Who's playing who?

Gustavo Quintero
English 48B
March 6, 2008
Journal #38 Henry James



Quote:
"It has never occurred to Mr. Winterbourne to offer me any tea,' she said. with her little tormenting manner.
'I have offered you advice,' Winterbourne rejoined.
'I prefer weak tea!' cried Daisy, and she went off with brilliant Giovanelli"(James 420).


Summary:
Winterbourne offers Daisy some advice, only she does not listen and runs off with her "friend" Giovanelli.


Response:
The ultimate question that rises in, "Daisy Miller:A Study", is who is the real Daisy Miller? Is she sweet and innocent or is she secretly manipulating Winterbourne from the beginning? My argument is that she is playing with Winterbourne. The reason I came up to this conclusion is based off of how many times Winterbourne changes his mind about Daisy. The first time they meet he thinks she is a croquette yet throughout the story he goes back and forth between her being innocent and a croquette. It's like the note that I jotted down in my notebook, the player is being played. Daisy is playing with winterbourne's head the whole time they know each other. At one point in the story Daisy acts like she does not know where her family is going. She comments that they are going to some mountain. She comes off as this dumb girl who doesn't even know where she is. This is when Winterbourne becomes enticed. He asks her if it is Italy and eventually he sets up a date between the two. She then agrees to go with Winterbourne but when they reach the Castle Winterbourne is surprised to find Daisy's mother waiting for her. I know that Winterbourne only had one thought in his head and that was to make some sexual advancements on Daisy at the castle. Daisy being as tricky as she is asks her mother to be at the castle when they get their. Not only does she do this but she eventually becomes very "intimate" with an Italian man, Giovanelli. Winterbourne thinks that Daisy would be an easy catch but she proves to be a much tougher task to beat, one that Winterbourne will eventually fail. Daisy further plays Winterbourne by bringing around Giovanelli and claiming that they are just friends. This infuriates Winterbourne who now labels her a croquette. You almost have to give her some credit for being so clever because if the way that she confuses and play's with the head of Winterbourne. He doesn't know what to think about her and just constantly changes his mind about her. At the end of the story she nails him with one last blow by having her mother tell Winterbourne that was not engaged to Giovanelli even though he thought they were.

You have to question why exactly she treated Winterbourne this way. Did she do it out of pleasure or did she do it unknowingly? I would argue that Daisy is very promiscuous and that she played with Winterbourne's head unknowingly. You have to ask yourself what Daisy was doing with a man she had not known very long , at night, at the coliseum. Was she really there to view to stars or to have sex with Giovanelli? I think that they did have sex and that Daisy was not as innocent as she came off. Whats really funny about this is that Winterbourne after getting played travels off to a foreign country only to find himself a woman that he can have an affair with. After going through what Winterbourne went through he still does not see the wrong in what he does.