Quote:
“Miss Miller looked at him a moment; and then, very placidly—“I wish you would stay with him!” she said. / Winterbourne hesitated a moment. “I would much rather go to Chillon with you.”/“With me?” asked the young lady, with the same placidity. She didn’t rise, blushing, as a young girl at Geneva would have done…” (James 398)
Summary:
In the story “Daisy Miller: A Study” by Henry James, this pretty American girl, Ms. Miller, is talking to Winterbourne about going to Château de Chillon, a castle. She is talking how she can’t go because neither her mother nor her brother want to go. At this point she is telling Winterbourne if he could stay with her brother so she could go to the castle, to which Winterbourne answers that he wants to go with her, not a very decent proposal for a young lady.
Response:
I read this story like a complete study about this young American lady, Ms. Miller. As the title says this story is a study about Daisy Miller, and it that is how I read it, because it seems to me the Winterbourne is doing everything in his power to try to understand this new woman that intrigues him, so he is studying her. In this quote I see how Winterbourne is pushing his luck with Daisy, because as he is thinking, such a proposal to go to the castle would be considered really indecent by any girl from Geneva, but not by Daisy. This is the exact moment where Winterbourne realizes that this pretty young lady is basically a flirt, but it is really confusing to not know what Daisy is thinking, on one side she could be manipulating the situation to get Winterbourne to go to the castle with her, on the other hand, she could just be like any innocent girl who wants to visit a castle and would be enchanted to have some company, rather to go alone.
However, the tone she uses while talking seems like she is truly flirting with Winterbourne. She is talking “placidly” with him, she is not nervous or worried to think that what she is doing is wrong, and she is perfectly fine with it. She might not be nervous or she might not show it, but the fact that Winterbourne a very well known gentleman doesn’t notice this means that she is in perfect control of the situation. But then again, since there is no an Omniscient narrator, I cannot know for sure that this is the situation. Henry James is putting us in the situation where we can broadly speculate of what is going on in the characters minds, and we need to get our own conclusions. Still, is really intriguing to not know exactly what Ms. Miller is thinking, because we can draw totally wrong conclusions according to our different perspectives and values.
“Miss Miller looked at him a moment; and then, very placidly—“I wish you would stay with him!” she said. / Winterbourne hesitated a moment. “I would much rather go to Chillon with you.”/“With me?” asked the young lady, with the same placidity. She didn’t rise, blushing, as a young girl at Geneva would have done…” (James 398)
Summary:
In the story “Daisy Miller: A Study” by Henry James, this pretty American girl, Ms. Miller, is talking to Winterbourne about going to Château de Chillon, a castle. She is talking how she can’t go because neither her mother nor her brother want to go. At this point she is telling Winterbourne if he could stay with her brother so she could go to the castle, to which Winterbourne answers that he wants to go with her, not a very decent proposal for a young lady.
Response:
I read this story like a complete study about this young American lady, Ms. Miller. As the title says this story is a study about Daisy Miller, and it that is how I read it, because it seems to me the Winterbourne is doing everything in his power to try to understand this new woman that intrigues him, so he is studying her. In this quote I see how Winterbourne is pushing his luck with Daisy, because as he is thinking, such a proposal to go to the castle would be considered really indecent by any girl from Geneva, but not by Daisy. This is the exact moment where Winterbourne realizes that this pretty young lady is basically a flirt, but it is really confusing to not know what Daisy is thinking, on one side she could be manipulating the situation to get Winterbourne to go to the castle with her, on the other hand, she could just be like any innocent girl who wants to visit a castle and would be enchanted to have some company, rather to go alone.
However, the tone she uses while talking seems like she is truly flirting with Winterbourne. She is talking “placidly” with him, she is not nervous or worried to think that what she is doing is wrong, and she is perfectly fine with it. She might not be nervous or she might not show it, but the fact that Winterbourne a very well known gentleman doesn’t notice this means that she is in perfect control of the situation. But then again, since there is no an Omniscient narrator, I cannot know for sure that this is the situation. Henry James is putting us in the situation where we can broadly speculate of what is going on in the characters minds, and we need to get our own conclusions. Still, is really intriguing to not know exactly what Ms. Miller is thinking, because we can draw totally wrong conclusions according to our different perspectives and values.
No comments:
Post a Comment