Daisy Miller Social Norms

Masculinity didn’t do a good job of attaining the hoped-for standards, as they didn’t have other equally profound consequences for American middle-class culture at this time. It justified the exclusion of women from the world as acceptable to both women and men at this time, and it cultivated strong bonds around women as well. They in fact shared the biological experiences central to their definition as women and spoke the same language of virtue and piety, which essentially means that they instilled a awareness of a set of common goals for them and experiences present for them, which had values specific to women, and distinct from those of men. The key to this was the extensive networks of female friends that were present during this time period for these women. Since women were supposedly better than men during this time, it was feasible and easy to believe that women were obliged and privileged to work together and help other women, who were fallen, and poor, who were having some sort of trouble during this time period as a result of the society that they were present in during this time period. Southern white women during this time were aware of the ideology of domesticity during this time, and they would try to implement it and its teachings for their lives, but their expectations were frequently articulated during this time period. There was little industrialization, domestication, urbanization, immigration, and therefore, social dislocation present during

The article, The Cult of Womanhood: 1820 - 1860 written by Barbara Welter discusses the philosophy towards women in America during the mid 19th century. A set of demands and expectations based upon four principles: piety, purity, submission and domesticity were placed on women as well as certain behavioral expectations left 19th century women feeling guilty. It also left women feeling this way during the industrialization period as well as having a huge presence of incompatibility with society. Welter shares her viewpoint that the Cult of Womanhood was an attempt to preserve pre modern values in the industrial age. Men held a dominant place in society and continued to prevent new opportunities for women to explore. Narrow minded

Ultimately, the evidence shown above reveals the many apprehensions and difficulties women endured during the 19th century, and the implications of their actions. Through the above examples, it demonstrates that women must show certain etiquette among European society despite personal heritage. As well as one being innocent and denying social norms, there are limitations and one should be cautious to personal decisions. Similarly, young women should be more vigilant towards warnings of others and adult figures that offer helpful advice even if their nature is to be ignorant to rules. Given these points, James emphasizes in the novella ‘Daisy Miller’ the taboo of young sexuality during the Victorian era, and the strict social conventions and

The early 1900s was a time where women weren’t allowed to do many things. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows that women are insubordinate to men through their immorality (O’Donnell, 2018). For example, when Mr. Wilson locked his wife Myrtle in her room, she escapes in hopes of seeing her lover when she saw a familiar car, “...she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting; before he could move from his door the business was over. The ‘death car’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend.”

During the early 1800s, In a Victorian Christian rooted society the ideal women was virtuous, modest in appearance and played a homemaker role in society. Confined to cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children, they had no place in society outside of home. Their purpose in life was to get married and reproduce, then train the children in the same way of life. If

“Traditionally, women [of the nineteenth century, and often today] were defined physically and intellectually as the ‘weaker’ set, in all ways subordinate to male authority” (Marsh) . In the average household, the father and husband were above the women in the

Aware of the values of female subordination, she truly believes that “the best thing a girl can be in this world [is] a beautiful little fool” (17). Due to her feelings of personal victimization, as a mother, Daisy wishes what she believes is best for her daughter: to be beautiful enough to attract a wealthy man, but ignorant enough so that she is unaware of how he is hurting her. However, Daisy has accepts defeat in her lifestyle with Tom because her Old Money values result in her lack of competency to be independent. Especially within the Old Money social class, women are taught to be proper and delicate, conforming to unspoken rules of feminine social conduct, producing a class of indistinguishable women with no personal identity or individuality. Although all women “[are] never quite the same ones in physical person, they [are] so identical one with another” (63) that an indication of a social formula for high class women exists. Even the narrator himself, who tries to avoid judgement, believes that “dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply” (58); women are viewed as inferior to men, and as a result, they are exempt from dutifully following the moral code and forgiven for actions they cannot

Social standing, and moral values were vital elements in Victorian society, and the fundamental doctrine of establishing this ideology, began at home. The home provided a refuge from the rigour, uncertainty, anxiety, and potential violence of the outside world. (P, 341) A woman’s role was to provide a safe, stable, and well-organised environment for their husbands and families. However, change was on the horizon with an underlying movement of business and domestic changes both home and abroad, with industrialization, and the suffragist movement. Women were beginning to gain autonomy and began to grasp their opportunities, thus significantly curtailing male supremacy and the definable acceptable ‘role’ of the woman.

I wished to write a very American tale, a tale very characteristic of our social condition, and I asked myself what was the most salient and peculiar point in our social life. The answer was: the situation of woman, the decline of the sentiment of sex, the agitation on their behalf (James, Notebooks 47).

Women in the 1800s were stereotyped and confined to specific roles in society, however it all changed. The 1800s in Victorian England, created an environment, which encouraged stereotypes, aimed at women in which they were required to stay at home and be ‘The Angels of the House.’ Women were not only constricted to very narrow gender roles where they are expected to be mothers, pure, naïve and dependant on their husbands. Jobs such as teaching and nursing were seen as women jobs only and these were the only jobs women should do. However, the Industrial Revolution helped open a new era for women in society and this allowed women to feel the need to stand up for their rights and challenge the stereotypes of the society. Lucy Westenra is a typical young, beautiful girl whose main aim is to marry and do what is accepted in society as a wife. She is seen as a marginal figure whose

The majority of literature at this time emphasized women’s domestic and religious roles , and those women who deviated from these socially accepted and designated roles, were not viewed as positively as those who adhered to societal norms . American Literature depicted flawless images of women in a flawed world, making it especially difficult for real and fictional women alike. This negative perception is seen in numerous American Literature works, but the disparity in treatment of these women is most obvious when the characters are compared to the more passive and docile female characters that were considered to be the ideal representations of American women at that period of time. This negative perception of women can be best demonstrated

In the novella “Daisy Miller” by Henry James, women are viewed as the inferior and weaker gender, as they are expected to abide by all of society's’ laws while at the same time being constantly diminished as human beings. When Winterbourne and Daisy first meet, Daisy is looking for her little brother Randolph, who Winterbourne was previously having a conversation with. Daisy and Winterbourne have a conversation about Randolph’s education, all the while, Winterbourne’s eyes are focused on Daisy. Winterbourne tunes Daisy out while his eyes wander to her “extremely pretty hands, ornamented with very brilliant rings, folded in her lap...She was very quiet, she sat in a charming, tranquil attitude, but her lips and eyes were constantly moving” (8).

According to The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, “There was much debate concerning the proper place of women and the ideal characteristics of femininity throughout the nineteenth century” (610). The Victorian Era formally followed the reign of Queen Victoria in England from 1837 to 1901, but the era is not so rigidly set. The ideologies, values, and mores associated with the Victorian Era were present before Queen Victoria, and then followed into America and also lived sixty years past its recorded date of death. In the United States during the 1950s and 60s, the idea of femininity was still being explored, just as it was a century prior in another country. Women in the Victorian Era and in 1950s and 1960s America experienced

Despite being under the rule of a female monarch, women faced many inequalities and suffering during the Victorian age. Examples of these inequalities include not having the right to vote, unequal educational and employment opportunities. Women were even denied the legal right to divorce in most cases. As the Norton Anthology states, these debates over women’s rights and their roles came to be known as the “woman question” by the Victorians. This lead to many conflicting struggles, such as the desire by all for women to be educated, yet they are denied the same opportunities afforded to men. While these women faced these difficulties, there was also the notion that women should be domestic and feminine. There was an ideal that women should be submissive and pure because they are naturally different. The industrial revolution introduced women into the labor workforce, but there was still a conflict between the two identities; one of an employed woman, and one of a domestic housewife.

During the Victorian Era (1837 – 1901), a new image of womanhood was founded and designated women as moral figures that were too delicate and frail to engage in hard labor that most women (i.e. the lower and middle class) were familiar with. Pascale and Schenome (as cited in Garcia, 2010) state that this social construct would later be known as “the cult of true womanhood”, and could only be accomplished by the upper class men who could afford for the women in their