19世纪爱尔兰作家玛丽亚·埃奇沃思的小说以上流社会贵族家庭内部的仆人形象作为切入点,探讨了特定社会阶层之间的人际关系。埃奇沃思笔下的仆人虽然没有接受过教育但精于世故,擅于权衡主仆间的利害关系。作家通过主仆之间的利益和权力之争,折射出其文本世界与现实世界之间的张力。埃奇沃思将上流社会贵族内部的矛盾置于社会巨变的历史背景下进行文学叙事,表明作家既勇于面对不可避免的社会巨变又不想完全打破旧有世界秩序的矛盾心理,反映了作家既憧憬美好的社会秩序但又具有历史局限性的特征。

Maria Edgeworth is an Irish writer in 19th century, whose works explore the interpersonal relationship from the perspective of the servants who work in upper-class families. Although the servants in her novels are uneducated, they are sophisticated and good at balancing the power with their masters. Edgeworth reflects the tension between fictional world and real world by elaborating the power struggle between masters and servants. She places the internal conflicts in upper-class society under the upheaval historical background to demonstrate her ambivalence on the decline of old social order facing the inevitable social changes, which further demonstrates her longing for a better world and upset about breaking the old one.