Character Appearance
Scarlett O'Hara is not beautiful. There are two striking features on her face: one is the delicateness of her mother, who comes from the traditional French seaside aristocracy; the other is the roughness of her father, who comes from the flashy and tacky Irish. These two features seem incongruous when mixed together, but the pointed chin and square gum bones on this face are very eye-catching.
Her light green eyes are so pure that there is no trace of brown, and paired with black eyelashes and raised corners, they look full of charm. There were two thick, dark eyebrows slanting there, marking a very clear slant line on her magnolia-white skin. Such fair skin was extremely precious to southern women. ?
Characteristics
Scarlett is the heroine in "Gone with the Wind". Her character is multi-faceted and she is a female character that is both ordinary and extraordinary. Her ordinaryness is mainly reflected in the fact that she has a character like thousands of girls, passionate and romantic, kind and elegant. Her extraordinary is because the outbreak of war made this woman brave, strong and hardworking. Scarlett was born into a large plantation owner's family. She was beautiful and generous, dignified and elegant, but she also had the same shortcomings as girls from big families, including vanity, willfulness, and pride. After experiencing the baptism of war, her character transformed and she became a strong person in life.
Scarlett admired her mother very much when she was a child. No matter what situation she encountered, she would think of her mother to seek refuge. Therefore, she had a very deep relationship with her mother. When her mother was seriously ill, she wanted to rush back to her former manor and return to her parents who had protected her from the ups and downs of life. But because Ashley had promised to take care of his wife Melanie, he stayed in Atlanta. When she finally returned to the manor, her mother had passed away the day before she returned home, and her father went completely crazy due to excessive grief. The manor that had experienced the war had lost its former prosperity and was in ruins.
These changes brought a huge blow to Scarlett and made her exhausted mentally and physically. But fortunately, she was able to clearly realize that she could not wallow in grief and needed to be strong, because the old and young in the family The child still needed her to support her, so she finally put aside her pride and dignity as a rich daughter and chose to work hard day and night like those black slaves. Although she experienced all kinds of grief, hardship and humiliation, Scarlett was not defeated, but instead made her stronger.
She learned to direct her family to work and perform their duties. Everyone went to the fields to pick cotton. When her manor was invaded by northern cavalry and the safety of herself and her family was threatened, Si Carrie bravely raised her gun and killed the intruder, protecting the property left behind by her mother and the fruits of the family's labor.
In the past, she was kind-hearted and could not even bear to hurt domestic animals, but after experiencing the cruel reality, she was so cruel that she could eliminate anyone or anything that stood in her way. The tragic experience made her stronger and more courageous. When she had no money to pay taxes, she realized the important role of money, so she wanted to marry Rhett Butler to preserve the manor. She made an elaborate skirt out of curtain cloth and went to Atlanta to find Rhett Butler. But at this time, Rhett Butler was already in jail. Just when Scarlett was desperate, she met and married her sister's fiancé Kennedy to save the estate.
Character experience
Scarlett is the daughter of a large plantation owner. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, she was a willful, vain, and proud aristocratic lady. Although Scarlett is born with beauty, she doesn't like reading, and she is even less interested in Ashley's favorite poems and songs. She also has a strong vanity. She only cares about beautiful clothes every day and is keen to participate in various activities. No matter where she goes, she will attract everyone's attention and become the center of attention. Countless men will fall in love with her. At this time, Scarlett was still an innocent little girl, and her vanity made her think that she could make any man succumb to her with her beauty and skills.
But when she knew that Ashley, whom she admired, was about to marry the plain-looking Melanie, she couldn't believe this fact. She wishfully believed that the person Ashley loved was her, and she even recklessly asked Ashley to elope with her, but was ruthlessly rejected by Ashley. After her true confession was rejected by Ashley, Scarlett married Melanie's brother Charles, whom she disliked, out of anger. Even after marrying Charles, Scarlett could not forget her first love Ashley.
After the Civil War broke out, her husband died on the battlefield and Scarlett became a widow.
But because Scarlett doesn't love her husband, she is not sad. Life goes on, and the main problem she faces is how to survive this difficult time. Before Ashley went to the front line to fight, she entrusted Scarlett to take care of his wife Melanie, who was about to give birth. However, Scarlett was also under tremendous pressure at this time - her mother was about to be critically ill, and she was in unspeakable physical and mental pain. She couldn't breathe. She also wanted to give up her promise to Ashley and return to her mother to take care of her sick mother, but she finally gave up the idea and chose to take care of Melanie.
After hearing Melanie's painful moans during childbirth, Scarlett, who had no experience in delivering babies, actually helped Melanie deliver the baby without a doctor, and then took the dying Melanie and the newborn baby with her. The kid left Atlanta. On the way to escape, they met an old cow. In order to get fresh milk for the baby, the former wealthy lady tore her only skirt into many small strips of cloth and tied them up with great fear. He got up and subdued the cow without any helpers and with his hands covered in blood.
After the end of the civil war, facing the changes in society, she became more aware of the reality and her own situation, and realized that only money could guarantee the life of herself and her family, so she began to have a more thorough understanding of money. For a crazy pursuit. For money, she robbed Frank, her sister's lover, and married a man she didn't love; in order to make money, she completely abandoned the historical concept of staying at home, abandoned her due nobility and reserve, and bought a sawmill on her own. factory, showed his face, and started doing business with people. Although her husband lost his life for this, she was also criticized by others.
But Scarlett did not back down from these rumors. In order to obtain more profits, she once again challenged the tradition and hired prisoners to work in the factory, forcing them to work day and night. These actions of hers were criticized and criticized by her relatives and friends, and caused a sensation in the local area. But none of this stopped Scarlett from pursuing money. Shortly after her husband died, she married Rhett Butler before taking off her mourning clothes, despite the objections of her relatives and friends. Rhett Butler became a nouveau riche through the war and was despised by the upper class at the time, but Scarlett didn't care about this at all. As long as she could live a prosperous life and no longer suffer from hunger, nothing mattered.
Although Scarlett is very utilitarian in life, she is also romantic and full of ideals when it comes to love. She loved Ashley so much that she was even willing to abandon everything just to be with him. But she only loves Ashley in her imagination. The real Ashley is a fragile person who likes to dwell on the past and always escapes from reality. Compared to Scarlett, he is extremely cowardly and unable to adapt to the changes of the times. .
From this point of view, Scarlett and he are completely different people, with completely different pursuits and personalities. It wasn't until Melanie's death that Scarlett truly understood that only by marrying Rhett Butler, who had always loved her deeply, could she get everything she wanted. This person was the one truly worthy of loving her wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, Rhett Butler lost his love. The queen chose to leave Scarlett.
Extended information:
"Gone with the Wind" is a novel written by American writer Margaret Mitchell. The work won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1937.
The novel takes Atlanta and a nearby plantation as the story setting, depicting the life of American southerners before and after the Civil War. The work depicts the images of many southerners of that era, with Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley, Melanie and others in the center being typical representatives. Their customs and etiquette, words and deeds, spiritual concepts, and political attitudes, through the love entanglement of Scarlett and Rhett as the main line, successfully reproduced the Civil War led by Lincoln and the social life of the American South.
Creative background
1. Historical background
The American Civil War destroyed the economy of Georgia and even the entire South. Black slaves regained their freedom, and the former slave owners were pampered. Good times pass with the wind and drift far away. In order to survive, they must put down their arrogance and work hard, otherwise they will only die. Even the backbone of Atlanta's upper class society has to condescend to others, such as the cake seller selling cakes and the carriage driver driving the carriage. ?[5]?
2. Era background
Feminist literature began in the 19th century and began to flourish in the 20th century. The rapid development of feminism is closely related to the social environment and background of the times.
As the ideas of freedom, equality, fraternity and natural human rights advocated by the French Revolution quickly became popular throughout the world, starting in the 1830s, a women's rights movement was fought for women's equality in politics, economy, education, etc. The movement begins. Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, published in 1936, came out under such circumstances.
Influence of the work
"Gone with the Wind" came out on June 30, 1936, breaking all publishing records at the time. In the first six months, its circulation reached 10 million copies, and its daily sales reached a maximum of 50,000 copies. It was priced at US$3, but was sold to US$60. At that time, the monthly rent of a good hotel in the United States was only US$30. Such critical acclaim and critical success earned it the Pulitzer Prize and the American Publishers Association Award in 1937. ?
The character creation of "Gone with the Wind" breaks the traditional, single creation method. The diverse combination of characters has become a major highlight of this novel. With the background of war, it vividly demonstrates the vividness of each character. Living characters, and the Scarlett family show the author's views on black equality.
The combination of characters shows a round character. Through the collection of round characters, it also shows multiple aspects of the historical environment of the novel, thus recording in detail a turbulent history and a moment of gunfire. And the growth of different people in moments like this. Through different character developments, the far-reaching influence of the environment on people is revealed. This method of describing character combinations also had a great impact on the artistic creation of novels in later generations.
There is only one writer who becomes famous all over the world and occupies a place in the literary world just because of one work. American female writer Margaret Mitchell is such a unique writer. "Gone with the Wind" caused a sensation after it came out in 1936. After it was put on the screen by Hollywood, Mitchell became famous all over the world. Faced with the honor, Mitchell modestly said that the writing in "Gone with the Wind" was not beautiful, the ideas were not great, and she was just an amateur writing enthusiast.
She declined various invitations and has been living a reclusive life with her husband. Since this book was first published in 1936, it has been translated into 29 languages ??around the world and has sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide. In 1937, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize. The movie "Gone with the Wind" based on the book premiered in Atlanta on December 15, 1939, causing a sensation and quickly became popular all over the world. The actors Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, who played the male and female protagonists, have remained in the hearts of many movie fans because of this.
Reference materials:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Gone with the Wind (a novel written by Margaret Mitchell)
Baidu Encyclopedia-Scarlett O'Hare Pull