Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was a representative of 19th-century British critical realist literature. Representative works include "The Way of the World Today" and "Eustis Diamond".
He was called the "Clarion call of the times" and was on a par with Jane Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, and others.
"The Way of the World Today"
The story of "The Way of the World Now" is very simple, mainly about the love marriage of two women. It's actually two main characters, one named Mary and one called Georgina. These two stories, two people, are told according to two parallel but intersecting threads.
Mary had two main men in her life. The first was his father, Melmot, and the second was felix, a lover he later met.
Mary was not from an aristocratic or generational rich family, and it was not until she reached adulthood that her father became rich through speculation. Melmot was not good to this daughter, often beating her, but regarded her as a strange commodity, waiting to marry Mary into the rich family in order to improve his social status.
By her father's arrangement, she met the nobleman Felix. Felix was just a down-and-out aristocrat, he didn't like Mary at all, but only saw that her father had money, and he needed money to maintain his drunken and luxurious life.
In the process of falling in love with Felix, Mary repeatedly clashed with her father. Melmot, in order to give himself a way back, placed a fortune in Mary's name. When he faced bankruptcy and wanted to use the money, no matter how hard and soft he tried, Mary still refused to sign the deed. So much so that the desperate Melmot committed suicide.
After her father's death, the infatuated woman went to find her lover and planned to give him the money, and the two of them went away together, but the man did not want to see her at all, because he did not believe that the girl had money in her hands. After all this was revealed, Mary chose to leave and went to the United States.
Compared to Mary, the other protagonist of the story, Georgina, comes from an aristocratic family, but has fallen into the nobility, so she is eager to have money, and she wants to obtain property through marriage.
At the same time, she is very arrogant, she has not been able to find a satisfactory one, found a rich, but the identity is not matched, or what is not good taste, and said that people are not handsome, until more than thirty years old, she did not pick well. After years of staggering years, no one was found, and she wanted to get married, she wanted to marry a good family. It's not that she doesn't want to get married. But I just couldn't find the right person.
She originally wanted to find a lord, and then lowered the standard not to require that she be a nobleman, and when she saw that she could not marry, she was anxious in her heart, and then lowered the standard. Not being able to find anyone who meets the criteria has left her confused.
Later she met a Jewish Mr. Bregett. But Mr. Bregett was fat, greasy, and fifty years old. In fact, the appearance, identity, and age made Georganna unhappy, and the only satisfaction was that Bregett had money and loved her, and promised to provide her with a house in the country and in London.
Although Georgina was reluctant in her heart, in the face of material and money, she decided to choose money and marry Bregett. It is not so much that she wants to marry Mr. Bregett as she wants to marry the house that Mr. Breguet has provided. Because a luxurious manor house is not only a place to live and a place of activity, but also a symbol of status, a symbol of status and a display of family strength.
Georgyana's father was forced to sell her manor house in London because of the sharp decline in income, and her family could no longer live in London, and the metropolis of London was the place she longed for. Although her parents strongly opposed her marrying Bregett, she wanted to maintain or improve her financial situation through marriage, and it was on this motive that she made her choice.
This time, however, she was disappointed again. Because of Melmot's involvement, Bregett's business failed and he could not provide a london residence. Upon hearing the news, Georgjana did not hesitate to tear up the marriage contract.
In the end, Georgina chose to elope with Mr. Basserbolt, a poor church assistant pastor who was five years her junior. The two protagonists of "The Way of the World Today", one of whom has gone far away and one has eloped, are quite intriguing.
The Eustis Diamond
The protagonist of the story of Eustis Diamond is named Lizzie. Born poor and widowed at an early age, Lizhi's father regarded drinking and gambling as the whole of his life, and regarded every day as a time of death to enjoy, and the father and daughter lived mostly on loans.
It wasn't the life she wanted, and she desperately needed marriage to change her destiny. Luckily, she met Baron Eustis. After marrying him, her financial situation was unexpectedly good, and she justifiably lived a golden and leisurely life as a jazz lady.
Unfortunately, Eustis died young. But Lizzie, his widow, received an extremely generous bequest: in addition to all her cash savings, she owned a Scottish property that would earn four thousand pounds a year. The money was enough for her expenses, more than enough to cope with the occasional need.
However, she was not satisfied, and greedily she also wanted to get a diamond necklace passed down from generation to generation by the Eustis family, because this diamond necklace made her dazzling, could enjoy unlimited scenery at the banquet, earned enough eyeballs, and greatly satisfied her vanity.
After Eustis's death, the diamond necklace was passed on to the family man, John Eustis, the brother of her deceased husband. But Lizzie was unwilling, and she repeatedly refused John Eustis's request, and took the treasure for herself.
During this time, she repeatedly fabricated lies and played tricks, including games of discord and polyamorous love. Later, her home was stolen, so she calculated that the necklace had been stolen, allowing her to possess the diamond necklace. Who would have thought that later the thieves would patronize again, this time really stole the diamond necklace. At the same time, her first lie was also exposed.
At the end of the story, Li Zhi not only lost the treasure, but also ruined her reputation, and finally ended up with a rebellious fate.
Story backdrop
Britain in the 19th century, because this century was mainly dominated by Victoria, is also called the "Victorian era". In the 19th century, Because of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, Britain took the lead in becoming the world's number one power. A large number of new wealthy bourgeoisie have risen, they have seized a great deal of wealth, and the interests of the old aristocracy are weakening.
With the rise of the new wealthy bourgeoisie, their ideology has increasingly become the mainstream social value, utilitarianism, money worship, pragmatism, survival of the fittest and other concepts are popular, and money has replaced value.
In the society of that time, whether it was the upper class or the lower middle class. Whether it is the old aristocracy or the new rich bourgeoisie, the workers and peasants at the bottom have an infinite desire for wealth, honor, and success. The whole society is permeated with an egoistic selfish and cold money ideology.
The value of "survival of the fittest" prevailed, and the newly affluent bourgeoisie, because of their personal struggles, seized the opportunity, made a fortune, and then relied on money to squeeze into high society. Therefore, they particularly emphasize personal struggle, diligence, hard work, and self-confidence, they vigorously advocate the concept of struggle and success learning.
At that time, the people at the bottom were more enthusiastic about the inspirational stories of these little people changing their fate through struggle, because they saw themselves and saw their own future, they fantasized that they could also copy the legendary experience of these people's success, and more and more people believed that success came from hard work, and through their own struggle, they could enter the upper class.
People's excessive admiration for self-struggle has gradually evolved into a greed and relentless pursuit of self-interest. People see making money as a top priority.
Guided by utilitarian values, people frantically pursue self-interest, and excessive pursuit has directly led to the prevalence of money worship in Victorian society. Money worship believes that money is omnipotent and is the standard by which all behavior is measured. This is true even of love marriages.
Money marriage
In victorian times, marriages were often not based on love, but were mostly established and carried out by treaty through the families of both men and women, introducers or, in the absence of matchmakers. Marriage should be the right door. As for love, it is believed that it will naturally arise after marriage.
Marriage is the most efficient and quick way to connect the old aristocracy with the new affluent bourgeoisie. In the eyes of the old aristocracy, these new rich bourgeoisie are just a bunch of upstarts, and they do not want people from other classes to easily squeeze into their circles, but with the transfer of wealth, the land wealth that the aristocracy relies on can no longer meet their increasingly luxurious needs, the family is in the middle of the road, the aristocracy is in financial difficulty, and they need the support of the new rich bourgeois capital.
The newly wealthy bourgeoisie spawned by industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, although it has a lot of wealth, does not have a door and a title, and it hopes to join the ranks of the nobility by virtue of its financial advantages.
Two classes have their own different needs, and the most convenient and effective way to meet their own needs is to marry.