On the formation of Scarlett’s Character 论斯嘉丽的性格构成.doc

On the formation of Scarlett’s Character 1 Introduction The novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is a classic about the hard times suffered during and after the Civil War. It was published in 1936. Scarlett O’Hara, the heroine in Gone with the Wind, was a daughter of a southern planter. The novel mainly tells the life of Scarlett before and after the American Civil War and at the same time 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. She went through a bad pitch in which she changed from a simple and unaffected maid into a sagacious and efficient career woman. Scarlett has a complex nature, distinctive personality and unordinary experience. This paper mainly analyze the unique character of Scarlett from two aspects: the first one is her virtues and defects; the second one is the reasons for the formation of Scarlett’s character. The analysis aims at showing the eternal charms of the image and deepening our understanding of the novel. Through the war and during the reconstruction Scarlett acts as a heroine. “She survives trial by fire and hunger”. But unlike other epic heroes, Scarlett loses; she misses the best friend and lost the best husband in her world. However, Scarlett is Scarlett, a stubborn woman who always says, “Anyway, tomorrow is another day” to herself and then solves the problems. This time, “with the spirit of her people who would not know to defeat,even when it stared them in the face. She raised her chin. She could get Rhett back. She knew she could. There had never been a man she could not get, once she set her mind upon him”. This is Scarlett, rebel, willful and stubborn, different from other aristocratic woman; she is self-confident, independent, sagacious and candid. These characters make Scarlett bescolded much by critics, “be different and be damned”. 2