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Themes In Daisy Miller

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In Henry James’ novel Daisy Miller, published in 1878, we meet a peculiar young American girl traveling through the continent of Europe alongside her family named Daisy who disobeys the order and relentlessly stays true to herself. A young gentleman named Winterbourne is also introduced, a Europeanized American residing in Geneva who Daisy often describes as “stiff”. In these two main characters especially, the main theme of Americans abroad and the clash of the old world and the new world are seen. James uses the Grand Tour to show the main theme of the novel, Americans abroad, by placing this family on a Grand Tour themselves. He uses their clashes with the other Americans that have been cultivated to the European society to represent the different cultures and issues that they faced with one another. In a way, the …show more content…

The Millers were an American family of three consisting of the daughter Daisy, the mother Mrs. Miller, and the young son Randolph who were mostly uneducated. They traveled with no man of the family, which would never be thought about in European families as it was seen to be unsafe. It is also stated that the Millers do not go to see many of the famous spots or Europe. Daisy states, “He says he don’t care much about old castles. He’s only nine. He wants to stay at the hotel. Mother’s afraid to leave him alone and the courier won’t stay with him; so we haven’t been to many places.”(James, 12) The liability of traveling with a young child prevents the Millers from exploring where as the traditional grand tourist would try to expose themselves to as much of the different art and culture as possible. They had very sporadic interaction with the Italians as well. The Millers were on a grand tour of their own, but are very different than the traditional grand tourists we have come to know. James uses the grand tour to show the clash of two

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