Daisy Miller was a surprisingly dull book for the amount of potential the story held. The characters were developed to the point where most fictional novels would just be beginning to take off into the exciting story that they were dreamt up for when Miss Daisy Miller develops a fever and dies. I was left very unsatisfied at the end wondering if perhaps Mr. Henry James drew bored of his novel just as it was taking shape and decided to draw it to a close before it gathered too many free ends and rendered itself incapable to be tied up sufficiently in a page or two. Even with such an excuse, James failed to give his readers the satisfaction of even understanding the few mysteries he had proposed in the few short pages of this novel. For example, who and where is Daisy Millers father? Why does Mrs. Miller act so strangely and allow her daughter to behave so unconventionally for that time? What is the purpose of the character Randolph? These questions along with many others are insufficiently answered by Daisy and her family and left me to wonder if perhaps their identity was a facade. This concluded speculation, however, also failed to be satisfied because of the sudden end of Daisy Miller and the insufficient conclusion that Henry James provided. I believe that only a chapter or two more may have concluded the book better and allowed room for the mystery of Miss Daisy Miller to be sufficiently unveiled, for Mr. Winterborn to learn the truth and either be freed from his obsession or to continue on in his idolatry of her, and for those involved in the judgment of Daisy to either realize their wrongs and repent of their mistake or for the readers to be sufficiently pleased with the punishment that they would be forced to endure by living out the rest of their days in continual ignorance of the wonderfully innocent character of Daisy Miller.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Daisy Miller
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I must agree that had James decided to go another way with the story he had many options. Perhaps Daisy could have left to another part of the world and we could have followed Mr. Winterbourne in his chase. But I think James' meant for Daisy to be such a mystery, the story would not have been so interesting if the reader was left with nothing to wonder about. And Winterbourne's obsession with finding more out about Daisy would have changed the entire story, i believe that she had to die. Just another thought, though I do believe James could have done something really interesting had he chosen a different route.
ReplyDeleteI don't find any of the characters that mysterious at all. If anything, I found Winterborne and his mother much more mysterious. The miller family just seemed like spoiled children to me. I think this was the point, too. I can think of a lot of stories out of Europe at that time who described rich Americans as ignorant children who didn't even have respect for how they themselves made their wealth, and then wanted to be considered equal to the aristocracy.
ReplyDeleteI do agree the book could have been much shorter. Much of the time was spent emphasizing just how removed Daisy was from the world around her, and how obsessed Winterborne was with figuring her out. In truth, I felt much the same as Winterborne when he finally realized the simplicity of her nature, just relieved that he could move on.
I agree that the story could have been more, but perhaps the author just was not interested in taking the characters further than he already did.
ReplyDeleteI found the comparison between American and European cultures to be the most interesting, and often humorous aspects of the novel.
I believe the novel was written more to show the differences between Europeans and Americans rather than focusing entirely on character development and plot.
Brian Rush
As i read through the story, and came to such an abrupt ending, I came to the very same conclusion. Daisy Miller was a book that was well written, yet, left many questions completely unanswered. James had a great plot with a number of avenues he could go to complete the book, yet, he decided to end it by abruptly noting that Daisy Miller had died and left her two love interests standing at her funeral exchanging nothing more than a sentence or two regarding their feelings on the situation.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I feel that James is a great writer, but I have no interest in recommending this book to anyone....short and seemingly pointless in the end.
I, too, was not satisfied with the ending of the book and felt it was lacking in the sort of closure I wanted and expected. However, you have to ask what James' purpose for the book was. Being "one of the great" writers, he must have executed this book in this way for a reason. Maybe finding this reason would make the book more pleasing to you. I think he was forming a link between culture and expectations. He may have been poking fun at the European expectations, or pointing out the stubbornness of American tourists to not conform to cultural standards.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think?
-Allie Reilly
A lot of people agree with your point about the ending, Amanda. It is a little disappointing to be told about Daisy's death in such a casual way, but it fits perfectly with Winterbourne's dismissal of her after the Coliseum incident.
ReplyDeleteJames developed this idea in much more depth in _The Portrait of a Lady_.