Daisy Miller and the Gilded Age

Gilded in Ice

      Henry James explores the clash of two different ways of life in his warped love story Daisy Miller.  The novella is set was published in 1878 and is a reflection of the time period and the emergence of the American wealthy class.  It is important to be familiar with what became known as the American Gilded Age in order to understand the character of Daisy Miller and the values of the emergent of the upper class in American society.

     After the American Civil War the country experienced an industrial boom with the expansion of railroads and the access to commodities such as timber and coal become wider spread.  Daisy Miller’s home state of New York saw the fortification of Wall Street in New York City as a location for the stock trading became necessary.  The government held virtually no regulation over business and entrepreneurs, such as Daisy’s father, flourished.  Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner named the age in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today after a quote from Shakespeare’s King John, “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” 

     Indeed Daisy Miller contains many illusions to how appearances can distract from lack of intellectual and cultural value.  The portrayal of Daisy Miller as superficial and as a tactless flirt juxtaposes the image of upper class European society as an intellectual and cultured class.  In relation between the two societies, Winterbourne emerges as a neutral observer.  Though American by birth, he has lived abroad in Europe and resides in Europe.  He becomes fascinated with analyzing the beautiful Miss Miller whose motivations and behavior fascinate him.

       The Coliseum serves as a powerful symbol of the ancient world and established customs of Europe intruded upon by Daisy Miller.  Confronted with the prospect of love with the Italian Giovanelli she has reached a point of no return.  She has come too far into a society where she doe not belong and the only escape is death.