"Daisy Miller is, essentially, a young person of the reckless class". How far do you agree with this statement? Daisy Miller is a young woman from Schenectady, USA, where she was always surrounded by society

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Vivekan Brunschwig

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" Daisy Miller ", Second draft

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"Daisy Miller is, essentially, a young person of the reckless class". How far do you agree with this statement?

Daisy Miller is a young woman from Schenectady, USA, where she was always surrounded by society. "Last winter, I had seventeen diners given me; and three of them were by gentlemen" (p.18). Daisy Miller likes to attract attention, especially from gentlemen. "I have always had a great deal of gentlemen's society"(p.18). Her craving for male attention is encouraged by her parental neglect: her mother is uncaring or incompetent and her father is absent. Her mother's lack of authority and parenting are shown on page 38: instead of herself asking Daisy to stop, she begs the courier Eugenio to stop Daisy from going in the boat at night with Winterbourne. As a result, Daisy is obsessed with attracting attention and Randolf, her younger brother, is spoiled.
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When Winterbourne first meets Daisy, he is impressed by this "pretty American girl" (p.12). However, he frequently wonders throughout the novella whether Daisy is truly innocent or is just a reckless American flirt. He believes that she is "wonderfully pretty" (p27) and that she is totally uncultivated. From Mrs. Costello's point of view, she is "very common" (p.25), so she would not like to meet her: "I must decline the honour of her acquaintance" (p.28). On Winterbourne's proposal for a boat ride in the night to the chateau de Chillon, against her mother's will, Daisy is ready to ...

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