Daisy Miller

Summary

Daisy Miller: A Study is told in close third person through Frederick Winterbourne, a young American who has lived most of his life in Geneva and has grown, in his aunt's phrase, too used to European ways. At a hotel in Vevey on Lake Geneva he meets Annie 'Daisy' Miller, a pretty, rich and uninhibited girl from Schenectady, New York, travelling with her vague, dyspeptic mother and her brash little brother Randolph, accompanied by a courier, Eugenio, whom they treat almost as a member of the family. Daisy chatters freely, flirts openly and does exactly as she likes. Winterbourne is charmed and puzzled: is she an innocent American girl, or a vulgar flirt, or something worse? His snobbish aunt Mrs Costello refuses to meet the Millers. Daisy persuades Winterbourne to take her, unchaperoned, to the Château de Chillon, which shocks the hotel and delights her, and she is annoyed when he says he must return to Geneva. The second part takes place in Rome that winter. Winterbourne finds Daisy surrounded by Italian admirers, especially Mr Giovanelli, a handsome, gallant but socially doubtful man. The American expatriate community, led by Mrs Walker, is scandalised by her walking on the Pincio with Giovanelli; Mrs Walker tries to rescue her in a carriage, Daisy refuses, and Mrs Walker later cuts her at a party. Winterbourne, torn between attraction and disapproval, hovers on the edge, unable to decide what she is. Late one night, walking through the Colosseum by moonlight, he finds Daisy there with Giovanelli. Knowing the danger of the 'Roman fever' from the night air, he is also relieved, because her presence there seems finally to settle the question of her character: she is not respectable, and he need not trouble himself about her. He tells her coldly that it does not matter whether she is engaged to Giovanelli or not. Daisy contracts the fever and dies within days. Before her death she sends Winterbourne a message that she was never engaged to Giovanelli. At the graveside Giovanelli tells him she was the most innocent of girls and that he never hoped to marry her. Winterbourne admits to his aunt that he made a mistake, that he had lived too long in foreign parts, but soon returns to Geneva and his old habits.

Plot or Argument

• Part I: Vevey

  Winterbourne meets Daisy and her family at the hotel; his aunt disapproves; he escorts Daisy, unchaperoned, to the Château de Chillon.

• Part II: Rome and society

  Daisy's friendship with Giovanelli provokes the American colony; Mrs Walker's attempted rescue on the Pincio and her public snub.

• Part II: The Colosseum and death

  Winterbourne finds Daisy with Giovanelli in the Colosseum at night; she catches Roman fever and dies; Winterbourne acknowledges his misjudgment.

Characters

• Daisy Miller, title character

  Spontaneous young American woman whose freedom with men scandalises expatriate society.

• Frederick Winterbourne, point-of-view character

  Europeanised American who cannot decide whether Daisy is innocent or improper.

• Mrs Miller, Daisy's mother

  Passive, ailing woman who exercises no control over her children.

• Randolph Miller, Daisy's brother

  Precocious, candy-eating boy who boasts of America.

• Mrs Costello, Winterbourne's aunt

  Snobbish widow who refuses to receive the Millers.

• Mrs Walker, American hostess in Rome

  Expatriate who tries to save Daisy's reputation and then ostracises her.

• Mr Giovanelli, Daisy's Roman companion

  Handsome, attentive Italian of uncertain status who admires Daisy.

• Eugenio, courier

  The Millers' courier, whose familiarity with them shocks observers.

Lessons

• Judging by codes we half-understand

  Winterbourne cannot read Daisy because he sees her only through European social codes. The novella shows how judgment can masquerade as perception.

  • What exactly is Winterbourne's 'mistake'?
  • Is Daisy innocent, defiant, or simply uninformed?
  • Who is most responsible for Daisy's isolation?

• The cost of exclusion

  Society punishes Daisy for breaking rules that do no one harm, and the expatriates are more rigid than the Europeans they imitate. James exposes the cruelty of conformity among those anxious about status.

  • Why are the Americans in Rome so concerned with Daisy?
  • Does Daisy's death function as a punishment within the story's logic?

• Relief in certainty

  Winterbourne is relieved when he can finally classify Daisy as improper. James suggests how readily people prefer a simple verdict to living with ambiguity.

  • Why does Winterbourne feel relief at the Colosseum?
  • How does the ending comment on his capacity to change?

Context

American tourism to Europe grew rapidly after the Civil War, and newly wealthy families like the Millers met an older expatriate society with strict codes of conduct for unmarried women. 'Roman fever' was the common name for malaria, then attributed to bad night air (mal aria) from the marshy Campagna; the parasite was identified by Laveran in 1880 and mosquito transmission established later in the 1890s.

Composition

First published in the Cornhill Magazine in June–July 1878, then as a book later that year. James substantially revised the text for the New York Edition (1909), and the two versions differ in wording.

Reception

The novella was James's first great popular success and sparked debate about whether it slandered American girls; 'Daisy Miller' became a type. It was adapted by Peter Bogdanovich as a film in 1974.

Comparisons

• the-portrait-of-a-lady

  Isabel Archer is a more complex version of the free American girl in Europe, whose independence is betrayed by Europeanised Americans.

• washington-square

  Both James works of 1878–1880 examine a young woman's suitor whose motives are suspected, and a judging male observer.

• butterfield-8

  Both portray a young woman whose freedom with men scandalises society and whose story ends in death.

• effi-briest

  Both show young women undone by social codes they do not fully grasp, with deaths that indict their societies.

• the-turn-of-the-screw-and-the-aspern-papers

  In The Aspern Papers, as in Daisy Miller, an American in Italy misreads a woman through his own preoccupations.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The first scene in the hotel garden at Vevey, where Randolph, demanding sugar, introduces his sister to Winterbourne. Notice how quickly Daisy talks about herself and how Winterbourne immediately starts sorting her into a category.
• Mrs Costello's refusal to be introduced to the Millers, and how her disapproval, along with their familiarity with their courier Eugenio, shapes what Winterbourne thinks he sees.
• The excursion to the Château de Chillon. Daisy is more interested in Winterbourne than in the castle, and she teases him about the woman she imagines waiting for him in Geneva.
• Mrs Walker's carriage on the Pincio, where she begs Daisy to get in and save her reputation, and Daisy refuses to leave Giovanelli. Later, at Mrs Walker's party, the hostess turns her back on her.
• The moonlit Colosseum, where Winterbourne murmurs lines from Byron's Manfred, then finds Daisy there with Giovanelli and feels a kind of relief that he can stop wondering about her.

Key terms and names

Vevey

A resort town on Lake Geneva where the first part takes place. Its hotels gather Americans abroad, and its nearness to Calvinist Geneva, where Winterbourne has long lived, marks the strict code he brings to Daisy.

Château de Chillon

The castle on Lake Geneva made famous by Byron's poem The Prisoner of Chillon. Daisy's going there alone with Winterbourne is a small scandal, and the castle's prison sets off the question of who in the story is truly free.

The Pincio

The fashionable hill garden in Rome where society drove and walked in the afternoon. Daisy's walk there with Giovanelli, in full public view, turns gossip into open exclusion.

Roman fever

The common name for malaria, then blamed on the bad night air of the marshes around Rome. Winterbourne knows the Colosseum at night is dangerous, and Daisy dies of the fever within days of their meeting there.

Courier

A hired servant who managed travel arrangements for wealthy families abroad. The Millers' easy familiarity with Eugenio signals to the expatriates that they do not know the social rules.

A Study

James's subtitle for the story. It presents Daisy as a specimen to be observed, which is exactly what Winterbourne does to her, and leaves the reader to judge whether the study tells more about the observer or the observed.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Mrs Costello refuse to meet the Millers, and how does Winterbourne respond to her refusal?
2. Comprehension What happens on the Pincio when Mrs Walker tries to take Daisy into her carriage, and what does Winterbourne do?
3. Comprehension What message does Daisy send Winterbourne before she dies, and what does Giovanelli tell him at the grave?
4. Interpretation The whole story is told through Winterbourne's eyes. How does that limited point of view make it hard for the reader, as well as for him, to know who Daisy is?
5. Interpretation Why does Winterbourne feel relieved at the Colosseum, and what does that relief show about the judgment he has wanted to reach all along?
6. Interpretation The American expatriates in Rome are stricter about Daisy than the Romans seem to be. Why might Americans abroad be more anxious about the rules than the Europeans they imitate?
7. Big Question Winterbourne admits he made a mistake but soon goes back to his old life in Geneva. Is it enough to recognize a wrong judgment of another person, or does recognition require a change of life?

Faith Connections

• 1 Samuel 16:7 (Scripture)

  The Lord tells Samuel that man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Everyone in the story judges Daisy by her manners, her companions, and her walks, and only after her death does Winterbourne learn what her heart had been.

• Matthew 7:1-5 (Scripture)

  Christ warns that with the judgment we judge we shall be judged, and asks why we see the speck in a brother's eye but not the beam in our own. Mrs Walker and Mrs Costello examine Daisy closely while never considering their own coldness.

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (Scripture)

  Paul writes that love thinks no evil and believes all things. Winterbourne's attraction to Daisy never becomes this kind of love, because at every point he is ready to think the worst, and the story measures the cost.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Winterbourne reasons that a girl who goes about unchaperoned with men must either be innocent and ignorant of the rules or knowing and improper; Daisy's freedom seems too bold for innocence; so at the Colosseum he concludes she is improper and he need not care for her. The story's dramatic thesis overturns the argument: Daisy was innocent all along, the dilemma itself was false, and a mind trained to classify people by social codes can fail to see the person in front of it until it is too late.

Rhetorical device: limited third-person point of view. From Vevey to the grave, the narration stays close to Winterbourne's perceptions and guesses, so the reader learns Daisy's innocence only when he does, in her dying message and Giovanelli's words at the grave. His closing admission in Part II, that he was booked to make a mistake, lands on the reader as well.

Debate: Resolved: Winterbourne bears more responsibility for Daisy's isolation than the expatriate society that cuts her.

Memory Work

I was booked to make a mistake. I have lived too long in foreign parts

Writing Prompts

Essay: James subtitled the story A Study. Argue whether the real subject of the study is Daisy Miller or Frederick Winterbourne, using the scenes at Vevey, on the Pincio, and in the Colosseum.

Comparison with Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth Bennet and Frederick Winterbourne both judge another person too quickly by manners and reputation. Compare how each comes to recognize the error, and argue why Austen's misjudgment ends in marriage and self-knowledge while James's ends in a grave and a return to old habits.

Medical Lens

The plot turns on 'Roman fever', the period name for malaria contracted in and around Rome, which travellers were warned to avoid by staying indoors after dark. The story reflects miasmatic theory (the danger is attributed to night air) only a couple of years before Laveran identified the malaria parasite and well before mosquito transmission was established. Mrs Miller's chronic dyspepsia and her reliance on a home physician, Dr Davis, give a comic glimpse of the invalid American traveller. Daisy's rapid death after the night in the Colosseum also illustrates how fever deaths figured in 19th-century fiction as moral judgments.

• Part I

  Mrs Miller's dyspepsia and her faith in her doctor at home in Schenectady.

  HypochondriaPhysicians Doctors
• Part II (Colosseum scene)

  Winterbourne warns Daisy of the danger of the Roman fever from the night air.

  Fever InfectionPublic Health Sanitation
• Part II (closing pages)

  Daisy's illness, the doctor's attendance, her death and burial in the Protestant cemetery.

  Fever InfectionDeath Dying

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write Daisy's last letter, the one she never sent, explaining herself to Winterbourne.

• Essay

  Compare the 1878 and 1909 versions of the ending. What did James change, and why might it matter?

• Classroom

  Debate: Is Winterbourne responsible for Daisy's death?

Further Reading

• The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James

• Henry James: A Life, Leon Edel

• Daisy Miller (film), Peter Bogdanovich (director)