The Character of Daisy Miller and Her View of Winterbourne

--谢迪青

Daisy Miller

• A beautiful, innocent, fresh, and natural girl

• She grew up in America and was deeply influenced by the spirit of freedom.

• She lives a free life according to her will.

The character of Daisy

ⅰ Mr. Winterbourne

Mr. Giovanelli

ⅱ Mrs. Walker

Mrs. Costello

ⅲ The feminist

For Winterbourne

• “ But this young girl was not a coquette in that sense; she was very unsophisticated; she was only a pretty American flirt.”

• “She seems to him, in all this , an extraordinary mixture of innocence and crudity.”

• “She was too light and childish, too uncultivated and unreasoning, too provincial, to have reflected upon her ostracism, or even to have perceived it.”

• “the ambiguity of Daisy’s behavior, and the riddle has become easy to read. She was a young lady whom a gentleman need no longer be at pains to respect.”

For Mr. Giovanelli

• “ She was the most beautiful young lady I ever saw, and the most amiable”; then he added in a moment, “ and she was the most innocent. ”

The view of Daisy

• Mr. Winterbourne• Mr. Giovanelli

• The representative of the male-dominated society

• Daisy was a beautiful, warm, innocent girl, who just lack of traditional culture awareness.

• And all her behavior was on her nature without any hypocrisy, which seems to be uneducated and uncultivated.

For Mrs. Costello

• “ of course she is pretty . But she is very common.”

• “ What a dreadful girl !”

• “ They are hopelessly vulgar, whether or no being hopelessly vulgar is being ‘bad’ is question for the metaphysicians. They are bad enough to dislike.”

For Mrs. Walker

• She was a reckless girl.

• “so I though that a month ago. But she has been going too far.”

• “she was naturally indelicate.”

• “she never enters my drawing-room again.”

The view of Daisy

• Mr. Winterbourne• Mr. Giovanelli

• Mrs. Walker• Mrs. Costello

• The representative of the male-dominated society

• The representative of the conservative people

• Daisy was a vulgar, ignorant and dreadful flirt, whose strange behavior aroused the dissatisfaction of the conservative people.

• She dares to break the social conventions and is doomed to be isolated from the society.

For feminist

• Daisy symbolizes the free, pure and independent women in the new world.

• Her fearless behavior shows that women desire to break the yoke of the traditional society.

• “In Geneva, a young man was not at liberty to speak to a young unmarried lady except under certain rarely occurring conditions. But she was not in the least embarrassed herself. There had not been the slightest alteration in her charming complexion; she was evidently, neither offended nor fluttered.”

• “I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do.”

• “I have never heard anything so stiff ! If this is improper, Mrs. Walker,” she pursed, “then I am improper, and you must give me up.”

• The conflict between Daisy and the traditional patriarchal society is plain, and Daisy is a symbol of self awareness.

• The characteristics of Daisy is highly praised by feminist, and she was regarded as an ideal female image, striving for her dream at that time.

Her View of Winterbourne

• Too stiff

• “what on earth are you so solemn about? I like to make you say those things. You are a queer mixture.”

• “as I have had the pleasure of informing you, you are stiff.”

• Very handsome• “Mr. Giovanelli is a great friend of mine an

d the handsomest man in the world-except Mr. Winterbourne.”

• Uncaring• “why you are awfully mean up at Vevey,”

Daisy said. “You wouldn’t do most anything. You wouldn’t stay there when I asked you.”

• At first, Daisy thought Mr. Winterbourne is different from other Europeans, he can understand her pursuit of freedom.

• But when Daisy found that Mr. Winterbourne treated her as an American flirt ,she felt disappointed and hurt.