纯真年代英文读后感.doc

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE The Age of Innocence is an unfading novel which has been regarded as the perfect one of Edith Whartons. The author created the characters and refined the materials from her personal experience and familiar environment. Its theme was rooted in realism. In this novel, the clue of Beauforts fate stood in contrast to the plotline of Archers disastrous love, which had left the common love story with the profound social significance. In the 1870s, it was immoral for women to get a divorce in the American upper class. Ellen Olenska, a countess coming back to New York from Europe, was such a shameless woman. However, her coming back provoked a commotion in the lifeless upper class. Ellens cousin, May Welland, was engaged to Newland Archer. Faced with all kinds of behaviours of Ellen after her coming back, Archer, unlike other high-society people who thought of her as a over-coquettish and loose woman , quite appreciated Ellen who had the courage to break the stereotypical image. He was never satisfied with such rigid rules that women couldnt express their feeling freely and catch other peoples eyes. They couldnt divorce their husbands even though their marriage was unhappy. At this point, Ellens appearance stirred up his rethinking of his own marriage, the freedom of women and even the deeply conservative society where he lived. Gradually, the appreciation that Archer showed for Ellen turned to love. At the same time, Ellen was slowly coming to accept Archer love. However, Archer had many constraints from traditional etiquette that always reminded him that he could not run counter to what he had been given. He should stick to the old system to keep his engagement to May. He should do his best to preserve the honor of two families, which would not allow him to rebel against orthodoxy and do anything wilder. Finally, Archer married May under such mundane situation. But Archer soon began to lose himself with their marriages bondage and more profoundly, he