Daisy Miller's Discussion

    

          When we read Daisy Miller at class, we were ask to answer some questions to analyze and get a better idea from this novella. First we need to know how to differentiate a tourist from a traveler. Later on, I will give my opinion about what is what and if Daisy Miller is a tourist or if she is a traveler. I will support my opinion with some quotes that I found interesting.

            For me Daisy Miller is a tourist because a tourist visits a place and mainly visits the tourist attractions, therefore doesn’t get involve with the society. They see other places as an opportunity to be relaxed. We can also say that she is a little selfish because she does not care for example about Italy’s current problems. In contrast travelers are the opposite because they go to a new place and get informed of almost everything. They also try to experience everything by themselves. Therefore I believe that Daisy is a tourist because she doesn’t try to get along or get involved with European’s culture. Another detail about travelers is that they visit a place not because of any promotion or propaganda, but instead because they are willing to go.

            A good quote for demonstrating this is when Winterbourne remembers, “I’ve heard that my pretty cousins in NY were tremendous flirts.” By this quote the author expresses that Winterbourne is seeing Daisy as a flirty young lady while she was only leaving the reality in one side and enjoying the trip as tourists do. Another quote that helps me explain the differences is when Winterbourne states “I had never, as yet had any relations with young ladies this category”. This other quote also helps us see the flirty side that Winterbourne is seeing from Daisy while she is just been a tourist. But also it let’s us know how amazed is Winterbourne at Daisy because of her being so different from other women that he have known before.

            The difference for me is that a tourist, when they are visiting other places, they are escaping their real problems and world. Tourists basically visit some new places because of advertisements and/or references from other people. Most tourists just think about them and do not take in what the other community or society are based on while a traveler tries to integrate and experience the new community that they are visiting. A good example for both is the difference between the places that they both visit. While a tourist visit mostly tourist places which we could define as fake or prepared to create a relaxing environment, a traveler for example visit places such as urban places, and places visited by natives.

                       I also found some incidences about othering in this novella. We could see some othering in this novel such as the following. When Winterbourne talks to his aunt Mrs. Costello about Daisy and she says “they are very common, they are the sort of Americans that one does owns duty by not-accepting”. This shows how Mrs. Costello basically feels and shows herself as in a higher class than Daisy, and even a better person by just seen them once in the lobby. Mrs. Costello just stereotyped Daisy like if she were a common young flirty lady coming from New York, which Mrs. Costello has a very bad concept about them. Other othering moment in this novella is when Daisy describes Mr. Geovanelli as the best type of men because he is an Italian. She says, “He is an Italian… he is the handsomenest man in the world”. This makes remarkable how women see Italians because of all the movies that are made in which Europe or for example Italy is represented as a perfect place for living. This novella may be fictional but this happens a lot in our life. She obviously talks good about him because she wants to be with him. Another quote could be when Mrs. Costello describes Daisy, as “She is the sort of young lady who expects a man, sooner or later, to carry her off?” She here mentions and makes us see Americans as some people that depend on others and that try living off from other’s work. She criticizes very hard Americans but maybe it is because of the way in which she sees herself as a superior being. Possibly she wants Winterbourne to have a date with a European girl instead of an American one.

            In this novella, the characters perception to the different situations that are encountered can be explained based on the characters nationality or the society to which they have been related. For example, during the whole novella Daisy is othered and misunderstood by the Europeans for her way of being because she has the habits and the culture of an American young girl. Daisy doesn’t bother to adapt her lifestyle to that of the Europeans and it is not important to her what the people around her thinks about that. For Daisy, going out in the night with men or to go somewhere during the day with a man alone is fine. In contrast, Mrs, Costello an European and “well cultivated” women, sees Daisy’s customs as audacious or improper for a young lady and she rejects her and describes her as a common and vulgar lady. This can be seen very clearly in the novella when Winterbourne is sustaining a conversation with Mrs. Costello and she says,  "They are very common… They are the sort of Americans that one does one's duty by not—not accepting". This quote declares by itself that Mrs. Costello’s thoughts toward Daisy are moderated by the cultural values she has from the European culture, which is a strict one especially towards women. On the other hand, by Winterbourne's reaction in that same conversation when he says, "Ah, you are cruel!... She's a very nice young girl", it can be interpreted that he understands the difference in the cultural values even that he sees Daisy as a “very uncultivated” young lady. This attitude can be attributed to the social environment that Winterbourne had in his life since he was born in the United States and then went to live in Europe. Finally, it can be seen in the novella that the culture and society influences directly in the way of thinking and perspective of things by the contrast that exist between Daisy’s, Winterbourne and Mrs. Costello’s characters and their social environment.