Daisy Miller: Cultural Differences In "Daisy Miller" by Henry James readers are challenged to take a look at an American girl primarily from Winterbourne's point of view. Daisy is portrayed as extremely beautiful and quite innocent. Winterbourne's infatuation with this typical American girl, in fact, reveals the differences between the highly developed European culture and the newly developed American culture. Even though Winterbourne is American, he shows readers what European culture is: civility, gallantry and the apparent gap between social status, etc. Winterbourne's sophisticated ways contrast with Daisy's relatively poor education, innocence and crudeness. Therefore, the way Winterbourne's aunt criticizes Daisy's vulgarity symbolically indicates the pride of noble European feelings for the nascent American culture. The dominant image regarding Daisy throughout the work is that she seems to be sincere and therefore never tries to hide her inner mind like typical European girls with the aim of attracting men's attention. However, the prevailing image is bound to be changed by the latest plot twist. At the moment of death, Daisy's wish is that Winterbourne knows that she is not engaged to that Italian boy. So why? It's actually quite ambiguous; however, his desire can be interpreted as his desperate attempt to overcome European prejudices against superficial American culture. In other words, behind his vulgarity and innocence, lies a fundamental desire to appreciate and exalt his own dignity even in love relationships, which is not vulgar at all, and which forces Winterbourne to study intensely...