A Critical Analysis of the Character of Scarlett in Gone with theWind from the Feminist Perspective

从女性主义的视角分析《飘》中斯嘉丽的人物形象

Purpose and Significance of the Study

Margaret Mitchell, born in Atlanta, Georgia, was a famous American writer. In 1937, She won the Pulitzer prize for her representative novel Gone with the Wind. Two years later, a movie was adapted from the novel, which was held in Atlanta on December 15, 1939. It created much of a stir and quickly swept the world. On the night of August 11, 1949, a car accident carried off the life of young Margaret Mitchell. She didn#8217;t leave a child for the world, while the world had an immortal legend because of her.

This novel told us that Scarlett was a daughter of rich owner of a plantation in Atlanta in South American. She married three husbands within 12 years, and she became a widow twice and even lost her baby unfortunately. She attracted many men but the one she loved, which led to her disappointment to love and marriage, so each marriage was a hasty decision.

The first time was caused by revenge, because Ashley married Melanie not herself, so she married Melanie#8217;s younger brother. The second marriage was because of money interests. In order to get rid of the dilemma and bear the family responsibility, she married Frank, a rich entrepreneur. However, Frank was shot and she became a widow. The third marriage was to make life better, she married Rhett. She viewed marriage as a tool to achieve her goals, which showed her selfish and ignoble.

This paper will give further explanation of the character of Scarlett in the novel from the feminist perspective from several aspects such as before the war, during the war and after the war. Besides, her marriage will be discussed in the paper. After all, tomorrow is another day. The ending of the novel gives us a space for imagination.

Literature Review

Margaret Mitchell, an American author. She only wrote the book ”Gone with the Wind” in her life. On June 30, 1936, the novel accidentally broke all of the published record and was a big success. The novel described the people#8217;s life before and after the civil war in the United States and image of many southerners. The typical representatives are Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley and Melanie. And the main line is the love entanglement between Scarlett and Rhett. It successfully reproduced the Lincoln's leadership of the civil war and social life in the southern areas of the United States. In the novel, the main character Scarlett was a complicated southern female image and also was a combination of the most representative character. The most attractive part in the novel is the Scarlett#8217;s character and her marriage. Her marriage is not that one kind of poetic and romantic emotional appeal, but the reality and utilitarian.

The background of the novel was that under the Southern plantation economic system, the ruling class was the plantation owner with a large number of slaves. It also described the people#8217;s life before and after the Civil War. At that time, men had higher status and were more important than women. However, in order to express her own value of being independent as a female, Margaret Mitchel created the main character Scarlett who encouraged democracy to struggle for female#8217;s status. ”Thus, Gone with the Wind registered the ways nineteenth-century Southern history extends the Ulster and Munster plantations of seventeenth-century Ireland disrupts the familiar dynamics of Irish-British in order to portray assimilation into the American planter elite.” (Amy Clukey, 2013)^[1]