[关键词] 思嘉丽的性格;内因;外因;《飘》
正文开始:
1. Introduction
Gone with the Wind has been hailed as a triumph of American literature and film. In1937, Margaret. Mitchell won Pulitzer Prize, for her sweeping portrayal of the crumbling of the Old South. Since then, the novel has sold millions of copies. The film, a production by David O.Selznick, exceeded all expectations, receiving critical and public acclaim that included an unprecedented ten Academy Awards.[1] Even today, Gone with the Wind, despite its many historical inaccuracies, forms the basis of American popular memory of the Old South in the years since the Civil War, but Margaret Mitchell’s tale is the one that is most deeply embedded in American culture. The novel mainly describes the life of Scarlett who is the daughter of Tara’s master around the American Civil War. Meanwhile with the hint of a triangular love between Scarlett, Ashley and Rhett, the novel 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. This article analyzes the character of Scarlett from three aspects: the first one is her attitude towards life around the civil war; the second one is the exterior and internal reasons for the shaping of her character; the last one is Scarlett’s attitude towards love and marriage. The analysis aims at showing the eternal charms of the image, Scarlett in the novel.
2. Scarlett’s Attitude towards Life
Scarlett has the strong courage to face fresh and blood and to overcome difficulties, but this wish of independence is not accepted by the society at that time. But in modern society, Scarlett is definitely an independent female who has strong will. She has the spirit of not admitting failure even it is at present.
2.1 Scarlett’s Rebellion against Social Restrictions
Scarlett is a hybrid, who exhibits more of her Irish father’s hard-headedness than her mother’s refined Southern manners. Although initially she tries to behave prettily, her instincts rise up against social restrictions.[2]
Girls at that time are 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’s mother Ellen and Mammy also teach her all that a gentlewoman should know, but Scarlett never learns nor does she see any reason for learning it.
Scarlett shows her distain for the artificial manners: “I’m tired of everlastingly being unnatural and never doing anything I want to do. I’m tired of acting like I don’t eat more than a bird, and walking when I want to run and saying I feel faint after a waltz, when I could dance for two days and never get tired. I’m tired of saying, ‘How wonderful you are!’ to fool men who haven’t got one-half the sense I’ve got, and I’m tired of pretending I don’t know anything, so men tell me things and feel important while they’re doing it. “Some day I’m going to do and say everything I want to do and say, and if people don’t like it I don’t care.” She does as what she says with the development of the novel.[3] liuxuepaper.com.英语作文