During the first quarter of the session , we discussed Henry James' letter to a friend wherein he purports to respond to the novel's central question: Is Daisy an innocent, a flirt ,or a societal rebel.We discussed James' explanation that the novella is a tragedy illustrating how an innocent , uncultured girl, oblivious to societal norms ,is sacrificed to a social order she does not understand or appreciate. On the board, we began a thematic analysis of how the societal norms are reflective of a societal patriarchy as these mores clearly do not apply to Winterborne, a man. During the remainder of the session, Joshua participated in school wide safety drills.
I continue to highlight textual examples evidencing the central question of the novel: Is Daisy a flirt, an ingenuous innocent, or a true rebel when she defies the strict social norms of polite society that define a woman's role . We then discussed the irony of Daisy loitering beneath the famous Vasquez painting of Pope Innocent X who also was reputed to be less than innocent. As James' literary technique serves as a forerunner of the stream of consciousness narrative of Joyce and Wolfe, I pointed out how James' reveals a character's consciousness even in the absence of the character speaking or undertaking any outward actions.
We first reviewed Joshua's homework placing very advanced vocabulary from the novel into contextualized sentences followed by a discussion of Joshua's homework analyzing why Byron's poem "Prisoner of Chillon" is a thematically apt setting for an early scene in the novel. Next, we noted numerous textual references foreshadowing Daisy's death from a "fever." As the clash between American and European values is central to the novel, we explored the implications of Daisy's insistence on disregarding accepted social norms with regard to her behavior with men.We addressed , what appears to Winterborne , to be a baffling confluence of Daisy's innocence, defiance, and perceived immorality. I addressed how the unobtrusive first person narrator occasionally burst into the narrative illustrating James' theory of fiction : close observation creates in the writer impressions that become a reality or truth.
In the first half of the session we continued to textually analyze Daisy's "inscrutable combination of audacity and innocence"-a central theme of the novel. We discussed how Daisy claims that she does not wish to do anything improper but then openly flaunts convention insisting to Winterborne that she "never allows a gentleman to dictate to me ." We discussed how the novel is in fact a study of how Daisy plays both the innocent, the rebel, and the disingenuous. I further pointed out how James' explores the conscious mind of Winterborne, a device quite new in 1878. During the second half of the session, Joshua completed vocabulary exercises based on vocabulary words taken from the novel.
We continued to study James' Daisy Miller by focusing on the differences between American and European culture and psychology. We specifically addressed the double standard for Men and Women and how this double standard impacts society's view of Daisy's nonconformist behavior ,especially as it pertains to her keeping company with many men. Joshua further did well in identifying specific text highlighting James' view of Americans as uncultured and crude . Further, we noted the significance of Daisy's visit to the Castle of Chillon and reviewed how Daisy's social plight suggests the similar plight of the protagonist of Byron's poem, "The Prisoner of Chillon." Last, we reviewed Joshua's study guide answers that addressed these topics .
We continued a close textual study of the character ,Daisy Miller, keeping in mind the narrator's ongoing perplexity over Daisy's apparent effrontery and willingness to defy social norms in a rigid class conscious society . We explored why Daisy's familiarity with her courier , an employee, makes her appear common to proper society as well as Daisy's other social faux pas. While the narrator seems at first disposed to excuse Daisy's behavior as a manifestation of innocence, Joshua did well noting the author's ambiguity in this regard when Daisy expresses disappointment that her agreeing to visit The Castle of Chilean at night with a man while unaccompanied does not cause more of a fuss or disruption. We discussed how this reaction perhaps suggests that Daisy is a social rebel refusing to be imprisoned by social norms. With this image in mind ,we were able to explore the significance of Byron's poem, the Castle of Chillon ,about a nameless narrator imprisoned for his beliefs.
We explored Henry James' esoteric essay ,"The Art of Fiction" and then discussed how James' explication of his art form manifests in the novel's narrative technique. I outlined the main points of the essay explaining how James claims it is the writer's impression of experience that conveys reality, i.e. deriving the unseen from the seen. Joshua astutely noted the arrogance inherent in James' assertion that only the intelligent have this ability. We then discussed the novel's depiction of the differing social and cultural norms of America and Europe ,and began to address the novel's operative inquiry :is Daisy an innocent, a flirt , or a rebel.
I provided additional biographical information about the author, Henry James, and emphasized his importance to American Literature . James graphically illustrated the differences between American and European culture and meticulously explored a character's consciousness. We analyzed how the novel uses an unknown first person narrator who relates the story and consciousness of Winterborne through a limited third person narration buried within the first person narration. We then examined the clash between American and European culture portrayed in the opening pages noting the diction and behaviors of Winterborne and Daisy's crass and parochial younger brother.
