Henry James

4.3                                                                                                          Henry James

Henry James was a great writer that grew up in an wealthy family that believed highly in education. All of the children from the James family had tutors that their Father took across the Atlantic for education and to expose them to a global culture.  During Henry’s childhood he lived in several different places with his brother William.  They both studied art and enjoyed the company of their cousins and neighbors in Rhode Island.  James went to Harvard law school but shortly dropped out and studied a literacy career.  James published several books at a young age and he is known for his short stories and collections.  In later years James became talented in his critical writing.  James was intrigued with the psychology of his characters he wrote about.   Being that he was educated in philosopher and psychology at an earlier age. At the age of thirty-three James settled in Europe for the rest of his life.  Later his novels brought him much success. But he couldn’t come out from the failure he once had experience in earlier years.

“Daisy Miller: A Study” written by Henry James centers on conflict between simple Americans and sophisticated Europeans.  Winterbourne a man from America comes to visit his aunt in Switzerland, where he meets Daisy Miller.  Miller and her mother with aliments’ and her undisciplined brother are also traveling when she runs into Winterbourne.  He takes an interest in Daisy in all her innocence and beauty.  The more he gets to know her, the more intrigued he becomes. He watches her every move and thinks she is a flirt. But he is drawn to her and takes her to see the castle she has wanted to see. They part ways and her family returns to Italy where she meets a man named Giovanelli.  Winterbourne runs into Daisy with Giovanelli one night and confronts her about her ways.  Winterbourne’s aunt warns him about Daisy and informs him he should stay away from her. Winterbourne warns about the fever that Daisy can get from being around Giovanelli which is Italian decent.  Daisy gets sick and dies from malaria.  At the Grave site Giovanelli persuades Winterbourne that he and everyone else had wrongly condemned her all along. Daisy was after all not bad but simply a pretty American flirt.  Like Winterbourne people think women should act a certain way. Every culture set standards that women should or should not behave in such a manner.  But as we seen in this story Daisy was nothing more than an American flirt. This wasn’t my favorite story, but it had some interesting parts.  I did like the end but it was too late for Daisy to know because she was dead.