欧·亨利的短篇小说《没有结局的故事》描写一位每周只挣六美元的贫穷女工在将要参加一次约会前的心理活动,面对贫穷无趣的生活与阔佬的约会诱惑,主人公虽一时动摇但最终拒绝。文章详细描述了主人公的拮据生活,以及如何用六美元来度过一周的生活,真实地表现了她的生活状况和面对两难抉择时复杂的内心世界。欧·亨利成功地捕捉和把握住这一生活片段,充分展示了资本主义社会中小人物的贫困生活和悲剧命运。
It seems to be saying that one of the worst thing that someone can do is to take sexual advantage of a poor woman. This seems like something of an antiquated idea--it implies that women are prey for predatory men and that men who use the poverty of women to exploit them are the worst sort of person.
《欧仁妮·葛朗台》讲述了一个老箍桶匠葛朗台靠囤积居奇、投机倒把,成为当地首富。他刻薄吝啬,把金钱看得重于一切,不惜逼走因父亲破产自杀来投靠他的侄子,折磨把自己的私蓄送给堂兄作盘缠的欧仁妮,并因为反对女儿与落难公子的爱情,把袒护女儿的妻子虐待致死。他所有的乐趣都集中在积聚财物上,死时留下一份偌大的家私,却无补于女儿的命运。
Eugénie's father Felix is a former cooper who has become wealthy through both business ventures and inheritance. However, he is very miserly. Felix's nephew Charles Grandet arrives from Paris unexpectedly at their home. Charles does not realize that his father has gone bankrupt. His father's ruin and suicide are soon published in the newspaper, and Felix considers Charles to be a burden, and plans to send him off overseas to make his own fortune. However, Eugénie and Charles fall in love with each other. She gives him some of her own money to help with his trading ventures. Later Felix is angered when he discovers that Eugénie has given her money to Charles. This leads to his wife falling ill, and his daughter being confined to her room. Eventually they are reconciled, and Felix reluctantly agrees that Eugénie can marry Charles. In 1827 Charles returns to France. By now both of Eugénie's parents have died. However Charles is no longer in love with Eugénie. He becomes engaged to the daughter of an impoverished aristocratic family, in order to make himself respectable. He writes to Eugénie to break off their engagement. Eugénie then decides to become engaged to Cruchot des Bonfons. Bonfons de Cruchot marries Eugénie hopeful of becoming fabulously wealthy. However, he dies young, and at the end of the book Eugénie is a very wealthy widow. At the end of the novel, by the standards of the time she should be unhappy, childless and unmarried, but she is instead quite content with her lot because he has learned of the hypocrisy and shallowness of the bourgeois.
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参考资料:爱洋葱