Daisy Miller Essay

872 Words4 Pages
Winterbourne is the protagonist of the novella “Daisy Miller”. The novella is about a young girl, written by Henry James. At first glance, Daisy is depicted as a “pretty American flirt”. Throughout the novella Winterbourne’s view of Daisy changes. At first, Winterbourne’s initial perception of her fits. Daisy is unsophisticated, and enjoys teasing others just for their reactions. His opinion of her soon goes from thinking of her as an innocent flirt, to falling in love with her, and finally to thinking of her as a manipulative flirt. Due to Winterbourne’s changing perspectives of Daisy, it is never fully understood if Daisy is an innocent flirt or a manipulator. There are glimpses of what could be conceived as manipulation or sheer innocence throughout the entire book. “I hope you’re disappointed, disgusted, or something!” Is Daisy flirting, or is this just part of her humor. By looking at it either as flirting or manipulation, she finds teasing others amusing. Does she know that she is playing with other’s feelings, and enjoys it, or does she just not realize that she is hurting other people by teasing them. Ultimately her apology at the end of the story challenges the reader even…show more content…
"Daisy spoke of you the other day," she said to him. "Half the time she doesn't know what she's saying, but that time I think she did. She gave me a message she told me to tell you. She told me to tell you that she never was engaged to that handsome Italian.” Daisy’s apology here lead to the realization that she was indeed innocent. If she had just been manipulating him, she wouldn’t have thought to apologize to Winterbourne, considering her mother told him she rambled about nothing most of the time. Daisy’s final words are heartfelt, and a sincere apology for how she had been treating Winterbourne in the events leading up to her
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