【正文】 e end of the novel May?s son Dallas judge his parents? marriage as follows “You never did ask each other anything, did you? And you never told each other anything. You just sat and watched each other, and guessed at what was going on underneath. A deafanddumb asylum, in fact!”(Wharton, 20xx). The words from a new generation are bold and unconventional, but they are just accurately cutting to the point. Newland and May?s marriage seems to be enviable and amazing, however, the love between the two is far from true love. Upper class? attitudes towards the relationship between Newland and Ellen Newland?s attitude towards his relationship with Ellen Ellen is also born in New York upper class, but she grows up in France and receives good education and free thought in Europe. Therefore, she has active thinking and keen insight. There is a sense of freedom and rebellion in her all the time. 9 She is beautiful, sagacious, independent, and has more experience of life. She is full of artistic temperament and exoticism, just as Newland deeply perceives, she is more like yellow rosesthere was something too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty. In Newland?s eye, there is no doubt that Ellen is different, “there was about her the mysterious authority of beauty, a sureness in the carriage of the head, the movement of the eyes, which, without being in the least theatrical”, and the unfortunate marriage leaves her a hint of maturity, “she was so quietquiet in her movements, her voice ,and the tones of her lowpitched voice”(Wharton, 20xx). It is no wonder that a handsome young man will be attracted by such a beautiful lady. After falling in love with Ellen, Newland unconsciously often makes parison between May and Ellen, and he finds that Ellen is his true and ideal lover. However, Newland has to take responsibility of his marriage, yet he still puts Ellen in his deep heart and secretly misses her. When he has chance to meet her again, he says “I was changed, till I saw you again”(Wharton, 20xx), and later he seeks in vain to elope with Ellen from New York and spend the whole life together. These things all show that Newland wants to keep Ellen around and cherishes the love with Ellen. Ellen?s attitude towards her relationship with Newland Ellen moves back to New York for her unhappy marriage to seek shelter from relatives and friends. New York, however, denies any scandal which will humiliate the upper class and shake the stereotypical conventions, so her returning back causes great disturbance. Newland seeks to protect her from the harm of others. He tells her what should do and say in New York. When he pays a visit to Ellen, she says that “There are only two people here who make me feel as if they understood what I mean and could explain things to me。 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)。s Day”, “spark”, “spinster”). These works fully and truly reflected the social characters of old New York upper class in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The Age of Innocence is the most important masterpiece of Wharton which caused a huge repercussion as soon as it was published. It had brought substantial economic ine and extraordinary reputation and played a great role for her to win the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, and been the first lady to receive this honor in American history. In this novel, New York is definitely more than just a geographical name, and also has bee a land of culture that is casted in the unique human color. 3 Chapter 1 The Historical Background and Plot Summary of The Age of Innocence The historical background of The Age of Innocence The historical background of The Age of Innocence is New York of the late 1870s. People of that era paid more attention to the elegant and exquisite manners than anything else in the history of New York. “The upper class make every effort to “window dressing” all the time .They refused any external threat to the entire upper class and decorated their every action under the protection of holiness and integrity” (Wang Min, 20xx). They were most concerned about their social status, living a leisurely life under the imprisoned and boring social norms. They turned a deaf ear to the misfortunes of others. The author depicts them vividly like this “In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never sa