Gender roles Daisy Miller and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

Introduction There are some interrelated threads between Henry James’ Daisy Miller (1887)and Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. These are the threads that are mostly related to the thematic and narrative structures of both the narrations.

Both the authors are very specific in interweaving the thematic structures of the plots and at the same time are efficient enough in adding regular essence to the narrative technique. In this paper the emphasis has been led over roles of gender specific illustrations used by Henry James and Stephen Crane. As both the authors are elusive enough to create the appropriate base for elaborating gender roles in their novels, it becomes primary to concentrate on the same. In this approach, the analytical surveys will be led over the narrative and thematic techniques applied by these writers with reference to the context of gender roles. Gender role in Daisy Miller Like any other narration by Henry James’, this piece of art too has got the captivating narrative structure.

The author has got the generalized source of practical persuasions to offer the readers with a romantic flight of his composition. The plot portrays an idealistic courtship between an American origin couple, Daisy Miller and Winterbourne. The storyline develops amidst the pursuit of Winterbourne for Daisy’s love and further gets hampered by her own nature of flirtatiousness. Involvement of other expatriates from the regions of Italy and Switzerland are made integral part of this relationship (Wegelin and Wonham, edt. 2003).

James in particular tried to explore the dominant role of Daisy in dealing with her male counterparts. The narrations are more related to the exploration of human emotions and the value that a woman bestowed upon her lover. Daisy is no doubt, very familiar with the psychological demands of males around her, but at the same time she never let go her genuine lover Winterbourne and it can be noted I the following expression led in Chapter One, She glanced at him with lovely remoteness. ?Yes, sir,? she then replied. And she said nothing more. Though there is a juxtaposed situation elaborated against the attitude of Daisy by Winterbourne, yet the author leaves no stone unturned to show a determined nature of women in the field of maintaining relationships.

Though Daisy constantly deals with sophisticated male counterparts, and gets inspired by Mrs. Costello for the same; she still is very much dedicated to Winterbourne. This is the core concern of the plot that James explores with special prominence over gender role in the novel. Gender role in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Maggie: A Girl of the Streets has been recognized as the first novel by Stephen Crane. Being the first from his narrative count the novel explores the dominant ventures of ruling the narrative structures. The plot revolves around a pretty and young slum girl.

This is a character that faces the troubles of life through the brutal excesses led by situational instances of loneliness and poverty. Crane provided the plot with a very frank and disruptive realistic sexual theme. The approaches are very practical and the author has led enough on managing with the modern infrastructural believes about sexual declarations (Perkins, 2005). The roles of female gender in particular have been added with genuine personalized expressions. There are innumerable tints of Naturalism based on American letters and the narrative structure has been considered as revolutionary in shaping the gender outlook in the social context. The relationship between Maggie and Pete adds the sense of love and dedication among the couple.

However the reasons of misunderstanding and interventions led by Nellie lead this affair to a dead end. As the storyline ends there remains no room for honest feelings among the characters. Crane adds the ambiguous death of Maggie to the plot and leaves the reader with the realization of frustration in Maggie added by confusions about Pete’s Character in Chapter Ten as-“Jimmie had an idea it wasn’t common courtesy for a friend to come to one’s home and ruin one’s sister. But he was not sure how much Pete knew about the rules of politeness.” Context of Gender Role In the narrations initiated by Henry James and Stephen Crane, atttention has been led over the role of women and men in diversified context. Both the author admits the interdependence of both the genders, yet admits to the individualistic demands and the social pressure that they face in maintaining unique relationships.

In both the narrations, the protagonists achieve death with utter frustration and equally manage to leave their suffocation in the reader. Both the protagonists are much utilized by human emotions and were stressed enough by their lovers. On the one hand, Daisy could not justify her love to Winterbourne; and on the other hand, Maggie meets personal misunderstanding with (Pete Petruso, 2005). These are the women who were self sufficient in grasping the love of their lovers, yet fail to do so under the social and individual pressure. The distinction that gets marked in displaying the plot by James and Crane; is all about the roles played by genders.

James provides the readers with the courtship of Daisy and Winterbourne and adds the flirtatiousness of the lady love. On the other hand, Crane offers a genuine character of Maggie loses her love due to diversified interventions led by different people into their relationship. The justifications of James are more or less declared Daisy as unfaithful and that makes the male readers feels good about the death of Daisy. However, Crane is very simple in managing the character of Maggie and collects sympathy from both the genders of readers on the death of Maggie.Conclusion Eventually, it can be stated that in representing the roles of women in the relevant social structure, both the authors attempted to show their interdependent mental status for their male counterpart. Though the characters of Daisy and Maggie are subject to strong entities, yet they seemed to be very weak when it comes to the support for their lovers.

Both these women show the interrelatedness among genders. The feelings and the dependence were very clearly stated. It has been also made clear that none can live without a partner and a lack of faith in courtship can ruin these relationships between genders. The thematic approach of James and Crane are very determined in showing the demand for genuine faithful correlation between genders, a deficiency in the same can lead to frustration and even death.