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A worldly young lady? I think not...
I don’t understand Daisy. Was she, after all, simply an innocent flirt? Is such obliviousness possible? There are a few passages that indicate she was merely stubborn and naïve. Giovanelli’s statement towards the end of the book “For myself I had no fear, and she wanted to go” makes a good case that she is just that. Assuming she is simply innocent one must wonder why she was traveling in the first place.
The point of the original “Tour” that most young British boys took was to gain knowledge of the world. Winterbourne gives the impression that he has gained such knowledge for living in “foreign parts”, and he is a very observant young gentleman. There are no such qualities that I can find in Daisy. She seamlessly flirts all over Europe picking up men and controversy wherever she goes and ignoring the warnings she receives.
What is the reason then, behind her family’s travel? Is it to force Daisy to become well traveled? Her family does not seem to care. Her mother does not like to be seen in public, as she herself asserts, and her brother has a strong conviction that nowhere is better than America. If this is the case, then it seems that their traveling is purely for frivolity’s sake. This I cannot agree with. Daisy does not have to leave New York to be surrounded with social bustle, and yet she goes everywhere. The main reason for traveling, I feel, is to become more worldly, or at least experience new things. She does neither, ignoring the cultures she puts herself into, and barely even caring about the landmarks she visits. This is what I don’t understand about Daisy Miller: her traveling about with no care or concern for anyone around her. Why then, is she traveling?
hmmmm
That's interesting that you asked about Daisy's motives for going abroad. She seems so impulsive, I had always assumed she was going on somebody else's whim to travel. Although, come to think of it, the mother wouldn't seem to have much interest in planning a vacation either.
A further note
I think it's also important to look at the unseen character of the Miller patriarch and why he sees it fit to ship his family off abroad when he is back in New York.
What factors have contributed to this being an expectation and not a privilege or something that occurs on more of a need-to basis.
purpose of travel
I thought about this too. Her travel seems to be a way of trying to identify with the "established society", but it simply confirms her status as part of the nouveau riche. As for her naïve nature, I think that although it is firstly acknowledged as a negative trait, it should be looked at in a more positive light, as Daisy was the only one who actually got to interact with Italian culture due to this "flaw".