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영어

This paper purports to discuss Henry James’s criticism of the Victorian society in the 1890s in The Awkward Age which is represented through the world of Buckingham Crescent, the world of a high-class society whose true wits are Mrs. Brookenham, Vanderbank, Mitchett, and the Duchess. Almost all the characters entering this world show openly or covertly their inclinations to get money. Mrs. Brookenham and the Duchess represent the cash-nexus or cash-and-carry relations dominating all the nooks and corners of the society in this work. They use all the intrigues and tactics in order to get their niece and daughter, Aggie and Nanda, married to the rich man, Mitchett. Therefore, these young girls are prepared for “consumption” in the marriage market. The major members of the “temple of analysis,” another name of the world of Buckingham Crescent, enjoy “freedom of talk”, “freedom of mind”, and “high intellectual detachment” through their indirect and imaginative talks and by avoiding vulgarities and emotional expressions. But their “high intellectual detachment” represents a trend of the English Decadence in the 1890s, whose creed is supported most noticeably by Vanderbank. Finally, their ‘high intellectual play’ brings about the coldness of their hearts, as is shown in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Ethan Brand”.