【正文】 sfied with Ellen and wants her to get away from New York. She uses a sarcastic tone to judge Ellen in front of Newland, “She’s so differentat least on the surface. She takes up such odd people she seems to like to make herself conspicuous”(Wharton, 2004), and once Newland also thinks that “she hates Ellen”(Wharton, 2004). One day when Newland accidentally mentions Ellen what seems irritates May, she said with a slight pout of impatience “why should we talk about Ellen tonight?”(Wharton,2004). The intimacy between the two girls has all gone. With the help of the upper class, May successfully expels Ellen out of New York city. Through the narration of Dallas, May knows the affair between her husband and Ellen from the beginning to the end, but she just smothers their affection under the disguise of smile and docility. Relatives and friends’ attitudes towards the relationship between Newland and EllenEllen’s desire for a divorce is totally contrary to the secular fashion of New York society, and it naturally causes a lot of dissatisfaction. Lovell Mingott family hold a formal banquet and invite friends to participate in to wele the return of the Countess Olenska, however, the invitations are received consistently refusal which shows the behavior of Ellen is pletely unacceptable in New York. “The upper class pay great attention to the “decent” principle of life and they are afraid of scandal than fear of disease”(Li Yinbo, 2011). They all think that divorce will bring humiliation to the whole family and social position. Besides, if Ellen gets divorce ,she has no economic ine for her to live on. Ellen’s behavior threatens the old conventions of the New York and manifests the conservatism and hypocrisy of upper class, so almost everyone insists that Ellen is stupid and they naturally have no good impression on such a treacherous lady. The love affair between Newland and Ellen has received consistently resistance again. The relatives and friends are well thought of Newland and May’s marriage, and when they perceive that Ellen is a threat of the happy couple, they do every effort to protect the marriage from harms. Actually, the New Yorkers can not bear a person like Ellen to disturb the stereotypical way of life, and they consider Ellen as a “disaster” to the old conventions and social customs. Finally the relatives and friends successfully expel Ellen out of the New York together with May, and Ellen lives the rest of her life alone in Europe. Chapter 3 Analyzing the Features of “Old New York” As one member of the upper class in New York, Wharton lets the outsiders peep into the whole picture of the Gilded Age New York. The greatest thing is that she not only showed us the upper class what they eat, what they play, but also exposed the sophisticated social skills under the elegance and the slightly paranoid persistence of social customs. By using the eloquence of irony and contrast, Wharton revealed the psychology of the characters when they were confronted with difficult choices and stripped the disguise of etiquette manners, exposing the essence that “old New Yorker” tried to hide. Here, the features of the old New York society will be stated from three aspects. The conservatism of “old New York”People39。s behavior is bound by unshakable traditions and customs of the old New York and they are all trapped in the inherent pay great attention on the dress, manners and seek to do everything in decency. With her unique women’s sensitivity and delicacy, Wharton showed us the red tape of upper class and captured the pulse of the times by depicting a variety of social events, theater viewing, family party, formal dinners, church weddings, social visits.The things are all ruled by the stipulation and behind which are the socalled social moral standard and principle in New York society. The people blindly ply with the old conventions. They deny anything new around them and anyone who breaks the rule should suffer the consistent condemn and spurn from upper class. So the appearance of Ellen indeed scares the upper class. Ellen has the courage to get rid of the old convention and challenge the authority of social system. “she judges things with her own mind and do what her want to do”(Zhong Minyi, 2005). She is different from others in dressing, room arrangement and behaviors. “she was wearing a strange clothes which are very conspicuous......revealing, as she leaned forward, a little more shoulder and bosom than New York was accustomed to seeing, at least in ladies who had reasons for wishing to pass unnoticed”(Wharton, 2004). She takes advantage of strange clothes to express her protest of the convention. Moreover, she lives in a quite tatty house in west twentythird street, “small dress makers, birdstuffers and ‘people who wrote’ were her nearest neighbors” (Wharton, 2004) which are all despised by the upper class, but she would rather live in such a shabby house, “by the turn of the hand, and the skillful use of a few properties, been transformed into something intimate, ‘foreign,’ subtly suggestive of old romantic scenes and sentiments” (Wharton, 2004). The house is a symbol of her independent personality and thoughts. Ellen does not act in the way as other people do to flatter the powerful person. At the party that Van der Luydens hold specially for her, she moves from one guest to another naturally regardless of the rigid social customs that require women to stay passive until men e. “Etiquette required that she should wait, immovable as an idol, while the men who wished to converse with her succeeded each other at her side. But the Countess was apparently unaware of having broken any rule。 she sat at the perfect ease in a corner of the sofa beside Archer, and looked at him with the kindest eyes” (Wharton, 2004). She is frank enough to ment on the dullness of the van der Luydens’ guest. In the episode where Archer demonstrates his desire for h