The Million Pound Bank Note

1、The Million Pound Bank NoteThe Million Pound Bank Note is a short story by the American author Mark Twain, published in 1893. 電影拍攝于1953年，1958年譯至中國(guó)The story takes place in Victorian London, where the storys protagonist/narrator, Henry Adams, has ended up penniless and in rags after a boating accident

2、 in the U.S. swept him out to sea. Two very rich and eccentric brothers spot him and give him an envelope with no information. Seeing money inside the envelope, Henry immediately heads for a cheap dining house, and he pulls the money out of the envelope after he eats (in the presence of the propriet

3、or). Inside the envelope is a single peerless bank note for one million pounds of money. Without knowing it, Henry is the subject of a bet: Brother B believes that the mere possession of this symbol of wealth, without any other means ofsupport, will enable someone to survive for the month. Brother A

4、, on the other hand, feels that the prohibition against exchanging the note for cash will render it useless. After he recovers from being stunned, Henry asks the dining house proprietor (named Harris) for change; Harris tells him not to worry about payment. Afterwards, Henry reads the note from the

5、brothers, which explains that they have made a bet on him and that he is to return to the house in 30 days; the writer of the note stated that, if Henry wins the bet for him, Henry can have any situation that he is qualified to fill. Henry realizes that he would not be easily able to exchange that n

6、ote in the bank without being questioned about how he had come to have it, charged with theft and arrested. He would also not be able to spend it since no ordinary person would be able to change it. Finally, in desperation, Henry decides to see if he can use the note to get a cheap suit to replace h

7、is rags, similar to the way he got his meal; when he pulls out the million-pound note to pay, the store manager gives him an entire wardrobe on credit. Ultimately, he becomes a celebrity in London as the vest pocket million-pounder or the vest-pocket monster, and Harris dining house becomes so famou

8、s that Harris actually lends Henry money, but Henry tries to keep his borrowings under control so that he will be able to pay everyone back over time when he gets his situation.After 10 days of growing fame, Henry reports to the U.S. ambassador in London, whom Henry learns was a classmate of his fat

9、hers at Yale. He is invited to a dinner party that night where he meets a young British woman, Portia Langham, with whom he is instantly smitten. During flirting, he tells her the entire story of the gentlemen and their bet, whichshe finds hilarious. Also at the party was a good friend of Henrys fro

10、m San Francisco named Lloyd Hastings, who was in London to sell shares in a mine for a commission of ?400,000, or $2 million US, but had been unable to find any rich Londoners willing to buy and is about to return to the U.S. without making a sale. Henry offers to use his celebrity to endorse the in

11、vestment for Hastings in return for 50% of the commission; the shares sell out by the end of the month, although Henry does not tell Portia of his new wealth.At the end of the month, Portia insists on going with Henry to see the brothers. Henrys success entitles him to a situation from Brother B, bu

12、t Henry turns it down, showing the brothers his profits from the mining deal. At that, Portia reveals that Brother B is her stepfather, and Henry then asks him for the situation as his son-in-law.。百萬(wàn)英鎊真實(shí)地向我們展現(xiàn)出了在拜金主義盛行的.大背景下,人們對(duì)生活的那種尖酸、刻薄、冷漠的.現(xiàn)實(shí)。在百萬(wàn)英鎊中,作者馬克吐溫通過(guò)敘述一件不合理的.現(xiàn)象向我們展示了人性的丑陋,于幽默之處見(jiàn)諷刺,于敘事之中見(jiàn)真

13、實(shí),于潑辣之中見(jiàn)智謀,極具現(xiàn)實(shí)代表意義。本文通過(guò)詳細(xì)研究百萬(wàn)英鎊的創(chuàng)作背景,深刻地分析和探討了百萬(wàn)英鎊的寫(xiě)作手法,以期有助于提高讀者對(duì)于小說(shuō)的情感認(rèn)知,促進(jìn)欣賞能力的形成,實(shí)現(xiàn)情感的升華。所謂“馬太效應(yīng)”，來(lái)自新約馬太福音：“凡有的，還要加給他叫他多余；沒(méi)有的，連他所有的也要奪過(guò)來(lái)。”人們一般用這段話(huà)描述貧者愈貧、富者愈富的“兩極分化”現(xiàn)象，常用它來(lái)感嘆.的不公。但實(shí)際上，“馬太效應(yīng)”反映出了管理的一個(gè)基本法則，即資源向高效率者傾斜。看完電影百萬(wàn)英鎊后，我們?cè)趯?duì)美國(guó)作家馬克.吐溫對(duì)于資本主義“金錢(qián)至上，金錢(qián)萬(wàn)能”的.的無(wú)情諷刺以及他所特具有幽默筆法和深刻.洞察力而折服的同時(shí)，我們不能不注意到這個(gè)故事片中隱藏的這樣的一個(gè).經(jīng)濟(jì)現(xiàn)象：就是在市場(chǎng)經(jīng)濟(jì)下，良好的信譽(yù)本身就是一種無(wú)形的資產(chǎn)。電影中流落英國(guó)街頭的美國(guó)人亨利.亞當(dāng)身無(wú)分文，貧困潦倒時(shí)，卻因?yàn)榕既坏臋C(jī)遇，得到兩個(gè)富翁兄弟給予的一張面值為100萬(wàn)英鎊的票子，在一個(gè)月內(nèi)沒(méi)有花一分錢(qián)，卻得到英國(guó)上層.的所給予的種種“免費(fèi)”的高貴待遇，結(jié)果還用這一百萬(wàn)的票子賺了20萬(wàn)英鎊，從此改變了自己的命運(yùn)：得到了美麗善良貴