Journal #13: Henry James, Daisy Miller

"Last winter I had seventeen dinners given me; and three of them were by gentlemen..." She paused again for an instant; she was looking at Winterbourne with all her prettiness in her lively eyes and in her light, slightly monotonous smile. "I have always had," she said, "a great deal of gentlemen's society."

This statement Daisy Miller makes in her earliest conversation with the character Winterbourne is a loaded statement, or can be viewed as such. For that particular time period, the actions of Daisy are quite "wild" to sum it up. And a statement such as that is an early display of an implied confidence in her own physical appearance for one, and also a bold example of her habits in general. She tells this strange man right away that she freely flirts and "dates" various men (controversial, then). I wonder if this is an attempt at seeming more wild than she really is, or if it is Daisy wishing to seem more sexually "mature" than she is.

Either way, I think it was James' intention to introduce her as a controversial character, and that the reader may for his opinions as he wishes, just as Daisy's fellow characters in the story may do. In which case, it's all a matter of interpretation. While one reader might frown upon her actions, another may cut her a little slack and not necessarily jump to conclusions and assume she is, without question, a "slut."
Something to consider about the character is that she is quite young. It is not necessarily expected of a young woman to know what she should do with her beauty and sexuality... or maybe it is expected by some, but not fairly so, since a woman at such a young age is likely to be very confused about such things. She's trying things on for size, and she is stuck between adolescence and adulthood. She looks like a grown woman, but still thinks, in many ways, like a child. Pardon the cliché but it's like driving in the dark without headlights. She must either be cautious and careful, or let things happen and be adventurous, and is likely to disappoint somebody in the process. There is no user's manual for becoming a woman. What is my point? I guess I'm not sure... Maybe that my opinion of the female character is that she chose the path of adventure and maybe a bit of recklessness, and while I think she played games and was a bit manipulative, she didn't necessarily lack innocence.