Abstract

20th century witnessed dramatic changes in Britain: the flourishing Victorian era passed, and a short period of Edwardian was coming. British middle class values gradually became rigid. As a result, the values became a big cage which imprisons people’s nature.
Where Angels Fear to Tread told the story of a prim English family that encountered the foreign land of Italy. When the attractive and impulsive English widow Lilia married Gino, her snobbish former in-laws made no attempts to hide their disapproval. But the family’s expedition to face the uncouth foreigner took an unexpected turn when they returned to Italy under tragic circumstances intending to rescue Lilia and Gino’s baby. The novel exposed and criticized the pride and prejudice of British middle class and implicated that the British middle class had “undeveloped hearts”—solidity, caution, integrity, efficiency, lack of imagination and hypocrisy.
This paper elaborates the British middle class values in British transformation era on the basis of the novel, and reveals its positive implications on how to deal with relationship between people from different cultural backgrounds. This paper falls into three parts. Part one briefly introduces the novel, including the author and the plot of the novel; part two presents the formation of British middle class values from historical background; part three expounds the British middle class values in the novel by analyzing characters and plots.

Key words: middle class; values; undeveloped hearts; E.M. Forster

摘  要

二十世纪的英国处于一个巨变时期，繁盛的维多利亚时代徐徐落下帷幕，迎来短暂的爱德华时期，英国中产阶级传统价值观念逐渐走向僵化、封闭，成为禁锢人的天性的一大牢笼。
《天使不敢涉足的地方》讲述了一个呆板的英国家庭与意大利这片土地发生的碰撞。当引人注目、冲动任性的莉莉娅，一个英国寡妇，要嫁给意大利人吉诺时，她那势力傲慢的前夫家丝毫不掩饰他们对此的反对。但是，他们以拯救莉莉娅和她的孩子为目的远征并不如预期的那样顺利，且充满了悲剧性。小说深刻地揭露和批判了英国中产阶级的傲慢和偏见；蕴涵着福斯特对英国人“发育不良的心”的诊断。英国中产阶级可靠、谨慎、正直、高效、缺乏想象力、虚伪。
本论文以该小说为基础详细阐述英国转折时期的中产阶级价值观，揭示作品在处理与来自不同国家不同文化背景的人之间的关系上的积极意义。第一章节简要介绍《天使不敢涉足的地方》，包括作者和作品简介；第二章节分析这个时期中产阶级价值观的形成；第三章节通过分析人物和情节详细阐述英国中产阶级价值观。

关键词：中产阶级；价值观；发育不良的心；爱•摩•福斯特