浅析百万英镑中的拜金主义

An analysis of money worship in the Million Pound Bank Note
Abstract:The Million Pound Bank Not e 1is one of famous short stories by Mark Twin. In this short story, the author depicts an adventure of an American man who lives a life of poverty in London to demonstrate the mammonish society at that time that all people worship money through his humorous language. The language and conducts of all kinds of characters in this short story present the money-oriented mind more or less. The money worship has great effects on their life and fate as well as the society.
Key words: The Million Pound Bank Note, money worship, effects, language and conducts, fate, society.
1. Introduction
At that time, people in the society all believe that money is everything. People of all works worship the money blindly and regard the money as the highest value and meanwhile hold the view that all values are subordinate the value of money. The author depicts different performance of different characters when they are confronted with the million pound dollar to satire the idea that “money is everything” and expose the ugly face of capitalist society and the rule of darkness.
2. Some information of the author
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), well kn own by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Mar k Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Saw
yer (1876). Mark Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and E uropean royalty. Mark Twain was very popular, and his keen wit and incisive s atire earned praise from critics and peers. Upon his death he was lauded as th e "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Mark T wain "the father of American literature".
3. An analysis of money worship through language and conducts of different characters
Money worship2 is a ideological and ethical view of the supremacy of money, regarding money as everything and money worship as the code of measuring all other things.
3.1 An analysis of money worship through language of different characters in this short story
“But he said that wasn’t any matter; he was quiet willing to let the trifle stand over till any time. He said it was of no consequence, he could wait. He said he hoped he wasn’t afraid to trust as rich a gentleman as I was, merely because I was of merry disposition, and to choose to play larks on the public in the matter of dress.” 3 The above sentences are the words which the landlord said to the narrator after he knew the narrator only had the note to pay the bill. These words reflect the landlord’s mind of money worship. If the narrator doesn’t have the note, the narrator may hit the narrator or abuse him rather than be friendly to him and also call him gentleman.
“oh, you haven’t? Well, of course, I didn’t expect it. I’d only expect gentlemen like you to carry large change. ” 4 ” oh, very well; I apologize.”5The two sentences perfectly manifest the fellow’s true color that he just worships the person who has money and that is all and most important factor. The fellow’s two opposite attitudes towards the narrator show that money is the only factor to consider how to treat others. The more money you have, the better treatment you get. “Sell an eccentric millionaire such an unspeakable
suit as that! Tod’s a fool―a born fool. Always doing something like this. Drives every millionaire away from this place, because he can’t tell a millionaire from a tramp, and never could.”6“Tod, rush these things through, and send them to the gentleman’s address without any waste of time. Let the minor customers wait.”7Through these above words which come from the proprietor of the shop, we can infer that the proprietor is hypocritical and the middle class of this time hold the view that money is everything. They can do anything in order to get money.
3.2 An analysis of money worship through conducts of different characters in this short story
“His eye was on the note, and he was petrified. He was worshiping, with all his body and soul, but looked as if he couldn’t stir hand or foot.”8These sentences describe the actions of the landlord after he saw the note. The word “petrify” vividly embodies that the landlord is so eager for money that he could not move his hand or foot. “He wanted to look at it, and keep on looking at it; he couldn’t seem to get enough of it to quench the thirst of his eye, but he shrank from touching it as if it had been something too scared for poor common clay to handle.” 9These words especially “keep, quench, and shrink” reflect the landlord complicated feelings towards the note. He worshiped it and meanwhile he was afraid that he could not handle it. These behaviors embody that the people of lower class believe owning money is only way to get anything.
When the narrator went to a tailor-shop, the fellows in the shop all chose to ignore him and did not want do business with him before knowing the narrator had the note; they just nodded without answers or words when narrator asked if they had a misfit suit that had been thrown on their hands. “The fellow worked a most sarcastic expression of countenance.”10“H e received it with a smile, one of those large smile which goes all around over, and has folds in it, and spirals, and looks like the place where you have thrown a brick in a pond.”
11The contrast of the two different behaviors of the same person reflects “the power of the money”and people in this society worship money to such a degree that they can do anything for the money sake. The last chapter, the death of father of High-old Man12vividly embodies this.
4. Through comparing the different fates of the narrator and his friend to analyze money worship Money worship affects not only people’s language and behaviors also the different ways they choose to treat other people who have money or not. And meanwhile the treatment you get greatly depends on how much money you have. As a result of that, the fates of people in this society also depend on money.
The fate of the narrator has a favorable wind all the way after he meets the two gentlemen only because he has a million pound note. He can get everything he wants without paying anything. Moreover he lives in a rich and comfortable life. “Let me just stand here a little and look my fill. Dear me! It’s a palace―it’s just a palace.”13The narrator’s friend Mr. Lloyd Hastings said these words when he saw the place the narrator live in. Besides, the narrator gets the invitation of the American minister to the dinner party where he meets Miss Portia, a beautiful and elegant girl of higher class who falls in love with the narrator in two minutes. All these things will happen just because he owns the note, owns a great many money.
Mr. Lloyd Hastings, a friend the narrator. He is also an American who comes to London to pursue happiness. However, comparing to the narrator, his fate is not smoothly.“He had come to England with what he thought was a grand opportunity; he had an “option” to sell the Gould and Curry Extension for the “locators” of it, and keep all he could get over a million dollars. He had worked hard, had pulled every wire he knew of, had left no honest expedient untried, has spent all the money he had in the world. ”14He does not succeed only because he has no money. This makes him say that “how poor I am―how
poor I am, and how miserable, how defeated, routed, annihilated!”
The situations have changed after Mr. Lloyd meets the narrator. He uses the narrator’s name to do his business. These people who don’t believe him at the first time; but now all want to cooperate with him. The reason why this happen is that people all love money and this is a money oriented society. This seems to be a little ridiculous but in a society likes the story all crazy things look like “normal and rational”. The people’s fates are also decided by the fortune or the money. People just are the slavers of money.
5. An analysis of money worship in the society
The society is made up of all kinds of people and environment. The atmosphere of the society greatly relies on people’s language and conducts. On the contrary, the society also affected people.
After the narrator becomes famous, people are all curious about him and want to see the eccentric millionaire with their own eyes. “From being a poor, struggling, little hand-to-mouth enterprise, it had become celebrated, and overcrowded with customers.” 15The above sentences describe the changes of Harris’s humble feeding house and this phenomenon embodies that the power of money is imaginable because it can make business up or down and then affect the whole society. What the society looks like; what its people are. People who live in the money oriented society will gradually worship money and nobody escapes.
“You could not take up a newspaper, English, Scotch, or Irish, without finding in it one or more reference to the “vest-pocket million-ponder”and his last doings and sayings.” 16This is the reaction of newspaper towards the narrator in the whole England. The whole society pays high attention to the narrator and his name is listed at the bottom of the personal-gossip column, then above the knights, next above baronets, next above barons, and so on, and so on, until reached the highest altitude possible. This manifests that the society is morbid.
A millionaire can get so many attentions while the death of a poor man can not
arouse people’s a little bit concern. The society and its people all regard the money as the only code to measure everything.
6. The conclusion
In a money oriented society, especially the money oriented people, their language and behaviors are extremely affected by money. Money leads them. They are willing to be conducted by money. In The Million Pound Bank Note, the landlord, the fellow and the proprietor are this kind of people. The fate of a person quite relates to the amount of the money you have. Mr. Lloyd and the narrator are both Americans who come to London to look for a new life. While the fundamental difference between them is that the former is not a millionaire as the later. In this society, people’s only measurement of everything is money. And this has a great influence on the society. To some extent, the society is the main factor to cause this situation happen. The atmosphere of a society rests on the quality of its people. Sometimes, the society and its people affect each other. To avoid this, we must follow the right spirits and form some values that will do well to us as well as the society.
For most people, money is attractive. They can do what they can do to get money for they think that money is as powerful as weapon; once you get it, you get everything including the fortune, the power, the high statue. Just like the Mr. and Mrs. Richards17 become the slavers of money. The charm of money worship is hard for people to refuse especially in this modern society. As the Chinese word goes “Money makes the mare go”. Therefore, how to treat money is an essential problem for people to think about. All people love money but it is difficult to find a right way to treat money. The one of right ways to treat money is to be the master of the money, not the slaver. Another significant thing which human beings must keep in their minds is that money is in deed important and meanwhile there are still other things that have more values for human to pursue in the world.
Notes
1 Mark Twain , ed. Reading the Short Story in English. By Zhang Zaixin. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching And Research Press, Sep. 2004, pp.85.
2 /view/298302.htm
3 Mark Twain , ed. Reading the Short Story in English. By Zhang Zaixin. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching And Research Press, Sep. 2004, pp.89
4 Ibid., 92.
5 Ibid., 93
6 Ibid., 93
7 Ibid., 94
8 Ibid., 88.
9 Ibid., 88.
10Ibid., 92.
11Ibid., 93.
12/view/132009.htm
13 Mark Twain , ed. Reading the Short Story in English. By Zhang Zaixin. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching And Research Press, Sep. 2004, pp.104
14 Ibid., 106
15 Ibid., 95
16 Ibid., 95
17 /view/1254759.htm。