Winterbourne is at first confused by her attitude, and decides that she is nothing more than a young American flirt. The two go out for the day touring in the area. Later Winterbourne informs Daisy that he must go to Geneva the next day. Daisy says that they have to meet in Rome later. Not much later Winterbourne and Daisy do meet in Rome. Daisy, being the flirt that she is, walks out with a handsome young Italian instead. Winterbourne try’s to talk to Daisy about what’s going on, but she refuses to take any of it seriously. Later on Winterbourne sees Daisy out at a coliseum and basically tells her what a fool he thinks she is and leaves.
I don’t believe that Henry James condones the actions of Daisy at all. He believes whole-heartedly that Daisy is the perfect example of what a woman should not act like. The ways that women are supposed to act were basically set in stone around the time this story was written. In a way though I really think that Daisy just represented women, in a way she was meant to represent America’s society as a whole.
Around this time in history American women were coming into their own. Society was changing all around the U.S. The idea of a “dependent on male providing” way of life was over in America. However, though we as Americans believe that this is a
good change on our part other parts of the world did not feel the same way. James sees the American people as uncivilized. He believes that we are making a mockery of the human species. Things are the way they are for a reason, and there is not a damn reason to change them.
There is some word play that can come to mind in this story. Daisy is a flower in full bloom. Flowers die in winter “Winterbourne” after catching the roman fever, which you could see as the attention of foreign men. So really the names of the characters can also be symbolic.
Today its not as big a deal that woman flirt around, but it still is frowned upon. It gives off a sense of childish behavior. Henry James uses it to show that just because the world is changing it doesn’t mean that people should be aloud to just do whatever they damn well please. A country has to have morals, and that cannot be achieved with out some kind of human balance. That balance can only be there if things stay the way that they have always been. I don’t really believe this myself but I do feel that James feels that.
It’s only natural for the world to change. It’s just a part of life, and it is always going to be that way. America may be uncivilized in the eyes of some but, as I’m sure many have noticed, most of the world now has flirtatious girls running ramped around the streets. Now it’s not so much a problem, there’s Daises everywhere now and I don’t really hear anyone complaining now!
