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1、The Characteristics of Scarlett in Gone With the WindDANWEN WU Class 4, Grade 2010, School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Foreign Trade and Business College, Chongqing Normal UniversityAbstract: Through an analysis of gone with the wind, a well-known work written by Margaret Michel, the charac

2、teristics of Scarlett is discussed. Her character is complicated and changeable, the paper first analyses the contradictions in her characterthe “water” and “fire” contradiction, the “good ”and “bad” contradiction, the “traditional ” and “modern ” contradiction. Based on these contradictions, the pa

3、per then specifies her changeable characters according to her life experience in the different period of the civil war, including the arrogant, vain, impulsive, self-centered character before the war, the brave, strong, self-improvement and struggle hard characters in the war, and greedy, stubborn,

4、selfish and mean characters after the war. Scarletts changeable characters have also been the epitome of that era. The writer tries to show the American cultural value through Scarlett. Everyone should be brave enough to be the owner of their destiny.Key Words: characteristics; complicated; destiny1

5、. IntroductionGone with the wind is a world-famous novel written by American writer Margaret Michel. It takes the civil war as the background and won the Literature Nobel Prize in 1937 due to its wonderful descriptions. The leading characterScarlett is one of the most vivid characters in this novel

6、and born with the multifaceted features of both ordinary and extraordinary. On one hand, just like the other ordinary girls, she is outgoing, open-minded, romantic and enthusiastic, etc, but on the other hand, when facing with the circumstances change, she will be more independent and stronger than

7、others. She is a charming and smart girl born in a rich family who possesses a plantation, which directly leads to her most outstanding characters just like the other noble girls: pride and conceit, self-willed, vain and obstinate. The writer has successfully modelled the complicated character in he

8、r novel and makes the charming characteristics long lasting in the literary world. Deep In her character, there are three groups of contradictions and this paper will analyse the formation and development of her characteristics according to the war period: prewar, in the war, postwar.1. Three groups

9、 of characteristic contradictions1.1 The “water” and “fire” contradictionScarlett is born in a rich family in the southern part of America. Her father is from flashy Ireland, enthusiastic and rough, while her mother is a seaside noble lady who possesses the French character，careful and gentle. So in

10、 the Scarletts body, there are two totally different blood-the water-like delicacy and the fire-like enthusiasm. In this novel, most of the readers will be very impressed with the first meeting with Scarlett: “however, no matter how plain her spreading skirts and how dignified her hair style, there

11、is no way to conceal her true features: “the green eyes are embodied in the namby-pamby face, furious, impulsive and dynamic.” from this description, we can see that Scarlett seems to be a wonderful combination of both her father and mother. While at the same time, the deep truth is that the combina

12、tion is imbalanced. On one hand, She learns the facial etiquette from her mother instead of the inner qualities and inherits the Ireland enthusiasm from her father. So With the time going by, she can hardly find a reason to improve herself , the water-like delicacy becomes more and more weak. While

13、on the other hand, just like her father, she desires for the freedom and can not bear any shackles, including the shackles from her mother, just like her complaints in the novel: ”I can not bear this self-constraint any longer and can not do what I want forever, it is so frustrating to eat a little

14、like a sparrow when I am desperately hungry.” “definitely there will be a day that I will say what I want and do what I want, ignore and dont mind what others think.” This is the real Scarlett and as brave as her father, she dares to love and hate and is even ready to sacrifice everything for her lo

15、verAshley, all of these demonstrate her fire-like enthusiastic side.1.2 The “good” and “bad” contradictionThe opinion of Scarletts “bad” character is represented by the American poet M.Bishop, they think Scarlett is selfish, greedy, relentless and unscrupulous. Her strong desire for the love, land a

16、nd money is the most outstanding characteristics. When the civil war breaks out, all of the people are living in the panic because of the huge deaths in the war, while for Scarlett, what she concerns most is that she can not attend the dancing parties and flirt with the gentlemen any more. And even

17、in her mind, she appreciates the war to relieve herself from the boring widow life. She is able to enjoy the pleasant and exciting life because of the war and in a great sense of expectations that the war can last long. From this point, her “bad” character exposes totally. While the “good” part can

18、also be demonstrated from two sides: firstly, she is brave and dares to face the real life and strive for her ideal life. Especially when the war is over, all of her living circumstances have changed, she becomes the only breadwinner in her family. In order to rebuild life, she has to stand up and b

19、ear the hunger and bitterness to run the mill business and even to do the work done by the black slaves. Just as she says,“ she belongs to this land and will not abandon it ”. besides, she is faithful to her love and dares to sacrifice everything for her lover, her pursuit for the good life and hope

20、 has also impressed the readers.1.3 The “traditional” and “modern” contradictionFor Scarlett, she spares all of her life pursuing two things: Ashley & money, and she makes it. The war has ruined her land and life, she clearly realizes that this will be a hard time for her family, so she understands

21、the value of money and tries her best to make successful businesses. However, she is not satisfied with what she possesses, on the contrast, she usually has nightmares at night and keep running in the dream. In fact, her deep thoughts have revealed her spirit losses and she gradually makes clear tha

22、t money is not everything comparing to her lover, Ashley. This is her “traditional” side. As we all know, Scarlett pursuit of Ashley has began with their first meeting. She falls in love with this gentleman at first sight, but is it a true love？for her, Ashley is just like a beautiful dress or a dre

23、am, what she really cares is the dress and love themselves , she treats love as the holyest and purest thing in her life which has nothing with the money. Unfortunately, until Melanie death, Scarlett has waked up and realizes that Ashley is just her beautiful dream made by herself. What she really l

24、oves is Rhett Bulter who will always appears when she needs help. But all of these have come too late, Bulter has left with a broken heart. In this novel, Ashley has represented the traditional sense who can not adjust to the new life after the war, while Bulter has represented the emerging bourgeoi

25、s class in that era, which means Scarlett accepts Bulter as well as the modern sense. Her dream made by herself breaks up while her true love, Bulter revives. This is the “traditional” and “modern” contradiciton as well as the human tragedy.2. The characteristics analyses of Scarlett The characteris

26、tics of Scarlett is complicated and changeable, she has demonstrated various characters in the whole novel. This paper will explore her characteristics in the prewar, during the war and postwar period.2.1 Pre-war: arrogant, vain, impulsive, self-centeredAs a daughter of a plantation owner, she has a

27、 disharmonious feature of both delicate noble blood and smart poor blood. She not only inherits his fathers forthright, rough, informal and grumpy characters, but also she is influenced by her mothers formal etiquette. She wants to become a noble lady like her mother one day, but deep in her mind, s

28、he has a sense to resist all the traditional moral rules. All of these have led to her arrogant, realistic, impulsive and self-centered character before the war. At that time, her family is rich and has many black slaves, she possesses the wealth and position. The comfortable life and beautiful appe

29、arance have endowed her with nothing but great interest in dancing, gorgeous dresses, horsing and flirting with various gentlemen. She has little interests in reading, music, poem like Ashley and Melanie, what she desires most is to be the center of the parties and arouse attention from others, Just

30、 like the novel says,“if people dont take her as the talking topic, she will become extremely impatient”. She is an pure girl then. Her arrogant and simple character has made herself believe that her charming and wisdom will help her master everything in the world, especially the gentlemen. So at th

31、is point, Scarletts arrogant,vain, impulsive and self-centered characters have all been exposed.She can not bear the gentlemen love the other girls instead of her, so when the Tang brothers tell her that Ashley will marry Melanie, she says in her heart,“oh, it is not true, they must have make mistak

32、es. Ashley would find no reasons to love that little mouselike Melanie, no one would love her” she even thinks that Ashleys true love is her and runs to tell him she would like to elope. So from here, we can see that because of her born beauty, Scarlett has got into the habits of superiority and arr

33、ogance, which makes her love an inevitable tragedy. When Ashley rejects her requirement, she makes an impulsive decision to revenge him, she wants to marry Charles as soon as possible, although she doesnt love him at all. Her naive and impulsive characters have also influence her marriage. Deep in h

34、er heart, she has never given up her first love Ashley and will ever give up! Her decisions and actions have all demonstrated her characters, she is just like a spoiled girl who will cry all the time until she gets what she wants. The less opportunity is, the more she desires, just like her love wit

35、h Asheley.2.2 In the war: brave, strong, self-improvement and struggle hard Scarletts experience in the war has changed her characters greatly. In this period, she has changed from a young lady who is interested in comfortable life to a hostess who is brave, strong and square accounts in every detai

36、ls. Her courage to face the difficulties and dangers has impresses the readers. Her former arrogant and selfish characters have been replaced by her hard struggle for the destiny.Due to the war exploration, Charles has died in the battle field and Scarlett becomes a widow. For her husbands death, sh

37、e feels little but she has to face the war. For one thing, she accepts Ashleys entrustment to take care of Melanie who is going to give birth soon, for another thing, she is suffering much pain when she knows that her mother is terminally ill. She wants to abandon Melanie and comes back to her mothe

38、r just like most of people do, but she doesnt. although she knows nothing about delivering a child, but when she hearing Melanies painful groan and can not find a doctor, she feels that a heavy burden seems to be loaded on her back and she will struggle for each step with much strength. At that time

39、, maybe the ordinary ladies will fall in a faint, but our brave Scarlett has make it. Her courage deep in her body helps her keep the clear mind and rational judgement when she faces the difficulties. When Scarlett carries the dying Melanie and her new born baby fleeing from Atlanta, they come accro

40、ss an old cow, she has changed her original role quickly. In the previous times, she is a rich girl who will not even pick up socks, but now all of them are in desperately need for this cow. The new born baby needs milk, and the two ladies need something to eat. Of course, she is afraid of the cow,

41、but at last, she still rips her only dress into strips and ties them up to control the cow. Her fingers are bleeding and trembling, but she all ignores. All she wants is to come back to her ill mother since she adores her and will always seek help from her when she meets difficulties. She believes t

42、hat when she returns home, she will unload the burdens and her parents will release her from mess, she will live a comfortable life just as before. But unfortunately, just when she feels lucky that the Tara farm is not destroyed by the war, a more serious disaster is waiting for him. Her mother has

43、died the day before and her father is in a confused state of mind because of the hit, more than ten people are dependent on her to live lives. Facing this, after a short painful and desperate time, Scarlett doesnt give up. She recalls the brave ancients and decide to accept the chanllenges and striv

44、e for the new life like them. She abandons her former arrogance and pride and begins to work, bear hunger and pain just like the other black slaves. She leads people to work efficiently and hide food when the northern armies come, especially when a soldier threats their life, the weak lady has even

45、shot him to protect her mothers remains and their precious food. In the war, Scarlett is a brave lady, the hard life has given her courage to kill all the things which may threats her life. She totally loses her former virtual imaginations and becomes realistic about the land and money. When she can

46、 not pay for the tax, she thinks of Butler and decides to marry him. She changes her mothers curtains into a beautiful dress to touch Butler. Under the heavy life burden, Scarletts greedy character has also appeared. 2.3 Postwar: greedy, stubborn,selfish and mean.After experiencing the cruel war, Sc

47、arlett has a deeper and sober understanding about real life and keeps a more rational attitude to life. She clearly knows that only to face the emerging utilitarian world rationally can she protect herself, her family and Tara farm. Under the control of this sense, money seems to be more important t

48、o her. In order to make more money, she ignores the traditional sense that women should be ignorant and can not have their own thoughts. She buys the sawmill and run the business herself. At first, the other merchants laugh at her and think that she can not run the business successfully. But Scarlet

49、t doesnt give up and keep her owm working principles. This stubborn character comes from her hard life as well as her resistance with the difficulties. In order to increase the working efficiency and get more profits, she even employs the criminals to work for her regardless of the criticisms from others. From this point, we can see that Scarlett has make a big step to the opposite of her own class both in mind and actions. With her wisdom and a series of astounding decisions, she continues