New World Utopia vs. Old World Consumption

Towards the end of Daisy Miller we are given the memorable line by Mrs. Costello “She goes on from day to day, from hour to hour as they did in the Golden Age.” (Miller, Pg 48) She, of course, refers to Daisy and more interestingly points to her origins in Utopia. The Golden Ages leaps from classic mythology of the innocent and pure world before the steady fall of mankind from the grace of the gods. This Utopia is the America that Europeans and Americans alike recognize. It is the land, exempt of the wars and hatred of the old world. It is new, fresh and endowed with a material wealth and plenty that could only be imagined in European terms. It lacks the history of plagues and death that mark the past of the old world. It is new, young, and innocent in comparison to the universe of Mrs. Costello. The harsh rules of society and public order are lacking amongst even the “elites” of America. This is from whence Daisy Miller descended. As Persephone she was drawn to Hades, kidnapped by both her family and those Italian men she surrounded herself with. It is an alien world she refuses to conform to: “The young ladies of this country have a dreadfully poky time of it, so far as I can learn; I don’t see why I should change my habits for them.” (Miller, pg. 40).
It is also a dark, hellish existence that in the end consumes her innocent soul. She tempts the demons of the ancient of the world be placing herself upon Death’s path. Her trip to the ruins of the ancient coliseum, a place of itself witness to countless life extinguishing moments, during the twilight and late evening hours is one that opens the final gates for the consumption of her innocence. Celtic cultures were well aware of the danger of these portal areas to the past and other worlds. Winterbourne, himself was of the same awareness referring to the air as a “villainous miasma” (Miller, pg. 54). In the end, it is the dark underside of the old world that destroys Daisy.
As a citizen of the Utopian existence of the New World, she has no understanding nor place in the Dark existence that has descended upon the Old World. The innocence finds itself consumed and destroyed by the plotting and hungry forces of the ancient and animalistic world.