Daisy Miller Opening Notes

StudyBlue printing of Daisy Miller Opening Notes html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td { margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; outline: 0; font-size: 100%; background: transparent; } body { line-height: 1; } blockquote, q { quotes: none; } blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after { content: ''; content: none; } /* remember to define focus styles! */ :focus { outline: 0; } /* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */ ins { text-decoration: none; } del { text-decoration: line-through; } /* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */ table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; } /* end RESET */ .header { min-width:800px; } .logo { padding:6px 20px 2px 20px; margin:0; font-size:25px; font-weight:bold; color:#808285; position:relative; border-bottom: 1px solid #c5c5c5; } .logo-blue { color:#70adc4; } .logo-desc { font-weight:normal; font-size:19px; color:#cccccc; margin-top:50px; position:absolute; display: none; } .back-button { position:absolute; top:20px; right:20px; font-size:13px; line-height:25px; color:rgb(0,175,225); font-weight:normal; } .back-button a { color:rgb(0,175,225); } .instructions { padding:0; margin:0; width:100%; position:relative; color:rgb(100,100,100); } .step-holder { border-left:1px solid #ededed; margin-left:20px; } .steps { padding:15px 0; float:left; width:24%; border-right:1px solid #ededed; text-align:center; } .steps-01 { } .steps-02 { } .steps-03 { } .steps-04 { } .label { padding:5px 10px; } .print-button { } .print-button a { background-color:rgb(0,175,225); color:white; line-height: 19px; padding:9px 8px 5px 30px; font-size:14px; text-decoration:none; background-image: url(images/printer.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 7px 50%; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; } .print-button a:hover { background-color:black; } .theNote .content { width: 8.0in !important; margin: 5px auto; padding:20px; background-color:white; } .theNote .header { border-bottom: 1px dashed #C8C8C8; font-size: 17px; padding: 0 0 10px; line-height: 19px; color: #00ADE1; min-width:500px; } .theNote .body { font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 10px 0; } .theNote{ padding:6px 0; clear:both; background-color: rgb(200,200,200); } .theNote h3{ color: rgb(100,100,100); } .theNote h1, .theNote h3{ background-color:white; padding:2px 20px; width:8.0in !important; margin: 0 auto; font-size: 15px; } .theNote h1{ padding-top: 10px; font-size: 15px; } .theNote h1:first-child{ font-size: 20px; } .theNote h3 { font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; } #options { border: 3px double #ccc; padding: 5px 12px; margin: 10px 50px 10px 20px; float: left; } #info { border-top: 1px solid #ccc; padding-top: 5px; font-style: italic; } li { margin: 5px 10px 5px 25px; } ul li { list-style: disc; } ol li { list-style: decimal; } img { border: 0; } table { clear: both; width: 100%; border: 1px solid #c5c5c5; border-width: 1px 0; margin: 0; page-break-after: always; } table#page { page-break-after: auto; } td { text-align: center; font-size: 12px; border-bottom: 1px dashed #c5c5c5; height: 1.75in; width: 50%; padding-left: 15px; } .leftside { border-right: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 0 15px 0 0; } .bottom td { border-bottom: none; } .clearfix { clear:both; line-height:1px; height:1px; } img { max-width:80%; max-height:150px; margin:20px; } @media print {.header { display: none; } .content .header{ display:inherit; } table { border: 1px dashed #bbb; border-width: 1px 0; } .theNote{ background-color:white; } } Daisy Miller Notes At the time of composition, James was concerned with the "experimental element" of the United States; as a result of this experimental element, Americans were particularly "conscious of being the youngest of the great nation, of not being of the European family." James saw democracy as an ongoing challenge to traditional politics and aesthetics AND America's national identity. James found himself confronted with 2 competing models of democratic practice: 1. An "abstract universality" associated with antebellum democracy 2. The "embodied particularity" of direct, postwar political engagement Daisy Miller is a meditation on the obsession with accountability and measurement. As a matter of fact, Daisy is the victim of too much accounting and quantification. She finds herself losing in all of the important categories, her balance falling until she is irrevocably zeroed out. Why is Daisy treated this way? Her behavior is "not so much wicked as it is atypical," and this atypical behavior is for what she is ultimately judged. Daisy Miller exposes the tension between the conservative "true democrat" and the more revolutionary (read: liberal) "radical democrat." The True Democrat Imagines freedom as free from society The Radical Democrat Imagines freedom as the "freedom to participate in the daily forms and activities that constitute community" Winterbourne is, in respect to these two personas, the cautious "true democrat." He worships conformity, stasis, and polite restraint He rejects Daisy's unfinished behavior because is threatens democratic consensus and closure. Daisy charts a different path through the novel. Her behavior seeks to create dissent. She embodies the radical democrat in her wanton need to experience the messy turmoil of direct, democratic engagement (in life). Capricious is Daisy in a word. Daisy repeatedly speaks for herself, frequently twisting Winterbourne's words and making jokes at his expense. Her command of language represents the command she exerts over others. This linguistic dominance comes to a climax in the Colosseum when she says "I never was sick, and I don't mean to be!...I don't look like much , but I'm healthy!" · "I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do. Daisy is truly a "change agent": she shifts balances of power, makes public spaces private, makes the abstract into something familiar, makes powerful men needy, and shows how the powerless can take control of and ultimately control their own lives. Daisy's death of malaria makes the exceptionalism expressed by Randolph just a frail as the philosophies of any other country. Winterbourne's retreat from any first-person accountability to the anonymity of "one" in Daisy "would have appreciated one's esteem" shows his inability to be more than the conservative true democrat. This tension between conservative and liberal philosophies is the crux of the progressive and populist eras in US History. Daisy and Winterbourne represent this tension. They also represent the tension between the traditional and the modern. Daisy is a modern woman, but Winterbourne is not ready for her and, effectively, kills her. Cybil Shepard as Daisy Miller