Daisy Miller written by Henry James is a realistic novel that represents life of young girl. Writing in a style of the literary realism, Henry James presents a narrator of the novel as an observer who describes the events happened in life of the characters. As the representative of literary realism, Henry James in his novel Daisy Miller uses a number of realistic features such as concentration on details, accent on reality instead of reflections and on characters instead of plot and feelings and the presentation of narrator as the witness of the events.
For the literary realism, character is more important than plot. The author concentrates his attention on the peculiarities of the relationships of the main character with others in the context of their social places. The feelings that the character expresses are caused by the social conflict where the individual is rejected by the social rules. For instance, Mrs. Walker whose social status is higher than Daisy’s one considers Daisy as the girl who “is naturally indelicate” (James).
One of the major characteristics of realism is description of the events, paying the attention to the details. The author focused his attention on the small external details rather than on the interior reflections of characters, their emotions and feelings. For the realistic literature, external details can be considered as the symbols and signs that can tell about person more than the description of one’s feelings.
While Romantism is focused on development of character’s mind and one’s reflections about the relationships with others, the realistic character is expressed by the description of the exterior characteristics of the society and the events happen around him or her. Thus, in Daisy Miller, one can see such that the major character Daisy is described as the girl whose “place in the social scale was low” (James). For the society, the peculiarities of Daisy’s character, her experience and skills are not important. The main aspect of her personality concludes not in her intellectual capacity, skills or experience, the most important feature is her social status. The ethical choice of the character and the issues of the social class in this novel are the key characteristics the novel is based on.
Another characteristic of Realism is that the narrator in Daisy Miller is the witness of the events. The narrator does not explain the events, trying to reflect about the causes and consequences. The author wants the readers to understand the story by themselves, to reflect about the events and to find out those details that are not represented in the text. In literary realism, the narrator is a person who talks from the position of his experience.
Narrator is also a character of the novel; however, he has to be in the shadow. His destination is observation of the events and their description in details without the conclusions. The readers have to take those details and to formulate their own opinion based on the description provided in the text. The narrator does not inform the readers about the real intensions of the characters and motives of their actions. Therefore, the novel seems more realistic, because, in real life, the events happened should be treated according to one’s personal experience, not the interpretation made by someone else.
In the novel Daisy Miller, Henry James uses the various elements of Realism such as the detailed description of the events, concentration on reality and characters and the presentation of narrator as the witness of the events.
Works Cited:
James, Henry. “Daisy Miller: A Study.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume C Late Nineteenth Century 1865-1910. Ed. Suzanne P. Weir. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 281-320. Print.