Mrs. Walker Character Analysis

Another of Winterbourne’s American expatriate friends, Mrs. Walker lives in Geneva but also has a residence in Rome. Mrs. Walker initially welcomes the Millers into her circle as fellow Americans in Rome, but she soon turns against Daisy, shocked by her embrace of free association with Italians, especially men, and by Daisy’s refusal to let Mrs. Walker show her the correct way to behave. Mrs. Walker becomes the ringleader of the group condemning Daisy’s behavior and abandoning her socially. In some ways, Mrs. Walker seems to consider Daisy’s behavior a betrayal of the unspoken pact among upper-class women, who cling to the small amount of freedom possible within gender-based limits. That Daisy refuses to align herself with these expectations threatens, according to Mrs. Walker’s point of view, to upend the very foundation of their society.