Narrative Mode
Violet
Daisy Miller & Scarlet Letter & Huckleberry Finn
Daisy Miller (1876) is Henry James’s
(1843~1916) most representative work for his
international theme. It mainly speaks of an
American girl named Daisy, owing to her
innocence and discretion, is not accepted by her
American expatriates and other Europeans, even
her admirer Winterbourne. Eventually, she dies
of malaria as a result of visiting the Colosseum
at midnight. .
The traditional narrative mode
 Omniscient
 The
point of view
autobiographical type
In this case, the author is also the narrator. He
has the godlike authority, knowing everything
with no need for waiting until the end of the
story.
Not only the eternal action of the characters is
at the narrator’s fingertips, but also their
inward movements.
In Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne adopts the
omniscient point of view. He himself acts as the
narrator.
He acts like a onlooker, presents the
development of story before us by using the
third person narrator most of the time.
However, the author intervenes from time to time.
And before the prison door, the author turns up
again to interfere as an eyewitness. “…as she
entered the prison-door, ---we shall not take
upon us to determine.” (Hawthorne, 2003, p.46)
At the end of the story, the author appears before
the scaffold, reading the dejecting ending of the
story of Scarlet Letter.
It helps to break the limit of time and space so
that the narrator’s view is quite expanse.
It often uses the first person narrator.
He is the latent eye of God.
He see the whole story and characters within his
maximum view without the intervene of the
author.
The story will not be confined by the limited
view of a certain made-up character.
In Huckleberry Finn, Twain (1835-1910) by
adopting Huck’s point of view uses the first
person narrator. At the beginning of the novel,
“You don’t know about me, without you have
read a book by the name of the Adventures of
Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. That book
was made by Mr Mark Twain, and he told the
truth” (Twain, 1994, p.11).
Twain distances himself from the following
story and stepping out of it completely.
The whole story is narrated by Huck, the
protagonist in the story.
Huck’s point of view makes the story more
authentic and convincing.
It makes the reader and the narrator closer.
By describing Huck’s own narration, we can see
clearly how a child views the world and how he
grows up.
His psychological movements are also revealed
fully especially when he suffers the inner
struggles between whether he should report
Jim’s escape to Miss Watson or not.
Once I said to myself it would be a thousand
times better for Jim to be a slave at home where
his family was, as long as he’d got to be a slave,
and so I’d better write a letter to Tom Sawyer,
and tell Miss Watson where he was…….all
right, then, I’ll go to hell’-and tore it up. (pp.
207-208)
Jamesian Narrative Mode
James focuses on a certain character’s
consciousness in the story.
That is to say, he chooses one character of the
story as the center of the novel.
Lemon(1964) notes that “James discovered the
trick of making his characters reveal
themselves with minimal intervention of the
author” (pp. 35-52)
All the narration is based on this character’s
observation and understanding without the
author’s interferences.
“To correspond to life the author should avoid
artificial omniscience as much as possible.”
(Chang Yaoxin, p.127)
He opens up a particular way of telling the story.
That is to say, he tries to illustrate the situation and
characters through one or several minds.
James calls this kind of character “Viewpoint
Characters” or “Mirror Characters” (Wang Yuehong).
All events and characters filter through the
consciousness of his characters.
In Daisy Miller, James places the center of the
subject in the consciousness of Winterbourne.
The reader has all his inner meditation and
vision.
When focusing on the consciousness of a certain
character in the story, the other characters are
thrown into a relative passive position.
Their thought and ideas can not be shown
directly.
Thus we can not know what they really know
and think. Daisy is quite this type. She stays
under the monitoring of Winterbourne.
All we know about Daisy is though his
description. What she really thinks and knows
stays mysterious to us.
This kind of narration mode makes the image
of Daisy more pathetic. It helps to indicate
Daisy’s final tragic destination.
Other differences
In addition to the difference of the point of
view, the narrative plot in Daisy Miller is also
quite unique.
In the traditional novels, the narration plot is
often concerned about the salvation.
The protagonist often gains what he peruses
and finally makes some change on the world
in a certain way.
Take Scarlet Letter and The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn for example.
In Scarlet Letter, Hester wins back the
reverences of her townspeople by her atonement
though her committing adultery.
In Huckleberry Finn, Huck and Jim make a
series of adventures along the Mississippi to gain
their freedom.
Finally, Huck changes his attitude on Jim and
finally they all gain their freedom.
These two novels all follow the traditional
narrative plot, while Daisy Miller breaks the
mode of salvation.
In the process of Daisy’s pursuit of self, she is
not accepted by the European society and her
expatriates.
Instead, she pays the price of life.
Daisy’s innocence is finally destroyed by
the European rigidness.
Life is still going on as usual without any
change. As is suggested at the end of the novel,
“Nevertheless, he went back to live at
Geneva……an intimate on that he is much
interested in a very clever foreign lady” (p. 56).
Daisy, as her name indicates, is common
enough to be ignored as if she never
turns up.
By making a sharp contrast between the
American innocence and the European
sophistication and ending in the death of
Daisy, James conveys that the pursuit of free
spirit which is advocated in America can not
be accepted by the European countries which
follow strictly the proprieties.
Conclusion
Jamesian narrative mode is an innovation to
the traditional novel, which no doubt makes a
great contribution to the development of
modern novel.
His “viewpoint character” provides a new view
for the author to narrate his story more
authentically and objectively without the
interference of the author.
By emphasizing the inner awareness and inner
movements of his characters, he becomes the
first psychological analysts in the novel and
later develops his stream-of –consciousness
technique.
References:

Edel, L (1964). The Modern Psychological Novel. New York,
pp. 35-52.

Howthorne, N (2003). The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam
Dell.

James, H (2006). Daisy Miller. London: Wordsworth Editions.

Twain, M (1994). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New
York: Penguin Books.

常耀信（2007）. 美国文学简史. 天津：南开大学出版社.
pp. 125-128.
Thanks for your attention
O(∩_∩)O~