DAISY MILLER HONORS ENGLISH Please read through these ...

29. What is the reader supposed to think of Giovanelli's character and intentions? ("He had
practised the idiom upon a great many American heiresses") Why is Winterbourne annoyed that she
is content to accompany both men?
30. What drives Winterbourne's concern with Daisy's sexual behavior, in your view? What is the
author's purpose in presenting his narrator as much more tolerant than either of the older women
who judge Daisy?
31. Why does Daisy reject Mrs. Walker's invitation/demand that she enter the latter's carriage?
Over what do Mrs. Walker and Winterbourne quarrel? Why does Winterbourne not return later to
accompany Daisy and her attendant? How does Daisy offend Mrs. Walker by her behavior at the
latter's party, and how does the latter respond?
32. What is Daisy's definition of "flirtation"? ("Did you ever hear of a nice girl that was not [a
flirt]?") On what grounds does she criticize Winterbourne? Does she seem sincere? What advice
does Winterbourne give her? ("When you deal with natives you must go by the custom of the
place.")
33. Why do you think she is offended at the mention of a possible love for Giovanelli? What does
Winterbourne seem to mean when he says that she seemed a person who would never be jealous? of
whom he could never be afraid? What personal lack does he regret in himself ("his want of
instinctive certitude")?
34. What are some symbolic elements of Daisy's night in the Colesseum? What role does
Winterbourne play in prompting her departure? How does he judge her?
35. What symbolism surrounds her death? What is the significance of the message she sends him
before her death, and what motivates it?
36. What to-him important recognition comes to Winterbourne at the grave site? What role is
assigned Giovanelli in her death?
37. What effect is created by ending the story with Winterbourne's final conversation with his
aunt? What mistake has he made? Has he indeed lived too long in foreign parts?
38. What is the significance of our final piece of knowledge, that Winterbourne continues to live
in Geneva without known occupation as before? What has he learned, if anything, from this
encounter? What has the reader learned? Are we expected to judge him, or her, or Europeans and
Americans, or all of the above?
39. May there be some autobiographical aspects of this story?
Boos, Florence. Daisy Miller Study Guide Questions. U of Iowa. 2005. 20 Feb 2009.
< http://english.uiowa.edu/courses/boos/questions/jamesdaisy.htm >.