维多利亚时代小说中的典范绅士形象分析

The Ideal Models of Gentlemen in the Victorian Novels

维多利亚时代为英国“绅士”的代表阶段,“绅士”概念具有多重含义,普遍而言,“社会阶级”“礼仪”“道德”和“英式风格”为其内涵。维多利亚时代初期、中期和后期,小说家和学者对于“绅士”概念的定义,皆有所差异。本文结合18世纪末期以及19世纪的社会背景和小说特征,选取维多利亚时代三位著名小说家——萨克雷、狄更斯和特罗洛普,对其小说中的绅士概念进行研究。三位小说家对于“绅士”概念的刻画,表现为最初沿袭社会地位、家产财富,过渡到重视绅士礼仪和道德价值。绅士概念的演变,反映出维多利亚时代社会道德的教育内涵——培养真正的绅士。

The Victorian Age is the representative period of the British gentleman.The concept of gentleman has multiple meanings.Generally speaking,social class,manners,morality and British style are its connotations.The definition of gentleman varies among novelists and scholars in the early,middle,and late Victorian periods.The paper discusses the emergence of the British gentleman and examines the concept of the gentleman in the novels of three famous Victorian novelists,namely Thackeray,Dickens and Trollope,in the social background and fictional characteristics of the late 18th and 19th centuries.The three novelists’portrayal of the gentleman is initially based on social status and family wealth,and then evolves into the importance of gentlemanly manners and moral values.The evolution of the concept of gentleman reflects the educational connotation of morality in Victorian society-the cultivation of real gentlemen for the civilized society.