looking at the same world. He views reality in very conventional terms. Daisy has an unconventional perception of life and reality in Europe, and she acts accordingly. Winterbourne is stiff, though worldly. Daisy is spontaneous and naive. It is no coincidence that she is dressed in white when we first meet her. James intends us to understand that she is very innocent, if only of European conventions.James reinforces Daisy's unconventionality almost immediately. When Winterbourne first meets her we are told, "In Geneva, as he had been perfectly aware, a young man was not at liberty to speak to a young unmarried lady except under certain rarely occurring conditions" (James 131). But Daisy flouts this convention immediately upon their first meeting. She not only speaks with him, unchaperoned, but makes a date to go with him to the old castle, also unchaperoned.Winterbourne is at a loss. He does not know how to react to Daisy. James explains that "Winterbourne had lost his instinct in this matter, and his reason could not help him" (137). He does not understand Daisy, and so he reverts to his conventional views and tries to categorize Daisy in conventional terms.By this point the reader has realized that although the work is entitled "Daisy Miller," it is really the story of Winterbourne's internal struggle. Daisy is the catalyst through which Frederick's old instincts begin to be reawakened, and to struggle against his conventional views of Daisy. This struggle is portrayed through the use of language and words, mostly in Winterbourne's internal dialogue. He is continually attempting to understand Daisy and his own views of her unconventionality, by trying to define her through the use of language. But he discovers that words ultimately fail.On the occasion of their first meeting he decides after a while that "she was only a pretty American flirt" (Ibid). His conventionality is satisfied, and James tells us "Winterbourne was almost gratef...
