飘的英语论文

黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 1 页 An Analysis of the Two Female Images in Gone With The Wind 1 Introduction Gone with the Wind has been hailed as a triumph of American literature In1937 Margaret Mitchell won Pulitzer Prize for her sweeping portrayal of the crumbling of the Old South The love story takes place at a momentous time in history when Southern society undergoes changes and old codes of conduct begin disappearing The novel created totally different two female images Scarlett and Melanie They are all slave owners of southern plantations and love the same man However they are not enemy but supporter for each other In Civil War they are all braves though as a woman This article analyzes the character of Scarlett and Melanie from their distinctive personality Firstly the paper analyzes Scarlett s growing background and her marriage which impacts her life Her brave energetic and realistic image makes her become an independent woman with the consciousness of early capitalist Secondly the paper will discuss Melaine s traditional female charms through her interpersonal relationship and analyzes Melanie s loyality to the traditional culture of the southern plantation Through this analysis the author expects to give some inspiration for modern women 2 About the Author and the Novel 2 1 About the Author Margaret Mitchell was born in a lawyer s family in 1900 When she was young she often heard people talking about the civil war which made her concern for the war and people s life condition in that period In the beginning of 1930s she worked for the Atlanta newspaper office where provided her lots of historical materials about American civil war After her marriage she resigned from the Atlanta newspaper office and began her composition of Gone with the Wind It took her 10 years to 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 2 页 complete this masterpiece In 1936 Gone with the Wind was all the rage So far it was regarded as one of the most famous love novel in American literature 2 2 About the Novel In Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell portrayed the inferior position of women in the south of America during the 19th century She also described a heroine Scarlet and her love entanglement with Ashley and Rhett Scarlett is the oldest daughter of Gerald O Hara the Irish American owner of Tara who worked his way to wealth and Ellen Robillard O Hara a high born Southerner of French descent She has two younger sisters Suellen and Carreen By the end of the novel Scarlett has been married three times and has a child from each one Scarlet was self partial and priggish when she was a young lady She was selfish and kind when she was a widow she was shrewd and gainful when she was a businesswoman Her life was filled with legend Her ups and downs fully embodied her life condition and her attitude toward life She was a common woman but she acted like a great woman did She was a modern woman in old ages Her bravery independence resolution and other personalities always encourage women in modern times 3 Analyzing Scarlett 3 1 The Formation of Scarlett s Character Scarlett is the eldest daughter of Gerald O Hara the Irish American owner of Tara who worked his way to wealth and Ellen Robillard O Hara a high born Southerner of French descent She has two younger sisters Suellen and Carreen Her character was affected mainly by her family environment 3 1 1 The Background of Scarlett s Family Scarlett was born in a farmer family in the South American during the civil war Scarlett shows her difference at the right opening of the novel She has a gently bred Creole mother from the seacoast 1 Ellen O Hara has never been seen stirred from 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 3 页 her austere placidity nor her personal appointments anything but perfect no mater what the hour of day or night 2 There was a steely quality under her stately gentleness that awed the whole household 3 Scarlett regards her mother as something holy and apart from all the rest of humankind and the embodiment of justice truth loving tenderness and profound wisdom a great lady Young Scarlett or Scarlett antebellum wants very much to emulate Ellen but in order to avoid missing joys of life she will follow her mother only on condition that some day when she was married to Ashley and old some day when she had time for it 4 Nevertheless Ellen does influence Scarlett much On the other hand Scarlett s father Gerald O Hara a little hard headed and blustering Irish man is not well educated he believes that a man who wants to be rich should be strong and unafraid of work And Gerald is hardy When Gerald wanted something he gains it by taking the most direct route 5 This conclusion seemed to fit for Scarlett too Grew up in such an environment common sense Scarlett should be the one with the other manor ladies has the same elegance and gentle manners lady But in fact Scarlett was far beyond people s expectations Scarlett also make on the surface ladylike look As the book said But for all the modesty of her spreading skirts the demureness hair netted smoothly into a chignon and the quietness of small white hands folded in her lap her true self was poorly concealed 6 In fact Scarlett is a brave and stubborn women who dares to face the reality has rebellious character women Scarlett s rebellious first performance is her resistance to the secular moral codes Because of this Scarlett is often tought by the mother and Mammy Mammy was greatly perturbed that Ellen s daughter should display such traits and frequently adjured her to act lak a lil lady You must be more gently dear more sedate Ellen told her daughter 7 Scarlett learning this etiquette just for her to welcome but never like the behavior in heart From her dislike of these behaviors it is easy to see Scarlett inner rebellion and resistance In terms to her marriage life Scarlett embodies the rebellion against the old customs and personality In scarlett s father Gerald opinion The best marriages are 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 4 页 when the parents choose for the girl He only from the practical interests of the need to consider while ignoring his daughter real feelings of love Objectively Scarlett s feelings are really naive and Gerald such stop is not unreasonable But in the Scarlett s opinion his father is representative of the old concept This old ideas hinders her pursuit of love Therefore in Scarlett s heart that bind of the human dogma more disgust It is for her to get rid of the old way of life in the future looking for a new life has a great influence 3 1 2 The Meaning of Tara In any case Scarlett will not give up Tara and her folks As Ashley said Something you love better than me though you may not know it You ve still got Tara Besides the book described Scarlett s feeling of Tara In the pre war period She thought of Tara and it was as if a gentle cool hand were stealing over her heart To her Tara is a quiet place to lick her wounds a haven in which to plan her campaign But after civil war the long road from Atlanta to Tara has ended in a black wall the road that was to end in Ellen s arms Never again can Scarlett lie down as a child secure beneath her father s roof with the protection of her mother s love wrapped about her like an eiderdown quilt In the post war period out of Scarlett s expectation the more terrible disaster occurs Ellen O Hara her gentle amiable mother has died her father has turned to a terribly old man with schizophrenia Now she is like a child no longer a strong woman the backbone of Tara Both of her sisters are ill in bed slaves have run away with only three darkies still remaining There remains not enough food and all their cotton has been burnt to ashes Meanwhile their lot of Confederate cash becomes worthless The most important is that she Scarlettt Hamilton will continue to carry her burdens There was no security or heaven to which she could turn now there is no one 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 5 页 on whose shoulders she can rest her burdens Now Scarlett is seeing things with new eyes for somewhere along the long road to Tara she has left her girlhood behind her She is a woman now and youth is gone The O Hara do not take charity The O Haras look after themselves Her burdens are her own and they are for shoulders strong enough to bear them She can not desert Tara She belonged to the red acres far more than they could ever belong to her Her roots went deep into the blood colored soil and sucked up life as did the cotton The next morning Scarlett forces her to endure physical suffering and pain in body and goes out to search for some food In the Negroes garden patches of Wilkes plantation she is licked down by hunger and tiredness When she arises at last and sees again the black ruins of the plantation her head is raised high and something that is youth and beauty and potential tenderness has gone out of her face forever The lazy luxury of the old days is gone never to return There was no going back and she was going forward throughout the South for fifty years there would be bitter eyed woman who looked backward But Scarlett was never to look back At that moment hunger grows at her empty stomach again and Scarlett says aloud As god is my witness the Yankees are not going to lick me I m going to live through this and when it s over I m never going to be hunger again No nor any of my folks If I have to steal or kill as God is my witness I m never going to be hunger again This is her dauntlessness As for her courage and fieriness Scarlett kills a thieving Yankees soldier imperturbably and determinately right before the Yankee s shoot But actually she only does what under the circumstances must be done if she is to survive 8 In modern society that is called legitimate defense is therefore guiltless Anyway Scarlett saves other three sick girls and the babies That is worthwhile Even if Melanie were in the same situation she d have done the same thing With Scarlett s wisdom and diligence the Tara can surely offer a better and better life In a word Tara is a power source for Scarlett 3 2 Scarlett s Outlook on Love 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 6 页 The protagonist of Gone with the Wind Scarlet was beautiful shrewd brave and independent In the ordinary course of events she can marry an excellent or rich man or at least a man that she loves and also she can live a sweet life But she chose another way of life she really took every possible chance to make her future brighter She first married Melanie s brother Charley Just two months later she became a widow In order to get money she married her sister s fianc Frank From Starlet s marriage life we can clearly understand that life is not a play game as well as marriage As a woman one should circumspectly consider of her life and marriage Scarlett s life has been married three times the pursuit of her people more numerous so she really loved one who is it 3 2 1Blind Pursuit Ashley In fact as above mentioned Scarlett to Ashley s love is just a young girl beautiful fantasy it is a kind of vanity and a desire of conquer performance Such as written in the book She loved him and she wanted him and she did not understand him Scarlett couldn t understand Ashley talking about music poetry and fantasy She doesn t understand that Ashley s idea don t understand his inner world don t know his want and be afraid of things Because of Scarlett s ignorance made she thought her love is Ashley until the last minute Scarlett woke up only to find it was wrong I have never been able to see the world at all because Ashley stood in the way 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 Tarlatan boys are foolish and irresponsible and all too willing to hang around waiting for her favors Some of the others gather around her like a flock of birds hoping for some teasing word or batted eyelash She plays the game but has no notions of love with any of them They are just friends and if she can use them to tease the other girls she ll do it Ashley alone seems to have remained aloof from her although they have apparently had enough encounters to make her fall in love with him and to give her 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 7 页 the impression that he cares for her The difference between Ashley and the other boys is that Ashley is well educated intellectual 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 She says that she created a dream and put him into it but don t we all try to find mates who fit what we think we want He was her dream and when the dream was destroyed her love for him was destroyed with it Scarlett finally recognized her feelings to Ashley However it seems that some too late 3 2 2 Ridiculous Marriage Hamilton and Frank Scarlett s first husband is Melanie s brother Charles which is a shy and simple boy At that time Scarlett felt angry and embarrassed due to Ashley s refusal From the beginning of their marriage to her husband s death just which was less than two months time Scarlett became a widow was buried her good girlhood by herself Therefore she paid a great price for her vanity Later in Rhett help Scarlett gets rid of the widow extremely boring life However the good days soon ended and the failure of the war made the south get into extreme poverty In order to remanage Tara Scarlett stole her sister s beau the hapless Frank Kennedy to get her hands on his hardware business She will seduce her sister s fianc in order to get his money 9 If her sister is a little less selfish than her Scarlett will need not to marry such an old man After all she victimizes herself She made use of again Her marriages were ridiculous She takes on the support of Ashley and his wife Melanie who represents the perfect depiction of the old ways yet unfailingly stands by the side of Scarlett who fails to understand her value She cares not that it is deemed unladylike that she runs a successful lumber business instead of living in genteel poverty She causes a scandal by traveling alone in the shanty town district of Atlanta risking the lives of the men who retaliate on the inhabitants of shantytown where Scarlett s honor was assaulted Join the 3 K Party s Frank in revenge was shot in the unfortunate death So the second time Scarlett became a widow 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 8 页 3 2 3 The Awakening of Love Rhett Butler In Scarlett s marriage life she is blind and ignorant Even she married Rhett in order to change the life standard Rhett s tolerance trying to make her get rid of the illusion of Ashley and hope she understands what she loved but Scarlett persist therein stubbornly believe that she loved Ashley Fortunately she realized her pure love Faced Ashley s weakness she realized Rhett was her real backbone Rhett always gave her spirit and material support When she was afraid of poverty and other things Rhett always accompany her When Melanie dead Scarlett suddenly found the one she loved is Rhett instead of Ashley Melanie s dead made she wake up In the end of the novel Scarlett said Tomorrow is another day 3 3 Scarlett Advanced Capitalist Thoughts and Feminist Ideology In the image of Scarlett the author gives her much superiority such as her bravery independence strength Among them her progressive capitalists ideology is superior over many women s at that time 3 3 1 Spirit of Adventure and Innovation In the beginning of the novel girls were expected to act like air brained coquettes before they married and afterwards were expected to manage households She inherited her aptitude for math from her mother and her strong will from her father When she bought her first mill it was with honorable intentions she wanted to put a new roof on Tara and have enough money so the imposition of taxes would never again be a threat But her desire for money is never satisfied The more she has the more she wants whether she really needs it or not However she is able to handle the worst tragedies by thinking about them tomorrow She perfected the concepts tomorrow is another day and things always look better in the morning In many ways it s not so much that she puts things off but that she deals with the problems she can resolve at the moment and puts the other problems aside until she can create a solution She creates her own 黄河科技学院毕业论文 第 9 页 problems but doesn t whine about them If she can t fix the problem she simply ignores it 3 3 2 Rebelling against the Old World As for Scarlett s marriage life she has the good sense to show disdain rigid manners They were 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 thought Scarlett has no use for all this play acting although she practices it when it will be to her benefit She does however have a practical way of looking at southern customs so it doesn t bother her a great deal when other ladies gossip about her for not acting like a lady This is Scarlett a beyond secular woman have the courage of showing self and risked the danger of reputation 3 3 3 Progressive Feminist Ideology To get and save enough money Scarlett buys a sawmill herself She shuttled back and forth in Atlanta city with the whole town talking about her And she makes a success Simultaneously she is excluded out of social contacts All she has done is to be different from other women and she has made a little success of it That is the one unforgivable sin in any society Be different and be damned As Rhett says to her Scarlett the mere fact that yodeled Remember a well bred female s place is in the home and she should know nothinu ve made a success of your mill is an insult to every ma