During the American history,the southerners,paid much attention to the family backgroued,so they worked hard for a good fames.Scarlett was depicted as a image which has been firmly decorated by the skilled hands of tradation and let her put on.She was a "beauty" then .She was born in a plantation owner's family.She had been her mother's ideal since her birth .Her mother Elen had grown up in a great tradiational family,and she intended to make her three daughters ladies of influential families.She was successful in making her two little daughters too,but unfortunatelly,She failed to do so on Scarlett,whose characteristic is similar to her father.On her way to be a literary lady,there were tribulations and thorns making it hard to walk on.Scarlett has been out of the ordinary from her birth and has the inherent antipathy to the criteria of the upper society .Althoug Elen has taught her everything that a literary lady should know,she just learns the polite behaviors successfully.As regard to the inner elegant quality connecting with those behaviors,she hasn' got it.
Scarlett's features,obviously mixed by those of her mother's,a coastal noble of French bloodline,and her father's,an Ireland descendant,is not only delicate but also uninhibited.However,on her beautiful face,we can see the things different".They sheerly come from the gentle teachings of her mother and the severe instruction of her step "mother".All these things were imposed on her.Her eyes are the only place that can show her inherent nature.
In a society dominated by men ,the southern ladies and the fairy ladies acted as the antitheses of female egos.The social morality and ethics request them to be the subordinate of men ,that is ,acting as a standard wife and a mother and a cute fairy lady without independent thought.However,Scarlett's behaviors are always opposite to the accient tradition.She used to say:"One day,I will do anything I want to do ,everything I want to say.I don't care what others say ."Actually,she did that.After marrying her second husband,Flank,she bought a sawmill with borrowed money and managed it on her own disregarding her husband's opposition and feeling,which made him disgraced in the presence of people and astonished the whole Atlanta .According to the tradition,a wife should be obdient and supported by her husband and a wife should be a good wife supporting her husband and raising her childern at home.But what Scarlett has done outlooked and astonished the Atlanta.Not only did she take over the shop when Flank was ill,but aslo bought the sawmill,dealt with the northerners,exceeded the man fellows in the competition.And therefore it caused lots of rumors and slanders.However, Scarlett still persisted in her old ways no matter what others said and headed for the determined target perseveringly,not being interrupted by the outside."I want not only husband,children and family,but ask for more than that." Scarlett was neither a faithful wife nor a responsible mother.Scarlett moved from behind her husband to the front stage,from the cage of the family to the broad world of the society and she was pursuing what she wanted all her life.According to the female,self_affirmation and opinion on authority of husband had changed like this gradually and finally women came from behind the scenes onto the stage and became the dominant part. Scarlett became the spiritual core when reconstructing the Attanta society while she dominated her own behaviors and sustained the family . The society which was authorised by father and whose characteristics were being centered by men had thus been rejected as unworthy of attention. Of course,the effect of war and society transformation was also included. Women's concept of value broke through traditional families and they received sufficient self-affirmation.Scarlett succeeded in changing from a southern lady to a bourgeous woman. Women's life space began to expand from narrow family life to wider social space and challenged the society,which is authorized by men ,To fight for more living space.
American poet John. P.John once appraised it like this,Under no condition should Scarlett be accepted.She is mean,superstitious as well as selfish that no body could catch up with her.Obviously she was one of that class. But she had some words and deeds to do with this class superficially only when she was in her modern times.As to their feelings,she has never shared with them.It is not understandable for her that one should have spirit.As for thought,what she knows most is the mean,cunning tricks that belong to peasants' awareness. On the basic of this point,she cares nothing except her precious skin,land and wealth. And those are just what she could continue by means of the cunning tricks. She cares for another one though she already has one in hand .For this reason,she killed a stealing northern soldier and looted her corpse.She married several times.She bought woodes.She exploited prisoners' labor.She used cheating tricks and killed several persons mercilessly." In the above paragraph ,John gave us an exact description of Scarlett's ugrly side in her personality by refined summarization. But on the countrary we have different opinion.Aren't these just the symbolizations of Scarlett being an modern women. The contradiction between tradition and anti-tradition in her,the pursuit for fresh things and the adaptation to new time touched a sensitive area in men's nerves.As the representative of women's rising,Scarlett is loved by lots of readers,anyway.
Someone said that the awakening of women's self-conscience is symbolized by always denying and rebelling against the family which is authorized by father or husband,making efforts to escape from the shackles of blood relationship,pursuing for stepping from the condition of living in caves to being herself in the universe.'' The rising of women is symbolized by the publicity of women's individual characters together with the extent of realization of women's self-value.In the traditional society,the idea was that men were the center of social activities while women were merely kinds of foil.The latter would only do things behind the former.However,with the transformation of the society and the development of age,women walked from behind the scenes onto the stage gradually and women's concience is waking little by little.
The author creates 3 important femal images;Scarlett,Melanie and Ellen.The auther made male characters only to provide foils for women. According to the auther,Ellen is a tie which links new era and old times while scarlett is a bourgeois female image of the new age.Ellen and Melanie are two images of scarlett's tutors of conscience.One is her mother,the other her aunt.They are both the maintainers and performers of the southern tradition,and the southern noble women and virtuous ladies,and standards of social moral.As Scarlett is concerned,Ellen is her idol,just like Malliya.However,she has been always betrying her instructions.Though she wants to be a virtuous lady just like her mother,there is great power makes her violate her mother's moral stipulations. It is such a contradiction that forgess her disposition having the courage to love,to hate,to do what she wants to do,to concentrate on her target,to swarm without little hesitation.In Tala,Ellen is the center of the family,no matter whether Scarlett admits.However,Ellen is willing to hide her feelings purposefully and abide by social morality received when she was very young so as to support Scarlett to be the center of the family.After Ellen's death,Scarlett lost her support, and she broke down,just like a dead person with a living shell.
Melanie ,with the character of a woman image of the ancient times,subject to old traditions,has access to the values cherished by the ancient people,and beholds her husband's mental constitution.After the war,Weihlly became a minerable man,subject to the recollections of the past and absent from reality,Seperatng himself from the society by means of building walls around himself.Melanie is the very bond which connects him with the traditional south.Though Weihelly is alive,he is thoroughly vigorousless .However,Melanie is always trying to protect his will as a husband.After the war,people like Weihelly neither afforded to maintain the tradition nor were likely to accept the reform.Avoiding reality became their common choice.Meanwhile,women began to assume the responsibility to rebuild the south,and Melanie became the base of all their hopes.Scarlett went even further than Melanie ,who had changed herself from a wife to an ambitious woman,neglecting Flank's will.No one could do with Scarlett ,neither Charlly nor Weihlly.Let alone Rhett who understood Scarlett much better.As for Scarlett ,the conscience of a woman had been awakened and had been swelling since then.
In this novel,the author describes self-consciousness of women by means of describing the Hanker after love,wealth and career of Scarlett.As for love,Scarlett longs for Weihelly.They failed away and failed,then she revenged on him and married Charles.It is obvious that Scarlett has a strong will to love as well as to hate.After 10 years,she realized she didn't love Weihelly but Rhett .But in this respect,we have seen the glory of a woman,who is willing to run after personal love and subject to personal emotion.
During the conflict between two sexes and between love and morality, we can transparantly see the courage and charm of Scarlett which are not accessible to the southern women of the primary time. Scarlett does her utmost to lead the family in sustaining the family presure under circumstances of having no man at all. We can see that she is responsible and preparatory to commit herself.She married one whom she could't fall in love with---Frank,only to get three hundren dollars.Running a sawing work aims to avoid starvation which she hates a lot, but she can't avoid assuming such responsibility, which she would never do. She claimed,I believe in the fact that a woman can do everything but give birth to a baby without the help of a man .She gets satisfaction and great pleasure from her career and the society."
As Byron once said:"love is a part to men in their life,but love is everything to women ." Byron's saying sharply spoke out the attitude towards love between men and women.However, with the development of times and society's reform,women have been gradually liberated from marriage and family.
Looking back to the literary history,we can easily see the hard process of women's liberation.Jane written by Charlotte Bronte was born humble,with life having ups and downs.But she always adheres to protect the independent personality, persue individual freedom, advocate equality and never yields to destiny.
Everyone is equal before God,Jane is in pursuit of equality in personality.However,Jane married Rochester.After all marriage in that time was the best way to solve women's problems.When Anna was tired of the family life without love,Anna made all sacrifices .She shouted out:I need love,I need life.This showed women's own pursuit.Instead,because they hold the sole idea about their own indentification as women,women can't get the real freedom in their hearts.Anna made a step starved in resistance,but at the same time Sell into an unknowable situation .The society has never given her a job for showing her self-value and she was alone. As Luxun said,Nara closed the door gently but where did she go ?"Either starved to death,or came back.The same as Anna .The road before her also is uncertain.From Scarlett,the heroine in "Gone with the Wind",we can see have women more independence now than before,both in love and career.Scarlett is always the dominator of her own love and she is in pursuit of what she loves boldly.None of men can control her.Charles can't do this,neither does Frank,Weilly can't bear her acute energy ,even Rhett gives up at last. In her career Scarlett shouldered the responsibility of management alone.After she married Frank,she also brought the wood-sawing farm with her.The independence in her management made women have an ability to support themselves.Instead,having corresponding economic position women can choose their own lives to a large degree. In modern society,the present new look of women's position and destiny is affected by many factors,and economy is one of them.At the end of this novel,when Rhett left her,Scarlett came to realize that Rhett was her beloved.But it was too late.Facing such a serious blow,Scarlett was still overthrown.In her heart,she still had the most precious land "Tara",which was the last mental fortress still arousing her courage for her life after she lost everything."I can think about this matter tomorrow,and I come to Tara to think it, then I'll bear it.After all,Tomorrow is another day."
"Gone with the Wind" is not a feminist work which asks for women's rights in politics.It is only a literary work about the female.It shows various and complicated consciousness of women,especially the awakening of self-consciousness and the personality of Scarlett."Gone with the Wind" is the about old age and the contents of life and tradition it represents have gone with the wind.When everything dies away,we can still memorize the leading dancer in the wind----Scarlett. |
