Paper Details

Name: Akidatpreet Kaur
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume No: 13, Issue No: 1 (January-June)
Page Number: 224-230
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22659181

ABSTRACT
In Daisy Miller (1878), Henry James exposes the 19th century ideals of the American Dream and the uncompromising social codes of Europe. Through the character of Daisy, James has demonstrated that how ideals like democratic openness, merit earned wealth and redemptive innocence that are admired in homeland are quickly redefined as vulgar, improper and dangerously naïve in abroad. This study suggests that Daisy's social excommunication and subsequent demise is not due to her own moral shortcomings, but simply because she is culturally incompatible. The American Dream, as it is meant to be, is misunderstood across the Atlantic. The article, based on close textual analysis and historical-cultural criticism, shows how James, through dialogue, symbolic settings (Vevey, Chillon, Rome), and the condemnation of all members of the Miller family who live in Europe (including their courier), exposes the geographical and social boundaries of the Dream. In America, the very essence of freedom and goodness is what brings about ruin in Europe. The story cautions that the best American values can ruin their owners if they are brought to a different world without any effort or the intention of changing them.

Key words: American Dream; Daisy Miller; cultural, geographical and social boundaries; ruin