Daisy Miller

"This is a very Jamesian view of the innocent American abroad corrupted by the old world and [SPOILER ALERT] in Daisy Miller’s case, killed by the old world. She represents this ideal of an American ignorant of the lurking dangers in that old world, typified by the miasmas of the Colosseum which finally kills her, but also the love that this man has for her which is powerless to save her. It is another self-image that the Americans tend to have; that they are always pure and simple and when they go to places subsequently, like Vietnam, it is Vietnam that corrupts them, not the other way round. It’s completely wrong but that is a lingering self-image. Daisy was pure and not a gossip like them. In fact, she’s almost not a human. She’s a theory, a Jamesian idea of a virginal creature that can only suffer, who could only be corrupted. She is warned not to go the Colosseum at night with the mosquitoes, but she does it anyway and she dies. But it isn’t the Colosseum or the mosquitoes that kill her. It represents the idea that it’s not a place for someone as good as you. You don’t have the immunities that others have. She has aspirations to rise in an old world context, which can only be self-defeating in a Henry James novel. He was quite a social climber himself. He decided he didn’t really like being American any more, and actually became British. He, like TS Eliot, became very anglicised and felt more at home in Britain than in America. There was a larger literary culture, literacy levels was higher and there were more writers. The writers were usually localised in London, while they were spread out in America and there wasn’t such a like-minded community. Some people still care a lot about social mobility. There’s been a long tradition of American heiresses marrying impoverished titles so that the Americans get a bit of respectability and the Europeans get some money. This still goes on. He, like his brother William, was a very intellectually engaged man and a very sharp and perceptive observer of people’s customs and behaviour. Daisy got it wrong to the extent that it was fatal to her and crushed her spirit. They do get it wrong but lots of people get it wrong. There are social oafs not just in America but also in lots of countries."