【正文】 you and Beaufort.”(Wharton, 20xx). She also thinks that “I felt there was no one as kind as you” (Wharton, 20xx). It shows that Ellen takes her relationship with Newland seriously. They own the same idea and both are attracted by each other。 yes, and I?m so glad” (Wharton, 20xx). Ellen is quite approved and feels happy for their bination, after all she thinks that “May is a darling。 Passionate Ellen Olenska?s dilemma in the marriage crisis with her husband and her affair with Newland, while innocent May?s struggle in maintaining her marriage and fallacious social position. However, their relatives and friends try everything they can to expel Ellen back to Europe together with May in order to protect family reputation. All these seeming surface plots actually are the defense against the conventions and human apathy. Chapter 3 is the backbone of the thesis, aiming to analyze the social characters of the “Old New York”. By analyzing the upper class? attitudes towards the relationship among the three major characters and their choices, it is easy to see that the conservatism, hypocrisy and snobbism of the V upper class. The last part restates the aim of the thesis, and the conclusion of the thesis. Key Words: Edith Wharton。通過分析小說主要人物間的關(guān)系，以及親戚朋友和他們自身對其關(guān)系的看法及他們的最終選擇，不難看出紐約上流社會保守、虛偽和勢利的特點。接著主要闡述紐約上流社會對三位主人公間關(guān)系的看法。 本文首先簡要介紹 伊迪絲華頓是美國著名小說家之一。盡我所知，除文中特別加以標注和致謝的地方外，不包含其他人或組織已經(jīng)發(fā)表或公布 過的研究成果，也不包含我為獲得 安陽工學(xué)院 及其它教育機構(gòu)的學(xué)位或?qū)W歷而使用過的材料。對本研究提供過幫助和做出過貢獻的個人或集體，均已在文中作了明確的說明并表示了謝意。她一生創(chuàng)作出大量杰出作品，其中《純真年代》詮釋了華頓一生的歷程，濃縮了她思想的精髓。華頓本人及其作品。年輕儒雅的紐蘭深陷在遵守社會規(guī)范和追求真愛的兩難境地，熱情奔放的埃倫搖擺于擺脫婚姻的枷鎖與聆聽真情的吶喊之間，而天真純潔的梅則致力于維護自己的婚姻和保全虛妄的 社會地位。最后為結(jié)語，系統(tǒng)闡述文章的主旨內(nèi)涵。 old New York。 I?ve seen no young girl in New York so handsome and so intelligent”(Wharton, 20xx). When she falls in love with Newland, she never ever thinks to own him, she tries her best to persuade Newland giving up his crazy idea. She promises to live with granny Mrs. Mingott because she thinks that can be “safer from doing irreparable harm” to others. When Newland keeps asking the solution to solve their problem, Ellen hazards to say that “shall I e once to you, and then go home”(Wharton, 20xx). On hearing the news that May is pregnant, she wants to end up the relationship with Newland with a firm hand by moving to Europe. In a word, in order not to hurt the ones they love, to maintain her cousin?s marriage, and to make a plete family for the baby to be born, Ellen chooses to go to Europe and spend the rest of her life there alone. Ellen loves Newland too, but her love is filled with unselfish affection. Relatives and friends? attitudes towards the relationship between Newland and May Newland and May?s marriage is made in heaven, and it is convinced by the attitudes of people around them. Almost everyone delivers great congratulation to their bination. When the betrothed couple pay a visit to the relatives after their engagement, old Mrs. Mingott was “delighted with the engagement, which, being long foreseen by watchful relatives, had been carefully passed upon in family 8 council”(Wharton, 20xx)。 Ellen makes efforts to end her marriage, but after Newland?s persuasion of giving up divorce, she plans to take the advice just for her beloved. Moreover, when Newland asks her to elope with him and gets away from New York, 10 she holds the idea that “she should not break faith with the people who trusted her”(Wharton, 20xx) and does not want Newland to bear the disgrace of breaking the moral cultivation and abandoning his wife and unborn child, she refuses his demand and leaves for Europe alone. From the old Newland? eye, Ellen “had never gone back to her husband”(Wharton, 20xx), and that very year she says to Newland that “I can?t love you unless I give you up”(Wharton, 20xx) are the best evidences to prove her love to Newland. Ellen can?t take Newland off her mind, but she persuades him to get married with May and be a good father. She is a new lady with free thoughts, and she just shows her great love in her unique way. May?s attitude towards the relationship between Newland and Ellen As fiancee of Newland, she has the right to protect her marriage and not allow any affair happen between Newland and other women. May is a typical product of the New York society, regarding marriage as the only choice for a happy and stable life, so she makes the wedding day timely ahead of time when she finds Newland may have an affair with Ellen. She would like to take any measures to maintain her marriage. At first, May asks Newland to “be kind to Ellen”(Wharton, 20xx), but after she perceives the clue of the two and Newland can?t fet Ellen after they get married, May gradually gets unsatisfied 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, 20xx), and once Newland also thinks that “she hates Ellen”(Wharton, 20xx). 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,20xx). 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 11 and Ellen Ellen?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 inv