American Illness in the Novel

Ahead of the revelations of modern medicine, illness of any type was a very mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon that was accompanied by tiny hope for a solution to ease or get rid of the ailment. Throughout this time when no one particular knew the origin of most ailments, let alone how to cure them or take preventative measures, sicknesses of varying severity carried a lot more significance than they do these days due to their unexplainable nature, thereby generating them a beneficial literary tool in terms of allegorical and metaphorical contexts. Henry James was 1 of several authors of the 19th century who employed illness as a meaningful symbol juxtaposed to the overlying conflict in his writing, most notably in his acclaimed 1878 novella, Daisy Miller: A Study. This story tells of many American characters in a European setting, some expatriates and some vacationers, all with varying degrees of familiarity with and acceptance of European sociocultural norms. The conflict focuses on the clash in between European and American social customs, instigated by the promiscuous behavior of the free of charge-spirited and robust-willed Daisy Miller and her interactions with American expatriates such as Winterbourne and Mrs. Walker as she travels Europe with her mother and younger brother. A number of of these Americans face troubles with their overall health just as they face difficulties with European society. These at odds with the restrictive and elitist setting locate themselves in physical distress, and only these who have totally assimilated to the culture and its expectations escape illness. For that reason, in James’ Daisy Miller, comparable to the way the physique feels the adverse effects when it rejects a virus, the incursion of poor wellness reflects a resistance to the conservative European atmosphere.

The 1st and most considerable instance of this reflection is the sudden tragic death of Daisy Miller due to Roman fever, otherwise known as malaria. Even the name of the illness is very acceptable – malaria translates actually as “bad air”, as it was believed to come from poisonous nighttime climate. Whilst Daisy suffers physically from the dangerous vapors, she also suffers from the “bad air” of those who know of her and make her topic of noxious gossip and distaste (Foster). The fever that kills Daisy is quite much like “the overheated state that tends to make her frantic to join the elite (“We’re dying to be exclusive,” she says early on) although at the same time causing the disapproval of the Europeanized Americans who reside permanently in Rome at each turn” (Foster). Daisy is so quintessentially American that with no will to adapt to the customs of European society, she increasingly becomes the object of scandal due to the fact of her coquettish approaches and open affections for numerous gentlemen. In reality, she blatantly denounces the techniques of European ladies when Mrs. Walker, a Europeanized American and pal of each Winterbourne and the Miller family members, begs her in cold fury to leave the firm of her Italian companion Mr. Giovanelli, with whom Daisy went to walk with alone in the evening. Mrs. Walker demands that Daisy get into the carriage with her and exclaims that Daisy is ruining her reputation by means of her reckless actions (James 446). Daisy later confides to Winterburne, “the young ladies of this country have a dreadfully pokey time of it, so far as I can find out I do not see why I should adjust my habits for them” (James 450), hence affirming her opposition to correct European ways. It is this sentiment that heightens significantly as Daisy becomes the speak of the town at the disproval of all these who appreciate European principles for young girls and ultimately seals her fate simply because Daisy never waivers in her rebellion against the cultural expectations and remains stolid in her own beliefs, she is the a single who suffers the most due to illness and at some point succumbs to it.

Although she is the most prominent example, Daisy is not the only American character to contrast with the Old World setting and expertise illness. Her mother, Mrs. Miller, is neurotic about her several ailments and revels in telling of them to whoever will listen. She is stated to endure from “dyspepsia”, and, as Daisy claims she by no means sleeps, she often complains of fatigue, which typically causes her to keep inside their hotel for extended periods of time to avoid her unnerving and unfamiliar surroundings throughout their getaway. These symptoms mark Mrs. Miller’s inability to cope with and behave within European requirements, and she even blames the European climate outright for her discomfort – “I suffer from the liver…I believe it’s the climate, it is less bracing than Schenectady” (James 440). Likewise, Mrs. Miller’s son and Daisy’s young brother Randolph also declares he has dyspepsia, and shares his mother’s opinion in blaming their location for the loss of his teeth, although a standard occurrence for a boy his age, by saying “It’s this old Europe. It is the climate that makes them come out. In America they didn’t come out” (James 422). The members of Daisy’s family members encounter these minor afflictions because their extremely being is in opposition with what was to be anticipated of upper class men and women in Europe. Mrs. Miller is to blame for her children’s upbringing as it does not match into the ideals of the Old World she does not reprimand Daisy’s flirtatious and unacceptable actions and for Randolph’s impolite behaviors and remarks. She treats their courtier, Eugenio, as a single of their family members, and this was noticed as unbecoming to the expatriate elite. In the words of Winterbourne’s aunt Mrs. Costello, “They are very common… They are the sort of Americans that one does one’s duty by not – not accepting” (James 428). Equivalent to how Mrs. Miller’s illnesses preserve her tucked away in her hotel, away from the judging eyes of the populace, Mrs. Costello is “too proud to associate with Americans touring the continent and however not possessing been accepted by European society or the society of Europeanized Americans, has developed sick headaches and withdrawn from society altogether” (Houghton). Although she belonged to a prominent social circle back in the United States, she has not been socially effective in Europe, and her headaches represent her unconscious wish to hide from a society that has not met her expectations (Houghton). Mrs. Miller, Randolph, and Mrs. Costello are Americans out of location in an environment that does not entirely accept them, and so they are plagued with discomforts that permits them to shelter themselves from their surroundings.

In contrast, American expatriates Winterbourne and Mrs. Walker thrive in their European citizenship due to the fact they have absorbed the social norms and reside by the standards expected at the time. Winterbourne functions nicely in his place of residence in Geneva, exactly where he spends a excellent deal of time “studying” – that is, serving as the lover of a a lot older, likely married, foreign woman (James 422). This was a custom widespread in Europe in the course of this time while young unmarried ladies had been anticipated to keep the excellent image of chastity and innocence, it was acceptable for married girls unsatisfied with their spouses to take on a young bachelor as a lover. Daisy, with her thoroughly Americanized viewpoint, sees the hypocrisy in this situation being rebuked by Winterbourne for her flirtatious habits, she declares “it appears to me considerably a lot more appropriate in young unmarried women than in old married ones” (James 450). Nonetheless, Winterbourne and Mrs. Walker have accepted this norm so as to see no fault in it and practice it themselves. It is considerable that James makes use of the euphemism of “studying” to clarify Winterbourne’s position, for indeed in a way he is studying the techniques of the typical upper class European. Likewise, “Mrs. Walker was one particular of those American ladies who, even though residing abroad, make a point, in their own phrase, of studying European society. . .As a result of her study, Mrs. Walker has come to know the guidelines, she abides by them, and she cuts from her social circle anybody who endangers her personal position by not following what she calls the ‘custom here’” (Houghton). Rather than have her reputation marred by her acquaintance with Daisy Miller, Mrs. Walker ignores the girl outright and refuses to invite her to any social events. Winterbourne and Mrs. Walker are able to preserve excellent overall health all through the story because they have been completely integrated into European society and view it in a positive light.

In Henry James’ novella Daisy Miller: A Study, the illnesses knowledgeable by many of his American characters are utilized symbolically to portray the rejection of the rigid European social precedents that contrast so sharply to their own. James’ story subtly hints at the moral sickness and hypocritical nature of the strict laws of society, to which the characters unaccustomed and unaccepting to this environment turn into exposed and subsequently diseased by its essence. The globe that expatriates like Mrs. Walker and Winterbourne have grow to be a element of is damaging to the other individuals who fall prey to its attack and endure mentally and physically from culture shock. The book is fittingly titled “a study” due to the fact it illustrates the downfall of Daisy Miller virtually as a social experiment to which Winterbourne is the observer. As a pariah in an unforgiving society developed to seek out and get rid of those who do not fit in, Daisy was fated to be destroyed by the European culture she so vehemently rejected. Her innocence and ignorance produced her sick to society’s techniques and ultimately led to her tragic death.

Performs Cited

Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading among the Lines. New York: Quill, 2003. Print.

Houghton, Donald E. “Attitude and Illness in James’ ‘Daisy Miller’.” Literature and Psychology 19.1 (1969): 51-60. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Nancy G. Dziedzic. Vol. 64. Detroit: Gale, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. two Oct. 2016.

James, Henry. Daisy Miller: A Study. 1986. The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2012. 421-59. Print.