Female Resistance

According to Henry James's Daisy Miller

As with much of James's work, critical estimation of Daisy Miller has fluctuated. While early discussion focused on the accuracy of James's depiction of the generic "American girl," later critics have suggested that Winterbourne is the pivotal character of the story. According to these critics, by presenting Winterbourne's disapproval of Daisy's essentially innocent activities, James subtly admonished the narrow attitudes adopted by many Americans abroad. Other early discussion of Daisy Miller examined the reasons for Daisy's death, and commentators debated whether Daisy deserved her fate or Winterbourne's inaction caused her downfall.

Daisy Miller's originality, stylistic distinction, and psychologically complex characters have led many modern critics to regard James as a subtle craftsman who skillfully reflected the late nineteenth-century concern with morality and social behavior.

Winterbourne, the American expatriate who ultimately rejects Daisy and her “new American” manners, is the protagonist of the work, rather than Daisy herself. While some viewed the character of Daisy Miller as a refreshing depiction of a young lady unhampered by the rigid social structure in Victorian-influenced America and Europe at the time, many saw her as a shocking example of the type of American that was infiltrating upper-class society, both in the New World and the Old.

Henry James, though born in the United States, lived most of his life in Europe, becoming a British citizen shortly before he died, embarrassed by the failure of the United States to enter into World War I. However, it is his embarrassment over the lack of manners of many of his countrymen as they toured Europe that James pours out in the pages of Daisy Miller. Rather than making Daisy a heroine, he lets her die, with Winterbourne returning to his life as before, despite his intention to leave Europe for America. This ambiguous ending continues to cause discussion among its readers as to James's real intent in writing the novella. Instead of a “declaration of independence” from the moral code of the middle and upper classes, perhaps Daisy Miller was meant to be a warning to American travelers of the period.

According to Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's the Revolt of Mother

Freeman is best known for her local color stories that portrayed rural life in small New England towns at the end of the nineteenth century, which was a time of great change. While her use of these elements contributes to her effective picture of the village community, in ''The Revolt of 'Mother''' her emphasis lies more with the oppression and rebellion of women, a theme that she deals with in other stories written during the same period, notably ''A New England Nun.'' In portraying a main character insistent on receiving fair treatment from her husband, both for herself and her family, Freeman conveys women's lack of power. At the same time, she puts forth one way to get around such inequality.

Freeman also demonstrates other features of the New England village in the late nineteenth century, such as the lessening of importance of the once ...