Daisy Miller, by Henry James: (I) To what extent is Daisy Miller's character a reflection of the American character? (II) Was Henry James' ending artistically necessary?

Daisy Miller, ubiquitous flirt, cavorts around with mysterious Italian romantics and remains contemptuous and ignorant of European social customs during her short stay in the Old World. On an intimate level, Daisy's story is one about a young woman's hedonistic adventures in a world where hedonism has no place. Daisy's self-indulgent, pleasure-seeking lifestyle is typical of the American capitalist world, and her untimely death is a literary and symbolic necessity--- Daisy's death signifies the short-lived …

…potential: the makings of something great. America is a young nation, fearlessly changing, constantly evolving. However, America, like all other nations, will grow old someday, steeped in its established "traditions" and "customs---" discriminating against others without realizing that it was once a discriminated entity as well. To preserve this American institution of fluidity, sanguinity, and vibrancy, it was artistically necessarily for Daisy Miller to die young, while she was still filled with a hedonistic vivacity.