Daisy Miller as a Symbol of American Culture in Henry James

Introduction: Literature as Social Reflection

What is a literary work? It is an articulation of what the author thinks — a space where he or she pours emotions, expressions, and imagination. Since every person is usually a member of a certain society, there is often a close relationship between what an author thinks and what he or she conveys in literary work. Authors often draw inspiration from the socioeconomic conditions surrounding them or from the realities they face. This is why it has frequently been argued that most literary works are an image of what is happening in society. This same argument is put forth by Austin Warren and René Wellek in their work Theory of Literature, in which they state that literature is a social creation that utilizes devices such as metaphor and symbolism to communicate social issues. Moreover, the two argue that literature is a reflection of life, and that life itself is often considered a measure of social realities (94).

As researchers from different fields investigate and evaluate different phenomena to understand the modern world, cultural and literary studies have constantly been defining and interacting with new social, theoretical, and political paradigms. Since cultural and literary studies are relatively new compared to other fields, they have only a few universally accepted theoretical premises or sets of canonical texts and classic methodologies. This is similar to what Giroux argues in his work; he states that educators ought to create space for mutual exchange of information with their students so that dissenting opinions are not silenced by a single prevailing narrative (201).

Henry James was one of the leading American novelists of the nineteenth century. He was born in 1843 in New York City. His father was a wealthy liberal who wanted his son to experience different cultures of the world. He took his son abroad to Switzerland, England, Germany, and France in a bid to give him a taste of the Old World. While in Europe, Henry studied French and became interested in the artistic environment and the centuries-old character of European cities. After extensive travels in Europe, James returned to the United States and enrolled in a law program at university. Upon completing his studies, Henry James spent most of his time travelling and authoring some of the finest literary works ever published. Daisy Miller is one such work — a novella Henry James wrote in 1878. As some critics argue, it is among the best of his many remarkable works (Coyle, 27).

Brief Review of Daisy Miller

This novella has two main characters: Fredrick Winterbourne and Daisy Miller. The story is set in two European countries, Italy and Switzerland. The two main characters meet and become acquainted in Switzerland. Daisy Miller is a young American woman from New York whose family is wealthy and influential. Daisy and Fredrick meet when Daisy and her brother Randolph accompany their mother on a European trip. Switzerland is one of the locations on their itinerary, and it is where the two protagonists first encounter each other. Upon meeting, the two become so comfortable with each other that they break some of the most respected Swiss traditions of the time — for instance, when Daisy makes an unchaperoned trip to an old Swiss castle with Fredrick. After some time, Daisy's mother and brother travel on to Italy, and Daisy promises Fredrick they will meet again there.

However, while in Rome, Daisy befriends several Italian men and begins spending a great deal of time with them. She brings her Italian friends to parties held by Americans in Rome, which earns her a bad reputation among her American acquaintances. Mrs. Walker and others begin to keep their distance from her, and she is eventually barred from attending American social gatherings because they no longer consider her one of them. Isolated, she seeks ways to keep herself busy. Friends warn her not to walk around at night for fear of catching a fever, but she ignores their warnings. She eventually falls ill with fever and dies a few days later.

The Social and Industrial Context of the Novel

To understand the social context in which this novel was written, it is important to consider the era of its publication — against the background of the Second Industrial Revolution. By the time the novella appeared, the First Industrial Revolution had ended roughly eighteen years earlier and the second had just begun. Life for Americans who were moving into cities en masse did not easily transmute into art. Many people relocated to settlements near factories and had little time to write or express their emotions and imagination in books (Cole & Scribner, 37). Since the end of the American Civil War, the prevailing literary movement had been realism — a realism that examined how Americans adapted to new communities near industries and grappled with the issues facing people in the Midwest and the Mississippi Valley. Yet insightful and differentiated novels such as Daisy Miller were also published during that period, representing a different and concurrent school of thought.

The post-Civil War period, particularly at the start of the Second Industrial Revolution, is considered by many historians as a new beginning for America. This was an era in which scientists and inventors made discoveries that propelled America toward its later status as a superpower. Authors Glen Moon and Don Cline note in their work Story of Our Land and People that new industries brought about enormous changes in Americans' lives in the post-1865 period. Figures such as Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison invented new ways of doing things that made work easier (471). These innovations heralded an era of growth that remains unmatched, bringing with it rapid urbanization and migration from rural areas to cities.

As cities grew, societal conditions changed considerably. Increased urban populations gave rise to problems such as insecurity, inadequate housing, and poor sanitation — challenges that had rarely been experienced before. As Jacob Thudipara argues in Urban Community Development, rapid urbanization can lead to the growth of informal settlements in which residents lack physical and social amenities such as sanitation, water, and education (11). Rapid urbanization can also intensify poverty. Life becomes more expensive for people who previously lived in rural areas, forcing them to work harder simply to make ends meet. This kind of relentless labor almost inevitably results in city residents leading fast-paced lives, with little time for leisurely pursuits such as the creation of literary works.

American Culture as Represented in Daisy Miller

Henry James depicts the main character of his novel as a beautiful, young, and wealthy woman who must navigate the challenging conditions she encounters in Europe. Despite the allure of foreign influences, James presents Daisy as a charming young lady who manages to maintain her identity as an American. She is able to remain distinctly American because of the strength and independence that define her character, notwithstanding her family's wealth. Of the many challenges she faces in Europe, the greatest is her isolation from the expatriate American community in Rome — a community made up of Americans who had moved to Europe yet maintained their own customs in spite of European influences. Although Daisy preserves her American character, she befriends many Italian men, which is noted when Mrs. Costello remarks on Daisy's intimacy with her mother's courier (James, 34). It is precisely these relationships that result in her exclusion from Mrs. Walker's party, and things grow progressively worse as other Americans begin to ostracize her from their social events.

In the novella, Henry James attempts to represent the social conditions of the time through Daisy Miller. He uses European countries as a backdrop to highlight how different American culture is from other societies. In this context, Daisy Miller may be understood as a reflection of American society (Berland, 12–13). There are four main characteristics that James uses to contrast Daisy's behavior with that of Europeans: freedom, innocence, naturalness, and purity.

Conclusion

Daisy Miller is, in essence, Henry James's personification of American culture. Her behaviors and attitudes describe the character of American society at the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution. Daisy faced all the challenges of Europe on her own and managed to endure them. Even when the difficulties were substantial, she found ways to press forward. In one of his other writings, Henry Miller observed that it is difficult to be an American — particularly during the late nineteenth century, when being American meant constantly contending with what he saw as irrational European values (Foerster, 637). James held the view that American society was freer than most European societies. This is because Daisy encountered a multitude of small norms and regulations in Europe that she never had to consider in the United States. Furthermore, Daisy Miller — like many Americans of her era — was tough and determined, a quality that stood in contrast to what James portrayed as the more restrictive European culture of the time. In the end, the author allows his protagonist to die in order to preserve her purity as an American. His intention is to protect the American cultural ideal and to present it as a coherent and inviolable way of life that should not be diluted or merged with any other culture.

Works Cited

Giroux, H. Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics of Education. New York: Routledge Press, 1992. Print.

Wellek, R. and Warren, A. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1956. Print.

Moon, G.W. and Cline, D.C. Story of Our Land and People. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1964. Print.

Thudipara, Jacob Z. Urban Community Development. New Delhi: Rawat Publishers, 1993. Print.

Foerster, N. American Poetry and Prose. Fifth Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960. Print.

Coyle, A. How to Study Literature: Literary Terms and Criticism. London: MacMillan Press, 1971. Print.

Berland, Alwyn. Culture and Conduct in the Novels of Henry James. Cambridge University Press, 1981. Print.

Cole, Michael and Scribner, Sylvia. Culture and Thought: A Psychological Introduction. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994. Print.

Edel, Leon (editor). The Complete Plays of Henry James. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Print.

Bell, Millicent. Meaning in Henry James. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993. Print.

James, Henry. Daisy Miller. New York Edition, 1909. Web. 5 April 2016.