Abstract
This paper mainly discusses Scarlett O′ Hara’s particular characters, her secret of survival, her relations with other roles and why she is always criticized. Scarlett, who’s clever, coquettish, stubborn and diligent, is different from other aristocratic woman. She has been married for three times and killed a thieving Yankee soldier; then buys sawmills, peddles timbering herself and earns money openly. The worst thing is she succeeds in business while other gentlemen lead poor lives. She is different, and also damned. But she is judged as a new woman in the old time.
Undoubtedly, if Scarlett were in our society, she would live comfortably. Meanwhile, she is a good example of survival. But we can not imitate Scarlett in all her ways. On the other hand, critics nowadays should criticize Scarlett in a new way, the way of how to survive in modern society.
That is to say, “be different〞is not equal to〝be damned〞.
Key Words
Rebellious; different; new woman
摘 要
这篇文章主要描述了文学名著《飘》中的女主人公—斯佳丽·奥哈拉，她独特的个性，与小说中其他人物的关系，以及她总是被批判﹑谴责的原因。斯佳丽不同于其他贵族妇女，她聪明﹑迷人﹑勤勉并且倔强而坚定。她共有三次婚姻，枪杀了一名正在家中行窃的北方士兵；后来买下锯木厂，自己为卖木材而四处奔波，最后公然地赚取了很多钱。在许多绅士还过着贫困潦倒的生活时，她却获得了成功，这是人们认为最不能接受的事情。她与众
不同，因此被谴责，但却是“旧”时代的“新”女性。
毫无疑问，如果斯佳丽生活在当今社会，她会很幸福，同时也是我们学习的好榜样。当然，我们不能效仿她的一切；另一方面，当今的评判家应该从怎样在现代社会生存的角度，来对她作出全新的评价。
与众不同，并不意味着该被批判。
关键词
反叛；与众不同；新女性
Introduction
Katie Scarlett O′Hara, the leading role of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, always gets mixed reception. However, no matter how selfish, indifferent and cunning or strong, able and clever she is judged as, she is a new woman in the old time.
Scarlett O′Hara, the daughter of a well–bred South Carolina mother and a rich self–made planter father, beautiful and charming, has many beaux. But she only “loves”Ashley Wilkes, “Since that day two years ago when Ashley, newly home from his three years Grand Tour in Europe, had called to pay his respects, she had loved him. It was as simple as that” (Margaret, 27). At that day, in Scarlett’s eyes, Ashley’s “drowsy grey eyes wide with a smile and the sun so bright in his blond hair that it seemed like a cap of shining silver”(Margaret, 27). From then on, the aureole on Ashley’s head shining all along in her heart until she finally realizes that what she has really loved and pursued for such long time is not Ashley himself but the aureole on his head. Because of the “love” to Ashley, Scarlett has “hated” Melanie Hamilton, the wife of Ashley Wilkes, for many years. Simultaneously, because of the “love” to Ashley, Scarlett has neglected and refused Rhett Butler’s genuine love. And not until Melanie’s death does she realize whom her close friend, firm partner is and whom her real lover, stable supporter is and also whom she truly and steadfastly loves.
Through the war and during the reconstruction Scarlett acts as a heroine. “She survives trial by fire and hunger” (Dawson, 10). 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 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” (Margaret, 1011). This is Scarlett, rebel, willful and stubborn, different from other aristocratic woman; she is self-confident, independent, sagacious and candid. These characters make Scarlett be scolded much by critics, “be different and be damned”(Margaret, 663).
Ⅰ.Description of Scarlett’s Special Characters and Styles
Before the Civil War, Scarlett lives in a nearly perfect family. A gentle mother, a rich father, and a black mummy look after her well, and they make her a beautiful but spoiled girl. On the other hand, she’s clever, diligent, brave and stubborn. Owing to these characters, her actions make her very welcome in gentlemen but unwelcome in ladies.
A. The Background of Scarlett’s Family
Scarlett shows her difference at the right opening of the novel. She has a “gently bred Creole mother from the seacoast” (John, 253). Ellen O′Hara, has never been seen “stirred from her austere placidity nor her personal appointments anything but perfect, no mater what the hour of day or night” (Margaret, 42). “There was a steely quality under her stately gentleness that awed the whole household” (Margaret, 43). 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”(Margaret, 62). 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” (Margaret, 48). This conclusion seemed to fit for Scarlett, too.
B. Scarlett’s Different Attitudes to the Social Life and Her Happiness Antebellum
C. Scarlett’s Rebellious Activities in Atlanta during the Civil War
Then comes the Civil War. After her impulse (marry Charles Hamilton to “retaliate” Ashley Wilkes’ marriage to Melanie Hamilton) Scarlett is soon widowed, to her dismay, motherhood follows. Of course Scarlett can not fell contented in her widow life, she still wants to dance, laugh and be courted as Scarlett O′Hara, not Scarlett Hamilton. And so, with the help of Rhett Butler, Scarlett begins to search for another paradise in her life. When she is still in mourning, Scarlett “tossed her head and sped out of booth” (Margaret, 189), hurriedly steps into the dancing floor, and begins her another rebel life. She begins to think for herself instead of letting others think for her again. At that very time, she forgets herself and her rearing neglects the look on the chaperons’ faces, cares not what she will be criticized, she just wants to dance, to release her partly from mourning.
D.Scarlett’s Pursuit of Freedom and Happiness
One whole year after Charles Hamilton’s death, Scarlett is partly liberated. Despite wearing mourning, she is back again where she has been before she marries Charles, as if she were Scarlett O′Hara again, the belle of the county. Careless of the disapproval of others, “she behaved as she had behaved before her marriage—went to parties, danced, went riding with soldiers, flirted…”(Margaret, 215). Life is still attractive, like she is. She enjoys her normal-like life again. She, Scarlett, energetic and animated, how can she be defined forever? Much less, the man she married has never gained her love at all! So that Scarlett, who is willing to, and destined to, pursue a passional life. Obviously, she is different, and still is scolded for being different from the social code. However, in modern society, no one has the right of obstructing a widowed lady from pursuing happiness, especially remarriage.
E.Scarlett’s Bravery and Stubbornness
Not long later Ashley goes back to team, he is captured. Meanwhile, Melanie finds herself pregnant. As the battlefield situation gets worse, the residents of Atlanta begin to flee away. Same as the others, Scarlett wants to go back to Tara, too. But Melanie’s dangerous health condition retains her at Atlanta to accompany, protect and help her. Originally, Scarlett fears Yankees, fears bombs and misses Tara, especially her mother terribly. She has planned to leave to Tara, but when Melanie refers to her promise to Ashley, and praises her for her bravery and sturdiness, and begs her to stay there, Scarlett nods. Then during the siege, Scarlett is fidgety to live in Atlanta City with the homesick biting her heart. In those days, she can leave Melanie with other madams and she herself goes back home with her son. In fact, Scarlett does think it over, but because of various reasons, the chief one of which is her promise to Ashley that she will take care of Melanie for him, she stays with Melanie, whose time is approaching during the shelling. Is it a kind of foolish chivalry? Certainly not! It is the kindhearted aspect of her nature. That is to say, Scarlett has not only bravery and stubbornness, but also sense of responsibility in her characters. This time, she is still different, but this is the only time she is not scolded for the difference. Maybe it is because she is nursing a generally acknowledged lady—Melanie.
Soon comes the first“the end of the world” in Scarlett’s life. That’s a sultry day, from the very morning has she known that Melanie’s pains are getting harder and she surely will have a hard time. At this emergent moment, the doctor can not come because he has to deal with hundreds of wounded soldiers. And at that very nasty day, the Yankees will take the city in no time. Nevertheless, the worst thing is, she has to face the reality, she will deliver the baby by herself!
Till the night falls, Scarlett succeeds to have Melanie’s baby bathed the first time. Melanie too, succeeds to fall asleep. “Now that the excruciating ordeal of helping Melanie through childbirth is over, Scarleet’s self control collapses.” Fear overwhelms her, turns her into a hysterical child who wants “to bury her head in her mother’s lap....If only she was home! Home with mother” (Blanche, 7). Again with the help of Rhett and his hard–earned stolen horse, Scarlett is led through the burning city and the dangerous countryside until she can go on safely alone—at least in Rhett’s view she can. The rest distance is lightless, bumpy and endless to her, and there might be North and South Armies on her way home. Due to her bravery and stubbornness once again, after a day and night’s painful journey, Scarlett and others, safely arrives at Tara, her home.
F. Scarlett’s Wisdom and Diligence in the Reconstruction
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 he is like a child, no longer a strong man, 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.
The long road from Atlanta to Tara has ended, “in a black wall, the road that was to end in Ellen’s arms” (Margaret, 409). 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. “There was no security or heaven to which she could turn now” (Margaret, 410); there is no one 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’s 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” (Margaret, 411).
The next morning Scarlett forces her to endure body’s stiffness and sore, 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 aren’t 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” (Margaret, 419). This is her dauntlessness.
What an announcement of struggle! Indeed it is a day that is worthy of celebration. That symbolizes the birth of a completely new woman, a heroine in the old time. From then on, the shell of hardness, which has begun to form about her heart when she lies in the slave garden, is slowly thickening. Scarlett, who is more advanced than others, firstly realizes that her mother’s ordered world is gone and a brutal world has taken its place. “She sees, or she thinks she sees that her mother has been wrong, and she changes swiftly to meet this new world for which she is not prepared” (Margaret, 425). This is her perceptivity.
Both of Scarlett’s two sisters and the slaves all refuse, or do not dare, to face the reality. Melanie, who can face the situation, but only endures and suffers passively, and she is not willing to, or can not, struggle against the bad luck positively and energetically. That is to say, once again, Scarlett is different and complained by everyone except Melanie—why does she become so cool, so chilly?
As for her courage and fieriness, Scarlett kills a thieving Yankees soldier, imperturbably and determinately—right before the Yankee’s shoot. Such an act is mass criticized by the critics, they accuse her of brutality and murderer. They condemn her living by hook or by crook, not like a fair lady. But actually, she only “does what under the circumstances must be done if she is to survived” (W.J, 109). 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” (Margaret, 431).
But in any case she will not give up Tara, and her folks. “She will seduce her sister’s fiancé in order to get his memory” (W.J, 108)—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.
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 you’ve made a success of your mill is an insult to every man who hasn’t succeeded. Remember, a well-bred female’s place is in the home and she should know nothing about this busy brutal world”(Margaret, 663). By now, we know, perhaps only partly, the reason why she is 〝different and damned〞.
G. Scarlett’s Secret of Survival
Ⅱ.The Relation between Scarlett and Other Important Characters
Surely, Scarlett is the soul figure in the novel, however, there are many other important roles accompany her. Among them, Rhett Butler is Scarlett’s genuine lover, Melanie is her true friend, and Ashley actually is her illusion.
A. Scarlett and Rhett Butler
In the final chapter of the novel, Rhett tells Scarlett why his feeling for her has changed: “I wanted you to play like a child—for you were a child, a brave, frightened bull-headed child. I think you are a child. No one but a child would be so headstrong and so insensitive...I like to think that Bonnie (their daughter) was you, a little girl again” (Margaret, 1004). Rhett tells Scarlett this after she admits that her image of Ashley has been a little girl’s illusion... In discarding the illusion, the image from the past, Scarlett discards completely her girlhood; she becomes an adult, the point toward which the novel has been moving. And by the time she has been an adult, Scarlett also loses Rhett...Rhett wanted, in other words, “to be the master..., the father of the child-woman, allowing her the benevolence of his paternity” (Dawson, 17).
In the final scene between two adults “this was the first time he had ever talked to her in this manner, as one human being to another, talked as other people talked, without flippancy, mockery or riddles” (Margaret, 1003), in this final scene, Scarlett matures, Melanie’s death buries the old pattern of behavior(like she has done). Time has brought changes that call for new modes of behavior. The female parent, the old order has passed away. Scarlett, the woman, is free to exert her own vital self; she is emancipated (gratifying or lamentable?). “And only completely so after Rhett leaves” (Dawson, 17). According to this, Rhett’s leaving is not sad, we should, instead, be pleased. “He’s got to go as long as she feels that Scarlett should have remained a child.” His leaving is not a mask of strength, but of weakness and of blindness, the blindness that tradition has produced (Dawson, 18).
B. Scarlett and Melanie
But it is this quiet, pliable and delicate Melanie who is the tower of strength of Scarlett. With Melanie, there is the strength upon which Scarlett has relied unknowing for so many years. Melanie “is the only woman friend” Scarlett ever has, “the only woman except mother who really loved” Scarlett (Margaret, 988). Melanie “had always been there beside her with a sword in her hands, unobtrusive as her own shadow, loving her, fighting for her with blind passionate loyalty, fighting Yankees, fire, hunger, poverty, public opinion and even her beloved blood kin” (Margaret, 988). Melanie is the only one who never criticizes Scarlett’s being different for she knows that only people like Scarlett can survive. What a pity that she can not follow Scarlett!
The reason is that Melanie belongs to the old order. She, of course, is “the ideal of southern feminine graciousness, the great lady personified as is Ellen O′Hara, Scarlett’s mother; but there is a toughness in her that is surprising. It is she who, though may starve, cannot compromise her principles (Robert Y, 144).
C. Scarlett and Ashley
Ashley Wilkes, the last character to be discussed, has been Scarlett’s lover she has dreamed for many years. The same as Scarlett, he thinks that he loves Scarlett, too. He thinks he loves her for she is “so fine and strong and good,” so beautiful, not just her sweet face, but all of her, her body and her mind and her soul (Margaret, 270). He even tells her “I love you, your courage and your stubbornness and your fine and your utter ruthlessness. How much do I love you? So much that a moment ago I would have outraged the hospitality of the house which has sheltered me and my family, forgotten the best wife any man ever had, enough to take you here in the mud like a...” (Margaret, 520). Also while Melanie is dying he finally realizes that his lover is Melanie. Isn’t that too late?
Conclusion
Both Ashley and Melanie are anachronisms as the result of the disruption of the war (Dawson, 14). The old order, the life of tradition is, of course, represented in them. The Wilkeses are bookworms, they always send off for books of poetry, take European tours, and marry their cousins. Their plantation, Twelve Oaks, is everything romanticists would like to believe about the old south.
Now we see, Scarlett and Rhett, the two strong figures, and Melanie and Ashley, the two weak ones, “were products of external characterization rather than psychological motivation, yet they gave the appearance of reality in manners and dialogue, seeming to be shaped by inner stresses and social forces rather than by prefabricated temperaments” (James D, 263). Only those who adapt themselves to the changes can survive, even if they are different in the old time. The weak ones are destined to be eliminated.
In this aspect, Scarlett has done well. She can love and hate with a violence, “her voice was brisk and decisive and she made up her mind instantly and with no girlish shilly-shallying. She knew what she wanted and she went after it by the shortest route, like a man, not by the hidden and circuitous routes peculiar to women” (Margaret, 624). She wants not only to survive, but also to prevail and will use any means at hand to gain her ends, and she wins, still keeps an uneasily known kind heart. Those are characters needed for success, in 21st Century. If Scarlett were living in modern society, instead of the old time, she surely could lead a happy and comfortable life, like many other white-collar women do.
In short, Scarlett is a new woman in the old time. She is different and damned. However, the society which we live in is an advanced one, so we can imitate her, of course not in all her ways. Fortunately, we could 〝be different〞as she is, moreover, not〝be damned〞as she is.
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