Published in late 19th-century America, Daisy Miller belongs to the Gilded Age. This was a period of immense economic growth that saw great increases in wealth for individual families as well as great increases in inequality between various groups in American society. Daisy's family clearly belongs to the group of people who benefited from the industrialization of this period.
The reader isn't told exactly what year the story is set in, but it seems to occur between the months of June and April. Additionally, the narrator notes that the events of the narrative are being recounted two to three years after taking place. This distance between the action and its narration creates a distance between the reader and the characters—and even between the characters and the events. The passage of time suggests that, while Daisy may have become the overwhelming focus of a year in Winterbourne's life, he has moved on to new attachments since her death.
The narrative possesses two overarching geographical settings: Vevay, Switzerland and Rome, Italy. There is a significant amount of movement within these two settings, especially in Rome. The characters spend a lot of time looking at and talking about their surroundings, but rarely do they physically engage with them. Although the setting shapes events of the novella, the characters often treat the places they are in as mere backdrops.
The exposition makes it clear that James assumes his reader to be American. He had a cosmopolitan upbringing and lifestyle, but he ultimately wrote for an American audience. In many ways, the story is situated in the cultural overlap (or disconnect) between the United States and Europe. The backdrop is European, but the characters and conversations are American. People like Mrs. Walker use Daisy as an example of a bad American, an example of the qualities that other Americans in Rome do not espouse.
Daisy and her family bring something of the youth and innocence associated with America into the sophisticated Old World context. The American expatriates buy into, and vigorously uphold, the view of Europe as established and dignified. When other Americans go against this unspoken pact, the American expatriates are horrified because they feel bound to them by association. Unlike people like Mrs. Walker, Daisy resists conforming to European standards. Her free spirit sheds light on the differences between the two cultures and impels the Europeanized Americans who interact with her to distance themselves from the standards of their home country.
