明末冯梦龙编纂的“三言”（《警世通言》、《喻世名言》、《醒世恒言》）是拟话本小说中的名篇。“三言”作为广为流传的、贴近市井生活的作品，具有浓重的市民情绪，反映出当时社会比较普遍的观念与风气。本文在了解明代社会背景的前提之下，通过对“三言”中女性形象、命运、对贞节的态度进行分类归纳，分析女性本身的贞节观与爱情观，并借此探讨明代社会，尤其是明末社会整体的贞节观情况。 研究表明，在明末资本主义萌芽的进程中，广大民众对于女性守贞的看重程度降低，无论社会、家庭、抑或女性自身，对于追求爱情乃至失贞的反叛行为，宽容程度明显提高。尽管由于长期以来的封建观念及明初对贞节的大力提倡，这种进步并不彻底，但总体而言是朝积极的方向发展的。

Sanyan Collection written by Feng Menglong is the famous novel in the end of Ming Dynasty. As a work which spread broadly and closed to the masses’ life, Sanyan loaded strong moods of the mass. By analysis the female images of this collection, we can get the idea of love and chastity of the female themselves, even the idea of love and chastity of the whole Ming Dynasty. From the study, we know that people reduced the request of women’s virginity because of the sprout of capitalism in the end of Ming Dynasty. The view of humanism had come into people’s idea, though it didn’t change the masses’ view of the traditional concept of chastity thoroughly.