Character Analysis of Winterborne in Henry James' 'Daisy Miller'

The Great Gatsby is considered to be a great American novel full of hope, deceit, wealth, and love. Daisy Buchanan is a beautiful and charming young woman who can steal a man’s attention through a mere glance. Throughout the novel, she is placed on a pedestal, as if her every wish were Gatsby’s command. Her inner beauty and grace are short-lived, however, as Scott Fitzgerald reveals her materialistic character. Her reprehensible activities lead to devastating consequences that affect the lives of every character. I intend to show that Daisy, careless and self-absorbed, was never worthy of Jay Gatsby’s love, for she was the very cause of his death.

A tale can be told in several different ways. Many people are aware of the astonishing feat of the 1980 USA Olympic Men’s Hockey team, who were huge underdogs in their bid to win the gold medal against the powerhouse USSR. The movie “Miracle”, directed by Gavin O’Connor, is the dramatic journey taken by this team, from the anxiety-filled tryouts in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to the exhilarating game against the USSR in Lake Placid, New York. The book, “The Boys of Winter” written by Wayne Coffey, is based on the same events, but takes a less emotional, more factual approach to the subject. The purpose of this essay is to compare these two resources, and to discuss how they differ in tone, style, and theme.

who live and judge other people based on the common value of the rigid morals systems at that

Although Perry is the one who killed the family, Dick plans the crime with ease due to his evil characteristics and guilt free conscious, therefore vulnerability can easily be molded by manipulation.

Self and others – Winterbourne is a character while at times could be very judgmental and opinionated, seems to view himself as part of a larger community. He is only judgmental because he is aware of what society deems as inappropriate when it comes to what Daisy Miller is doing. Winterbourne often thinks about others and typically not himself. For example, in the beginning, Randolph was pestering him for sugar lumps. Winterbourne told Randolph, “If you eat three lumps of sugar, your mother will certainly slap you.” While people may interpret Winterbourne differently, I see many cases of him being thoughtful of others and caring towards other people. Daisy Miller is a character that is rather self-centered focusing on herself and what she

Daisy puts up with her husband’s infidelity because of the benefits he provides, his background, his “old money”, and his reputation. When I talk to Daisy she’s always quite cheerful and peppy, but there are moments when I see how sad and lonely she is, “'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool – that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool… you see I think everything’s terrible anyhow… I’ve been everywhere and seen everything.” (17) In a society corrupted by greed and scandal, the best thing that one can hope for is to be too stupid to realize what’s actually going on and therefore not get hurt.

Daisy displays a distorted mentality towards women by stating that being ignorant, in a sense, is the only way a girl can maintain her social status. She also tells Nick Carraway, her cousin, that she is glad Pammy, her daughter, is a girl. “I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool (Pg  20).” This expression implies that Daisy reflects on her own experiences and believes that the world is no place for a woman. She understands that beauty is valued more than intelligence and how first impressions determine a person’s social standing in society. The best she can do is hope to survive by following the crowd and conforming to the perspectives of the upper class. Daisy later on decides to

Imagine you are a lawyer tasked with an impossible case, and everybody in your community is against you, but still there is a shred of hope you cling to. What might that be you ask? That to which you cling are your morals. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch had been given the Tom Robinson case, where a black man was convicted of raping a white woman. As a single father of two children, he continues to reinforce his values throughout the trial and during his daunting task of raising his children. In To Kill A Mockingbird what Harper Lee suggests about the nature of morals is that you should try to stand up for what you believe in even if people oppose or reject your ideals. Even when faced with an insurmountable opposition you should stand up for your morals because in the end if your don't follow your beliefs you are just contributing to the problem. We should try to create a voice for what we believe in and impress that upon the next generation so they can continue to exercise their beliefs to make the world a better place.

A beautiful man and a beautiful woman falling in love. Usually, these stories have a sort of happy ending for both of the parties when the tale is done, but that’s not what Fitzgerald displayed. Instead, “Winter Dreams” has a different tale, one of how it is like to string a person along with a pretty character and enchanting words. In “Winter Dreams.” Fitzgerald displays society’s view of using people as playthings, using characterization and dialogue as examples like this.

James' manipulation of appearances in Daisy Miller as well as other character's notions of these appearances provides us with a novella of enigmatic and fascinating characters. Daisy, the most complicated of these ambiguities, is as mysterious as she is flirtatious. James gives her a carefully constructed enigmatic quality that leaves the reader wondering what her motivations were and who she truly was. He structures the novella in such a way as to stress the insights that the supporting characters provide into Daisy's character, weather accurate or erroneous. Despite their questionable reliability, they allow James to make commentary on both European and American cultures and social class.

The article, Teaching Humility in an Age of Arrogance written by Michael Patrick Lynch, starts off his article by first defining humility and arrogance. Thinking that you know it all and you don’t need to improve because you know everything or are great already, is an arrogant way of thinking. He believes the major reason Americans think this way is because of technology. The Internet gives us so much information that we cannot as humans explain it ourselves. We over estimate our knowledge about the world and at the end of the day; humans are not machines that know everything. Lynch stated it is a good thing we do not know everything because together everyone knowledge can know “quite a bit.” Lynch mentions that we either know it or it

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee presents Mayell Ewell as a complex, round character with traits that evoke various feeling from the reader. In one light, “she seemed somehow fragile-looking” (179). She is scared of what would happen to her if anyone found out she was lying. The questioning became too much and made her “stare at (Judge Taylor) and burst into tears” (179). The crying showed her emotional and fragile side of her. The fact that there was a bigger, more powerful being forcing her to act a certain way scared her. She continued to cry at certain times and didn’t answer some of Atticus’s questions. She was scared of what would happen if they didn’t win

In 1878, Henry James wrote, Daisy Miller, a novella about a young American girl and her travels in Europe. Daisy Miller is a complex short story with many underlying themes such as appearance versus reality, knowledge versus innocence, outward action versus inward meditation, and Nature versus urbanity. In this short story, one is left to judge whether Daisy Miller, the main character of the story, is “a pretty American flirt” or a misunderstood, modern young woman. By probing into the complexities and contradictions of Daisy’s character, it is obvious that Ms. Miller is merely a misunderstood young woman.

Daisy Miller" by Henry James, is a study of a young American girl's rebuttal of all things "proper" and refusal to conform to social standards. One can see that realism is apparent throughout the text. The characters utilize free will throughout, are affected by their environment and familial relationships, and ultimately make their own choices. These choices eventually affect the outcome in an unhappy ending. Jame's creates characters that encompass both sides of the social sphere in this work. Winterbourne, Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker are all individuals that come from old money, a higher societal background, and expectations of what is deemed right and proper. In contrast, Daisy Miller, Mrs. Miller, Randolph and Eugenio are the opposite in many ways coming from an average societal realm and more realistic, modest lifestyle. Winterbourne has a rather telling conversation with Mrs. Walker and her statement to him upon asking what exactly it is that Daisy does that pushes "too far" sums up the overall reputation Daisy is establishing for herself. "(she does) Everything that is not done here. Flirting with any man she could pick up; sitting in corners with mysterious Italians; dancing all the evening with the same partners; receiving visits at eleven o'clock at night"(James, p. 1537). Daisy's ability to make her own choices and follow her free will are aspects of realism which writers began to utilize. Again, her environment and family most definitely affect her behavior.

Daisy is an American teen who is traveling Europe and spends lots of time with men in an 1800s European society that frowns upon these actions and ultimately punishes her for them. Winterbourne is a man who is infatuated with Daisy due to her beauty and although he knows it isn’t proper to interact with Daisy without a chaperone present, he talks to her anyways and “was ceasing to be embarrassed, for he had begun to perceive that she was not in the least embarrassed herself. There had not been the slightest alteration in her charming complexion; she was evidently neither offended neither fluttered” (James, 6). The first time that Winterbourne has a conversation with Daisy he had expected it to be under the supervision of another person. Because Daisy is not used to having to do this she isn’t phased and continues the conversation with Winterbourne. This doesn’t make Winterbourne mad, but instead makes him more attracted to Daisy. As he talks to Daisy he doesn’t have to think of any problems it could cause for him