Daisy Miller: Traveler or Tourist?

Rome

“It may be enchanting, dear child, but it is not the custom here.” (42)

In some ways, Daisy Miller is the ultimate traveler—someone who is able to befriend the locals and experience the “authentic” culture of a place. It’s a dream that almost every visitor has, the feeling that they can be included in something that feels real, that they cannot just be a tourist but a traveler. It’s this issue of authenticity that separates travelers from tourists: tourists simply skim the surface of a place, staying on the beaten path, while travelers discover the places where locals go. Daisy, though, is neither a traveler nor a tourist, but a combination of the two.

Granted, at the time Henry James wrote Daisy Miller in the late 19th century, tourism was not nearly the industry it is today. Even so, there were still towns like Vevey, whose “entertainment of tourists [was] the business of the place” (3). But because travel was not yet accessible to the masses, there was less of a desire on the part of the upper class to distinguish themselves as travelers, as people who truly appreciated and engaged in the culture of a place. Still, one can see the emergence of this phenomenon in Daisy Miller, particularly in Mrs. Costello’s refusal to meet Daisy because “she is very common” (17).

In terms of her class and the lack of social understanding that accompanies it, Daisy is a tourist. She is naïve about the Italian culture and refuses to adapt to local customs, instead insisting upon walking in the Pincio late at night with Mr. Giovanelli. This behavior is parallel to a modern day tourist breaking Italian mores by wearing an inappropriate outfit or making an offensive comment, for example, because of ignorance of the local culture.

It’s this exact tourist faux pas, though, that allows Daisy to partially become a traveler. By disregarding the customs, she becomes very close with Mr. Giovanelli, a Roman, in a way that the other Americans, who seem to socialize only with each other, do not. She is able to revel in the Roman culture without boundaries to the point that she becomes a social outcast and perishes of Roman fever. Roman fever, the term for malaria, represents Daisy’s unabashed desire and actions to engage in Roman life. Unlike the other Americans, she is not afraid of catching Roman fever, and thus, does not stay in the safe American circle in Rome where there are few, if any, foreigners. She does not let the fever, a boundary that prevents the Americans from engaging in Roman life, stop her. Instead, Daisy proclaims that she “was bound to see the Colosseum by moonlight; I shouldn’t have wanted to go home without that; and we have had the most beautiful time” (60-61). Like a traveler, she wants to experience the place rather than adhering to the limiting customs and, in doing so, dismisses the dangers. Daisy, though, pays for this combination of a traveler’s desire for adventure and a tourist’s ignorance by quickly dying of Roman fever. With this ending, James demonstrates that breaking social boundaries, whether abroad or in America, has its costs in late 19th century society.