frequent and extended visits to Europe during Henry James's childhood, and some of his education occurred in places such as Paris and Geneva. His father scorned material pursuits, and James's education was often unorthodox, including public schooling, private tutoring, and some training as a painter. James spent a year studying law at Harvard, though he quickly left to pursue writing. James published his first short story, in late 1861, and he soon acquired an important friendship with William Dean Howells, the rising young editor of the Atlantic Monthly. James became a successful journalist quite quickly because of his social connections with the Boston and New York elite. His relationship with Howells became an important connection between two public intellectuals and writers. They read each other's work and promoted each other, and the two are considered prominent exponents of American literary Realism-though James would later become something other than a Realist. James took his first trip to Europe as an adult in 1869. It
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