Many have written about the guilt or innocence of Henry James's heroine, Daisy Miller. In his story, James tells of a young American woman in Europe who ignores Old World conventions and wanders around unsupervised with two gentlemen: one, an American expat she loves, and the other, a foreigner fortune hunter she uses. to take revenge on the man she loves. Some argue that Daisy Miller is a reckless flirt, fully aware, but careless, of what her actions mean for her reputation. Others find his carefreeness innocent and direct. But Daisy doesn't act in isolation. As critic Samuels notes, Daisy “is less guilty than those who persecute her. His story is really about them" (174). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay The character who straddles the persecution and the understanding of Daisy's essence is the ex-patriot Frederick Winterbourne He is aware, unlike the other characters, of his own influence on Daisy, as well as his determination to follow Daisy's words and actions, first a series of assumptions about social behavior in Europe, then to some about the state of his feelings, then to a reckless challenge to conventions when these assumptions prove false When they first meet, Winterbourne sets up. the chain of events that will lead Daisy to misbehave and later rebel He does this by giving her a skewed view of the ways of European society regarding social presentations. At first he just watches, although he does. lingers so long on her appearance that it's possible he's looking at her - roughly. He speaks to him while only little Randolph introduced them very roughly. It is Winterbourne who first rejects convention, then insists on his advantage when she does not reproach him: “he decided that he must advance further rather than retreat” (James 602). He continues talking to her, and when he notices that she does not seem embarrassed and seems to have little interest in him, he assumes, because of her wit, that she might be a "coquette" (Jacques 602). Given that he inappropriately initiated a conversation with an unmarried, unchaperoned woman, it is hypocritical of him to judge Daisy based on how she received his address. But he does it. The result of her indiscreet behavior is Daisy's natural assumption that things are this way in Europe, that compatriots can speak openly to each other as they do in her part of America - an assumption that couldn't be further away. the truth. In a later conversation with his aunt, Winterbourne allows the blame to be shifted to Daisy. He compares his behavior to that of his aunt's daughters and to what suits them. Since he has never met Daisy in American society and she is a newcomer to European society, this is very unfair. Newly arrived from America, Daisy is more handicapped than them in her social skills. Winterbourne himself is rusty on the customs of a culture of which he was a part; Daisy, on the other hand, has never been to Europe and cannot be expected to know the customs firsthand. What she knows about Europe came to her through her friends. Winterbourne does not realize that her clues have led Daisy to think that European society is more lax about conventions than she is used to. These signals lead Daisy to talk to him (after obvious hesitation), make plans with him, and behave toward him and toward Giovanelli as she does. Once she started this behaviorerroneous, knowledge continues. disastrous lines. Through Winterbourne's other words and actions, Daisy is led to believe that he cares about her. This growing attraction could be another explanation for his relaxation of conventional manners in his company. He is visibly attracted to her when they are introduced, and we later learn that the attraction is mutual. It could be the temerity of young love, of Daisy's trust in his heart, which makes him forgive Winterbourne's early boldness, and perhaps makes him adopt his relaxed attitude towards social customs. Throughout his stay at Vevay, Winterbourne gives Daisy reason to believe that he is genuinely interested in her, concerned for her well-being. When they go to Chillon Castle together, he tells her how happy he is. She in turn questions him “about himself – about his family, his background, his tastes, his habits, his intentions (emphasis added) – and about the provision of information on the corresponding points of his own personality” (Jacques 614). When she learns that Winterbourne has to return to Geneva the next day, she calls him "horrible" and seems very upset. This is the behavior of a young woman whose feelings are involved, and not of one who believes herself to be the victim of a slight flirtation. Winterbourne's own feelings are evident in the fact that he does not alter his plan to return to his mistress in Geneva. His departure pushes Daisy to find the stranger Giovanelli. When Winterbourne reunites with Daisy in Rome, he tries to pick up where they left off months before. She doesn't make it easy for him and suggests that she is about to meet another man. His spite is, in the circumstances, extraordinary. Again, Winterbourne behaves as if he cares about Daisy. He accepts her request to accompany her to the Pincio to see the gentleman friend and, when he sees the stranger, he refuses to leave her alone with him. That he uses the pretext of protecting her does not detract from the scope of his insistence. Daisy is happy; we can assume it's because she's seen the proof that Winterbourne still cares about her, despite all the evidence to the contrary. But all these events, especially Winterbourne's warm behavior after a long absence, have only lulled Daisy into a false sense of security. The hypotheses to which her knowledge of the young man led her collapsed shortly after her arrival in Rome. First, his “commanding” disapproval of his behavior makes her angry, probably in part because of his long absence. She declares that she will stay with Giovanelli, although it feels like she might just be baiting Winterbourne. It is then that their American “friend”, Mrs. Walker, arrives in her carriage to “rescue” Daisy from the company of the two gentlemen. When Winterbourne sides with Mrs. Walker and suggests Daisy get in the car, Daisy questions his reasoning with a look. After all, he suggests that Daisy needs to walk away from her own business to save her reputation. If he is a gentleman and in love with her, this should seem absurd; he should never have put his reputation at risk in the first place. She laughs defiantly and leaves with Giovanelli, causing Mrs. Walker to turn on her and Winterbourne to leave her. However, Winterbourne's rejection may have less to do with Daisy's attitude toward his reputation than with her hurtful wish to stay with the other man (Hoffman 22). The truth is that Winterbourne is annoyed with Daisy because her flirtation with Giovanelli keeps her from liking the other man. everything he did, at least in his mind, to see her sooner. He has; after all, he interrupted his plans (for Bologna and France)just to travel “with all haste” alongside him (Samuels 175). Thus, once Mrs. Walker arrives, the "sentimental impatience" he feels about being with Daisy is "weaker than Winterbourne's anxiety for his own reputation" (Samuels 175). As a result, “…the freedom of social behavior and the flirtatious innocence that he found so charming in Vevay, he condemns as dangerously flirtatious in Rome” (Hoffman 20). This is what makes Daisy angry enough to refuse Mrs. Walker's car – that, and jealousy over Mrs. Walker's influence over Winterbourne. Walker throws a party three days later, to which Winterbourne and the Millers are invited. The party begins a series of revelations for Daisy, through which more fuel is added to her rebellious fire. Winterbourne's stiffness towards her begins to convince Daisy that he does not care about her, at least not enough to treat her with interest and respect. Her attitude pushes her to defend Giovanelli. When she does, Winterbourne assumes out loud that she is in love with the stranger. Daisy is offended and upset by his words, which prove to her that Winterbourne has misunderstood his actions and presents them in a less innocent light. Shocked and angry, she goes to another room with Giovanelli, further compromising her reputation. When she leaves, Mrs. Walker scorns her and Daisy learns more about how Winterbourne misled her. Doubting Winterbourne's feelings for her and despairing of the scandal his signals have led her to reject, Daisy clings to Giovanelli more than ever. Winterbourne and Daisy meet on Palatine Hill, where she is walking alone with Giovanelli. He lectures him again about his reputation. Encouraged by this, she almost admits that she only cares about her opinion, Winterbourne's, and asks him to help her. He declines such responsibility. Again, Winterbourne's lectures only lead to more of a challenge for Daisy. She claims to be engaged: “Since you have spoken of it,” she said, “I am engaged” (Jacques 631). Daisy says she will pretend to be engaged because Winterbourne is blind enough to believe it. She then tells him that she is only engaged if he believes her; she depends on her opinions for her actions and reality. The final confrontation between the hapless lovers makes clear how dependent Daisy is on Winterbourne's reactions as proof of her love and belief in her innocence. One moonlit night, while passing the Colosseum, Winterbourne sees two figures and recognizes their voices as those of Daisy and Giovanelli. He starts walking, ready to wash his hands of it. She calls him, surprised that he sees her and “cuts” her (Jacques 633). Daisy asks him if he really thought she was engaged during their previous conversation. With anger and disgust, Winterbourne declares that it doesn't matter whether she is engaged or not. Daisy's reaction is a revelation. Winterbourne said that neither his reputation nor the placement of his affections meant anything to him. In “…a strange little tone,” she says she doesn’t care whether she has Roman fever or not (James 634). She surrenders, simply put, to the world's belief in her guilt and to Roman fever, which the critic Kraft calls "evil": "The 'Roman fever' she catches is the evil of the world, which 'she knows it or not... She is not destroyed by this "evil" alone, but also by Winterbourne's indifference..." (Kraft 91). If Winterbourne no longer believes in herself or cares for her, she no longer cares for herself (Samuels 176). Daisy dies after a few weeks. Her death is the ultimate proof that her actions depended on Winterbourne's trust in her, for if she had taken care of herself, she would not have put her.,, 1971.