[abstract] gone with the wind is one of the most popular american novels, which is written by american female writer margaret mitchell. when it was published, its sales broke many records among the publishing circles, and it is famous all over the world. the novel mainly describes the life of scarlett who is the daughter of tara’s master during the american civil war. meanwhile with the hint of a triangular love between scarlett, ashley and rhett, the novel depicts a wide and prosperous picture of the social life of the south in america. not only the rich content of the novel but also the complex plots and the contradictions between the figures of the novel have an important artistic effect on shaping the characters in the novel. among all the roles, scarlett, is the most successful one who is full of conflicting and complicated features. this article analyzes the character of scarlett from three aspects: the first one is her attitude towards life during the civil war; the second one is the exterior and internal reasons for the shaping of her character; the last one is her attitude towards her love and marriage. the analysis aims at showing the eternal charm of the image, scarlett in the novel.
[key words] scarlett’s character; exterior reason; internal reason; gone with the wind
[摘 要] 《飘》是美国女作家玛格丽特.米切尔一生中创作的唯一的一部长篇小说，一经面世，其销售量立即打破了美国出版界的多项记录并一直在世界各地畅销不衰。www.11665.com小说以美国南北战争为背景着重描述塔拉农场主的女儿思嘉丽在战前战后的生活，同时通过思嘉丽与艾希礼、瑞德等人的感情纠葛为线索，为我们刻画了一幅壮观而又生动的南方社会的生活画面。小说不仅有丰富多彩的生活内容，而且具有纵横开阖的故事情节，跌宕起伏的矛盾冲突，为刻画人物性格起了重要的艺术作用。在作品塑造的众多富有特色的人物中，最成功的莫过于对女主人公思嘉丽这一集矛盾、复杂、多面于一体的核心人物的塑造。本文拟从三个方面对思嘉丽性格特征进行分析。一是思嘉丽在内战前、内战期间、和内战后所表现出的生活态度；二就是思嘉丽性格形成的外部原因和内部原因；三是思嘉丽对爱情与婚姻的态度，从而展现了这一形象所赋予作品的永恒的魅力。
[关键词] 思嘉丽的性格；内因；外因；《飘》
1. introduction
gone with the wind has been hailed as a triumph of american literature and film. in1937, margaret. mitchell won pulitzer prize, for her sweeping portrayal of the crumbling of the old south. since then, the novel has sold millions of copies. the film, a production by david o.selznick, exceeded all expectations, receiving critical and public acclaim that included an unprecedented ten academy awards.[1] even today, gone with the wind, despite its many historical inaccuracies, forms the basis of american popular memory of the old south in the years since the civil war, but margaret mitchell’s tale is the one that is most deeply embedded in american culture. the novel mainly describes the life of scarlett who is the daughter of tara’s master around the american civil war. meanwhile with the hint of a triangular love between scarlett, ashley and rhett, the novel depicts a wide and prosperous picture of the social life of the south in america. an important element of the story’s popularity is scarlett o’hara, the outstanding heroine who is full of conflicting and complicated features. this article analyzes the character of scarlett from three aspects: the first one is her attitude towards life around the civil war; the second one is the exterior and internal reasons for the shaping of her character; the last one is scarlett’s attitude towards love and marriage. the analysis aims at showing the eternal charms of the image, scarlett in the novel.
2. scarlett’s attitude towards life
scarlett has the strong courage to face fresh and blood and to overcome difficulties, but this wish of independence is not accepted by the society at that time. but in modern society, scarlett is definitely an independent female who has strong will. she has the spirit of not admitting failure even it is at present.
2.1 scarlett’s rebellion against social restrictions
scarlett is a hybrid, who exhibits more of her irish father’s hard-headedness than her mother’s refined southern manners. although initially she tries to behave prettily, her instincts rise up against social restrictions.[2]
girls at that time are taught such things as: a hearty appetite would never catch a man. thus, when going to a party, they would stuff themselves with food at home. then they would be able to eat only the daintiest morsels at the party. also, women were taught to act ignorant, to hang on every word a man said as if she knew nothing herself, in order to make him feel superior. they were never to say what they actually though
t. scarlett’s mother ellen and mammy also teach her all that a gentlewoman should know, but scarlett never learns nor does she see any reason for learning it.
scarlett shows her distain for the artificial manners: “i’m tired of everlastingly being unnatural and never doing anything i want to do. i’m tired of acting like i don’t eat more than a bird, and walking when i want to run and saying i feel faint after a waltz, when i could dance for two days and never get tired. i’m tired of saying, ‘how wonderful you are!’ to fool men who haven’t got one-half the sense i’ve got, and i’m tired of pretending i don’t know anything, so men tell me things and feel important while they’re doing it. “some day i’m going to do and say everything i want to do and say, and if people don’t like it i don’t care.” she does as what she says with the development of the novel.[3]
scarlett does not like the other girls at that time, who lead a life of waiting, they wait for men’s allegiance and acceptance; they wait for love and they wait for appreciation and compliment.[4] scarlett is completely different from them at all; instead, she strives for love and happiness actively. when she hears the news that the man she loves, ashley will marry his cousin melanie, she confesses her love for him without pudency and she even mentions of eloping with him. she knows she must let him understand her love, thus it is possible for her getting his love. her action is not different from the modern people.
scarlett hates the rules of the society. when she becomes a widow who has to wear black weeds and can’t show her face in the public, she is very displeased. so she accepts rhett’s invitation to dance with him openly and undoubtedly at the charity ball. when people are talking about her and scolding her, she doesn’t care at all. after the war, in order to rebuild and protect tara, she even goes outside to manage a sawmill herself and does other business successfully. although people at that time can’t endure women to appear in public for earning money, especially to the men, they can’t tolerate the women who can defeat them. scarlett disregards of what people say, but just does what she believes.
scarlett’s success proves that woman has the same intelligence and brightness as men. and her action is a heavy blow to the society that is man-centered. her effort also breaks the traditional prejudice, which is admired by many readers.
2.2 changing concepts for the new life
2.2.1 before the civil war
before the civil war, spoiled and beautiful scarlett is a proud princess. she is also naïve and carefree for she is brought up in a rich family, in which they have many large fertile fields to grow cottons and many slaves that work for them. it is no necessary for her to think about anything but just to dress in new costumes to attract the sights of the boys and to join the balls.[5] wherever she goes, she is always the focus and center among the young girls, and she is adored by many men, which irritates the other girls. so she gradually becomes a girl who is coddled, undisciplined, egotistic, fractious and narcissistic. she believes every man around the village will fall in love with her, and she can’t endure the talk without a topic of her. but her self-centered and exclusive character causes the tragedies of her love. after her failure to confess to ashley, she doesn’t fall down or leave away which shows her courage for life at the first time.
2.2.2 during the civil war
with the outbreak of the war, she loses everything she owns. war makes her become a widow who has to wear black weeds for her husband. in the summer of 1864, sherman starts to attack atlanta and everyone is fleeing the city. but scarlett has to stay at atlanta with melanie for she has made a promise to ashley to look after melanie who is going into labor，she even braves the life danger to escort melanie and her newly-born baby to go back to tara in the flames of war. her kindness conquers the selfishness, which shows her nice aspect. she is so horrible but she sticks to go back home, but what she sees in tara is only the endless loneliness and desolation.
the war absolutely changes the way of her life and her affectionate homestead, tara. the invasive yankees destroy all of their treasure and cottons, leaving nothing but hunger to them. her mother is dead and her father’s mind has gone; her two sisters and melanie are ill; melanie’s baby and her own child need to be fed; only several perplexed black slaves do not know what to do either. scarlett is the only one that the family can depend on. scarlett can’t lead a life comfortably as a child any more, for the reason that no one can protect her from threat.
scarlett changes her concepts for the new life. she lays down her position of a lady of noble birth and changes her concepts
of the old southern life. she wants to feed her family and herself through her own work, which shows her realistic character towards life. when her sisters and the house servants complain, scarlett even works in the fields of tara herself to ensure a good harvest of cotton. to her, the memory of hunger is clearer than the memory of brain. she vows her famous line, "as god as my witness i will never be hungry again.”
when others cannot face flesh and blood, but she believes that one must keep on working to alter the actuality. thereupon, she adopts the new ways of living which change her from a young lady who must rely on the black slaves to enjoy her to a laborer who supports the whole family depending on her own working.[6] she walks personally to the destroyed twelve oaks to look for something to eat, and even uses her elegant hands to dig greens, to do excavation, to split the wood, to crush the milk, to pick cottons, even to plough the field which used to be done by slaves. most shockingly, though, is when scarlett kills a yankee who comes in and tries to steal what’s left of their money, but scarlett kills him and takes all of his money.
scarlett is just different from those people like ashley who always lives in the dreams of the old south and is unwilling to weak up for the new life. although the life of the old south is colorful and yearning to most of the southern people, it is already dead and people still have to seek new ways for living. scarlett knows this very well. no matter how hard the life is and no matter what the new world is; she has to raise her whole family and protect them from starving and freezing to death.
2.2.3 after the civil war
the war is finally over! but they are still in trouble; the yankee carpetbaggers and southern scalawags have raised the taxes on tara. tara faces the danger of being bought away by the others. she must do something to save tara. she tries all the ways to get money for tara. after the failure of borrowing money from rhett who is in the jail, she lures her sister’s lover frank and marries him undoubtedly; never considering her sister’s feeling and her own sacrifice. she is so realistic that she even has no time to think about the future, but just resolves the problems at present.
although women at that time are not allowed to go outside to earn money, scarlett sticks to managing the sawmill herself. she puts her all energy to the business. when she has no accompanier, she will drive the carriage herself even she is pregnant. she employs prisoners to work for her for less expenditure but more profit; she send out her money to mortgage as loan; she trades with black men for money; and she even cleans up the money from the widows. though she has a bad reputation of having an eye to the main chance, she doesn’t care at all, for the reason that she feels so horrible about the memory of hunger, coldness, loneliness and danger again and again in the nightmares. she makes money to make sure the whole family to lead a life without worry for food and clothes. rhett says scarlett wants to get two things in the world: one is ashley; the other is money for doing what she wants to do. after the war, she becomes a new-rich who is not necessary to worry about money any more and melanie’s death gives her chance to be together with ashley, but she suddenly finds that both before her face are not what she really wants. the man who really loves her and her loves is going away…
from 1920s to 1930s, america suffered from the most serious economic crisis in the history: factories were closed and many workers lost their jobs; agriculture was lean and so many farmers left their land to seek new ways for living. what people should do? the women needing the book or watching the film in the 1930s were coming out of the great depression, and perhaps gained strength and inspiration from the characters in the story.[7]certainly, scarlett’s famous determination not to be hungry again encouraged most of the readers and audience.
3. reasons for the shaping of scarlett’s character
portrayal of a character can’t be separated from the environment she or he is in, and the social environment plays the same important role as the natural environment to portray the characters of the figures. it is the same to portray the figure of scarlett, which must also rely on both the social and the natural environment.[8]
3.1 the exterior reason
the transition of the living environment is the exterior reason for scarlett’s changing her character, which causes scarlett’s distinctive character. before the war, scarlett lives in the traditional and conservative plantation and the life style forms her plantation master’s character of loving land than anything else in the world and her rebellious character spontaneously.[9] she leads an extremely poor life during and a
fter the war, and that abominable environment molds her character to confront the reality bravely; and her independence and selfishness to overcome difficulties. the rich life experience before war; the unstable life during the war and the extremely poor life after war provide the foundation to form the character of scarlett. and thus in such environment, scarlett’s character can be complicated.
3.2 the internal reason
meanwhile the triangular love between scarlett, ashley and rhett is another element to influence the developing of scarlett’s character; it is also the internal reason for the mature of her character. scarlett is in love with two men, one is ashley, and the other is rhett. she undergoes the love for ashley from being blind to being stubborn and to being disillusioned, and she also experiences the change from being childish to mature. when she meets ashley for the first sight, his mysterious and complex character attracts her, which is a kind of simple and childish emotion. however, when ashley refuses her at twelve oaks, her pride and vanity is bruised strongly, which deepens her blind love for him, so does the war. although she can’t understand ashley’s ideas at all, she still regards him as a idealized lover obstinately. this unreal image supports her to stand up in the horrible environment and overcome difficulties in life. and because of this spirit backbone, she can confront the difficulties and setbacks in life. however, scarlett cannot face the reality on the spirit aspect until the death of melanie. ashley is a man who still lives in the past and can’t face the reality. his cowardice and decadence break scarlett’s dream, thus scarlett begins to understand that ashley is not the man she wants, and at the same time her realistic character is displayed both on her spiritual life and material life.
778论文在线 / at last, scarlett realizes that rhett and herself are the people with the same character, and he always loves her and supports for her. but scarlett looks down upon him and mocks him, and she doesn’t know his love for her. however, she admits the common sense between them and she likes to be with him. under the tolerance of rhett, she shows her rebellion, her vanity and selfishness. she can’t realize her true feeling and she avoids facing the reality of the spirit. until her dream for ashley is broken and rhett is too tired to love her and is going to leave her, she realizes the value of rhett, but it is too late. although her realistic character unites together both on the material and spiritual aspects and she realizes what the true love is, she must face the reality that rhett will leave her alone.
life is filled with various contradictions, and when a contradiction is over; another is coming, so the plots of the story will develop further and the portrayed image will be more charming.
it is better to see her not being blown down. she always encourages herself that “tomorrow is another day” and “things always look better in the morning.”[10] she still believes that she cans get him back finally.
4. scarlett’s attitude towards love and marriage
scarlett spends most of her life being adored and loved by others. wherever she goes, she is always the center and focus among the girls. although she marries three times, she never understands the meaning of love or gets the true love. in real life, love and marriage are often related with each other by most of people, because love is the foundation of marriage. but scarlett divides them into two, which proves that she is a character full of contradictory and complexity. in the novel, scarlett has been thinking that she loves ashley and some decisions she made are also related with ashley. however, she never considers marriage as a serious matter but just treats it as playgames, and she marries with the men she doesn’t love just in order to resolve living problems.
4.1 scarlett’s attitude towards her marriages
marriage is a serious matter and also a nice dream to most of the young girls, but scarlett treats her marriage as playgames. scarlett is so immature that she marries charles hamilton who she doesn’t love at all to hurt ashley for her first marriage. from then on, she becomes a slave of love, and she loses the ability to distinguish what is right from wrong, which is the basis of her love tragedy.[11] the civil war kills her first husband after two months of their marriage, and scarlett becomes a widow at her sixteen years old. she endures the rules of being a widow, but the war changes her goal of life. in order to survive, to save tara, she marries her sister’s lover by subterfuge once more. not long after her second husband’s death, she marries rhett for her third marriage. she thinks that marring him, she will never have to bo
ther about money again and never to worry about money again, to know that tara was safe, that the family was fed and clothed, that she would never again have to bruise herself against stonewalls.
4.2 scarlett’s bewilderment in love
scarlett falls in love with ashley at her first sight. through the relationship with ashley she is affected by the love and all the struggles and lessons that go along with it. scarlett loves ashley because of all the young man she flirts with; he is the one who seems to have the strength of character she admires. the difference between ashley and the other boys is that ashley is well educated, intellectually, artistically and musically talented, and does not put him at the mercy of every pretty face. he is also tall and handsome, and somewhat aloof, scarlett doesn’t understand anything he talks about, but she is drawn to his dignity and his old world charm. in fact, scarlett doesn’t understand him at all. what she sees is just his surface merely, knowing nothing about his disposition and thought.
although scarlett dislikes the people with weak character, she still loves ashley. she regards him as her prince since she is a young girl and offers her pure love blindly. even if she can’t get him, she never gives up or changes her love to him through the repeated tribulations. her love to him is so loyal, clinging and self-sacrificing that she is willing to do anything for him. when ashley is leaving away for the war, he asks scarlett to look after his wife, melanie, scarlett is very depressed but she still complies. in order to keep promise to ashley, scarlett stays by the side of her lover’s wife in dangerous atlanta and escorts her and her baby to tara; unfortunately, her dearest mother is dead before the day she comes back. when the war is over, ashley can’t adept the postwar new life, and he can’t do anything but just lives in the dreams of the past, and he even doesn’t have the ability to support his own family. however, scarlett doesn’t look down upon him but she helps him support his family silently with her own money. in order to defend ashley’s self-respect as a man, scarlett undertakes the loss of money of her sawmill, which is given to her lover ashley to manage,. she spends no time to accompany her husband and her children, for the reason that she is occupied by the thoughts of earning more money or making appointment with ashley.
in fact, scarlett is very different from ashley. scarlett is very brave, energetic, realistic, and she has enough courage to face any difficulties during and after the civil war. ashley is that kind of person who likes thinking rather than acting. he misses the life of the old south and he can’t adjust to the new life. ashley loves nobody but himself. he marries melanie not because he loves her but because they are alike and only he stays with melanie, thus he can link himself with the past of the old days. although scarlett is strong on some aspects, she still needs someone to encourage and comfort her sometimes, that is to say scarlett needs a man who is stronger than her. but ashley can give her nothing, and he even shows his fear for the new life to her: “it isn’t that i mind splitting logs here in the mud, but i do mind what a stand is for. i do mind very much the loss of the beauty of the old life i loved. scarlett, before the war, the life was beautiful. there was glamour in it, perfection and completeness and symmetry to it like grecian art. maybe it wasn’t so to everyone. i know that now. but to me, living at twelve oaks, there was a real beauty to living. i belonged in that life. i was part of it. and now it is gone, and i am out of place in this new life and i am afraid. now i know that in the old days it was a shadow show i watched. i avoided everything which was not shadowy, people and situations which were too real, too vital”.[12]
scarlett is alike rhett very much: both of them are the rebels of their families and the society of the south; they all oppose the feudal morals, and they all have the bourgeoisie merchant natural disposition, that is to say, they are all selfish and they will try all means to achieve their goals. they seem to be made for each other. in fact, scarlett has already trusted in him and depended on him when she affiliates with him, but she doesn’t realize her love to him.
rhett knows that scarlett scorns men she can win easily, so rhett refuses to show her she defeats him. he mocks her, argues with her, and eventually resorts to cruelty and indifference in order to win her. even knowing about the true reason of scarlett’s marriage to him, rhett still loves her and dotes on her, acting as parent to scarlett throughout the novel-guiding her out of mourning, comforting her from bad nightmares. rhett to scarlett, in the final scene: "you were such a child, my dear, i wanted to marry you a
nd protect you".[13] he understands scarlett very much, so he gives her all supports he can. he encourages her to shun social customs and gives her money to start her own business. he wants to drive ashley out of scarlett’s hearts, but after a long time with his best efforts, he still cannot change her and make her understand his love for her. he feels pain and tired at last. he compares scarlett to a child crying for the moon: “i’m sorry for you-sorry to see you throwing away happiness with both hands and reaching out for something that would never make you happy…”[14]
scarlett’s idealization of ashley slowly fades as time goes on, and she finally sees that the ashley she loves is not a real man but a man embellished and adorned by her imagination. “i love something i made up, something that’s just as dead as melly is. i made a pretty suit of clothes and fell in love with it. and when ashley came riding along, so handsome, so difference, i put that suit on him and made him wear it whether it fitted him or not. and i wouldn’t see what he really was. i kept on loving the pretty clothes-and not him at all.”[15] after melanie’ death, scarlett finds that ashley has never loved for melanie, to him, she is only a dream that he lived and breathed and did not die in the face of reality. scarlett finds him only a coward who will depend on her in the future without melanie. then she knows that the heaven she has sought in dreams, the place of warm safety, which has always been hidden from her in the mist. it is not ashley! scarlett can’t get any warmth and security from ashley. it is rhett who has strong arms to hold her, a broad chest to pillow her tired head, jeering laughter to pull her affairs into proper perspective. and he completely understands her, because he, like her, sees truth as truth, unobstructed by impractical notions of honor, sacrifice, or high belief in human nature.
for years scarlett has had her back against the stone wall of rhett’s love. rhett loves her, understands her, ready to help her. rhett at the bazaar reads her impatience in her eyes and leads her out the reel; rhett helps her out of the bondage of mourning; rhett conveys her through the fire and explosions the night atlanta fell; rhett lends her the money, rhett comforts her when she wakes up in the nights crying with fright from her horrible dreams. no man does such things without loving a woman to distraction.
scarlett comes to her sense at last. she wants to tell him everything; she wants to tell him she loves him and she wants to gain his love to her. but it’s too late. her lovely daughter is dead; rhett is worn out and decides to go away. “oh, my darling, if you go, what shall i do?” he said: “my dear, i don’t give a damn.”[16] suddenly, her great house becomes a tomb, and her wealth has already lost the significance to her. what scarlett loses is not only her love but also her soul, although she owns too many things on the aspect of materials. and it just likes a cup; she just gets hold of it on the left hand, but then loses it on the right hand.
however, she is able to handle the tragedies by thinking about them “tomorrow is another day” and “things always look better in the morning”. she wants to return to tara, the source of her strength, and she believes that she can get rhett back confidently.
5. conclusion
the three parts above analyze the features and reasons of scarlett’s complex character. the figure of scarlett is real and vivid and the image of scarlett’s portrayed by the author corresponds to the logic of the developing of the figure’s character, which is real and full of appeal, and that is enough to prove that gone with the wind is a masterpiece, charming and valuable.
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