Reading Journal 1, Week 4

I would argue that the Italian space functions, primarily in the first half of the work, within Daisy Miller. Italy, thus far, has been embodied as this place of the sensual and bodily. Daisy has obviously embraced something more physical about her self, not necessarily a sexual need, but obviously some inner tendency to gravitate towards gentleman callers. She's empowered in the sense that she is not inhibited by social constraints. Yes, Daisy might differ from Italy in that so far she has never been truly conquered, often wafting in and out of the grasp of man's interest, but do largely in part to the physicality and physical beauty of Daisy, and how repetitious it is, it's hard to ignore Daisy's potential to be Italy. Not to mention her misunderstood attraction to the ancient. In Vevey, she is the only one who wants to see the castle. Again, before her final demise, she wants, desperately, to see the coliseum by moonlight. Of course that brings one to the question that why her own beauty and stubbornness lead to her death? But I once again wonder that if maybe Daisy did not undergo a conquering by the end of the work--by two men. Winterbourne, who, it seems to suggest, had stolen her heart, and Giovanelli who I suspect might have brought her to the Roman Coliseum in an attempt to kill her, a sort of: if I can't have her, no one will effort, so to speak. For he admits to Winterbourne that he knew he'd never have Daisy, and it explains his peculiar, guilt-ridden disappearance as Daisy is slowly dying. But it seems that Daisy, as the false Italy, is incapable of taking on the real Italy and therefore suffers the consequences.