《飘》中斯嘉丽女性意识的觉醒

《飘》中斯嘉丽女性意识的觉醒摘要:玛格丽特·米切尔，美国作家，1937凭借《飘》获得普利策奖。

这既是她一生中唯一也是最著名的作品。

玛格丽特·米切尔出生于亚特兰大，在这儿她听说了许多有关美国南北方故事。

当她因伤在家时，她决定写一部有关这场战争的作品。

这是第一部以女性的角度描述有关美国内战的作品。

玛格丽特将视角放在了因遭受战乱而困于家中的女性。

纵观许多关于内战的作品，将重心放在了战争上。

而不是关于战争的主角人，而作为人类组成重要的一部分，女性也罕为许多作品所重视。

而这部作品，以女性的角度来观察内战。

许多批评家认为这是仅仅只是一部爱情故事。

然而，如果你带着对玛格丽特，对斯嘉丽，以及我们自己的一份思考，你会了解其背后的内涵。

本文将会从女性主义的角度分析这部作品。

第一部分是对作品的一个简单介绍，第二部分是对于女性主义的介绍，最后是关于作品中女性主义的具体分析。

关键词：内战；女性角度；女性主义The awakening of female consciousness of Scarlett's character inGone with the WindAbstractAs the first novel which describe American Civil War from women’s perspective, Margaret focuses on the suffering from the war of those women who stay at home and their difficult journey of reconstruction. Literary critics, on the basis of their respective knowledge and understanding have given different evaluation about this novel. Most of their researcher concentrates on the historical background of American Civil War, the abolitionist though, Scarlett’s particular character and the cultural discrepancy between the North and the South. Many critics question the literary value and outdated racial issue of Gone with the Wind. Some consider the novel superficial while treated it only a simple love story. However, the author thinks that the novel is most valuable if read with an understanding of three historical backgrounds, our own, Mitchell’s, and Scarlett’s. On the base of perspective of feministic, this paper wound analyzes the awakening of female self-consciousness reflected in this novel and its positive effect on the cause of women liberation. The first part of this paper is a general introduction to the work. Then the following chapter is introduction of the female consciousness, Chapter three is feminist analysis of Gone with the Wind and of Scarlet’s characteristic.Key words:Margaret; Scarlett; Civil War.AcknowledgementsFirst of all, I want to express my great gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Ge Youjin, both for her valuable advice and critical comments during the process of writing this essay. With patience and courage , he guided me this essay and discovered defects in my theorizing. Thought I know that the thesis might still contain some errors, for which I bear the whole responsibility.My thanks also go to all the teachers in the Department of English, whose scholarship has impressed me during my college years.I am also very grateful to my friends, who have given me useful help and courage when I am writing this essay.Finally, I greatly appreciate my parents's support and endless love. My heart swells with gratitude to all the people who helped me.Contents中文摘要 (i)Abstract (ii)1. Gone with the wind1.1 The introduction of the author (3)1.2 The brief introduction of the story (5)2.The Female Consciousness ················································································2.1 The definition of the Female consciousness (5)2.2 The background of the Female consciousness (7)2.3 The development and influence of the Female consciousness (8)3.Specific analysis (8)3.1 The analysis of the characters in the novel character (8)3.2 The specific examples and analysis of the awakening of the consciousnes of the novel (9)3.3 The great significance of the female consciousness of Gone withthe Wind (9)4.Analyzing the novel's theme and its significance and enlightenment for the modern society (14)5.Conclusion (17)6.Notes Bibliography (14)introduction1.1 The introduction of the authorMargaret Mannerly Mitchell, an American author, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel Gone with the Wind. It was the only and best book she wrote in her all life, Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta, where she can hear many stories about the war between the northern and southern states in American, and when she was wounded in home, she decided to write a book about the war .This work is one of the most popular books of all time.1.2 The brief Introduction of the storyThe novel Gone with the Wind was set the times of the Civil War in Atlantic. At that time, the South is a new reclaimed land where the industrial civilization has not yet penetrated it. Soon or later, the American Civil War broke out. Ashley and Charles joined the war. Unfortunately, Charles died in the war. Scarlett became a widow, but she has been in love with Ashley.2.The female consciousness2.1 The definition of the female consciousnessFeminism is the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of activities int ended to achieve this state. Hundred years ago, women’s social statue was quite low, women was treated as appendage to men, they only had rights of living, their manner, speaking and behavior were regulated by a series of serious rules and discipline. With the education spreading among women and the awakening of female self-consciousness, they came to realize that they should defend their economic, political and other rights and pursue equal treatment like men. Then there appear feminism. Feminism is a series of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Feminism is mainly focused on women's issues.2.2 The background of the female consciousnessHundred years ago, women’s social statue was quite low, women was treated as appendage to men, they only had rights of living, their manner, speaking and behavior were regulated by a series of serious rules and discipline. With the education spreading among women and the awakening of female self-consciousness, they came to realize that they should defend their economic, political and other rights and pursue equal treatment like men.2.3 The development and influence of the Female consciousnessFirst-wave feminism was a series of activities during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In the U.K. and U.S., it focused on promoting equal contract, marriage, parenting, and property rights for women. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused mainly on gaining political power, particularly the right of women's voting, though some feminists were active in campaigning for women's sexual and economic rights at this time.Second-wave feminism is a feminist movement beginning in the early 1960s and continuing to the 20th and it coexists with third-wave feminism. Second wave feminism is largely concerned with issues of equality not only suffrage, but things like ending discrimination. Second-wave feminists treat women's cultural and political inequalities as its main purposes that to be deal with. During this period, feminist encourage women to understand aspects of their personal lives deeply by means of public promoting. The feminist activist and author Carol Hamish came up with the slogan for the first time "The Personal is Political", which became synonymous with the second wave.Third-wave feminism is start from 1900 to the present. It arose as a response toward failures of the second wave and also as a response to the movements created by the second wave. Third- wave feminism often correct the second wave’s ideas and movements that are not good for females. It accommodates contradictions; conflict and changes. The third wave has its origins in the mid-1980.3.Specific analysis3.1 The analysis of the characters in the novel character3.2 The specific examples and analysis of the awakening of the consciousnes of the novelScarlett’s mother Ellen, a typical noble and elegant female character, is a faultless woman with selfless love. Although she abides by the traditional conventions, she is also a girl with flesh and blood, thought and love. When her love is against ethical codes, she also flares resistant sparks, showing her self-consciousness. At the age of fifteen, Ellen irrevocably falls in love with her cousin Philip, a playboy. Her father firmly objects to it and manage to extrude Philip. Later Philip dies of a bar rioting. His death takes away all of Ellen’s hope. She adopts the only way a gir l can take to fight against her father’s autocracy——forcing her father to agree with her own choice of marriage with the threat of being a nun. She buries her desperation down in her heart and exhausts her life in selfless dedication to her family. However on her deathbed, what she calls out are not the names of her daughters or her husband, but her beloved Philip. Although her fight dose not make her live with her lover, it reflects women’s longing and pursuit for free love and self-directed marriage. This obviously oversteps the meaning of love and marriage themselves and extends to the pursuance of human rights and women’s independence.Scarlett O’Hara, the heroine, is an artistic character that has strong, clear-cut, and rebellious individuality. As t he apple of her parents’ eyes, she comes on the stage from the age of 16 to 28, during which she has married three husbands, been a widow twice, given birth to three babies and also has spared no efforts to revive the family business. When creating this female image, the author places her under the wild social background of American Civil War and the background of the reconstruction after the war, demonstrates her disposition and manners in multi-aspects of her life in love, war and family with a full reflection of her winding and changing psychological journey; thus brings about for the readers a female who is brave enough to face life, unwilling to be indifferent, and persistent in the pursuit of self-value.In the patriarchal society, Scarlett opposes to the gender discrimination from the bottom of her heart; she is neither reconciled to the passive position nor to the failure; besides, she keeps being herself, and always directly expresses and immediately takes action for what she wants. All of these are the epitomes of her strong sense of feminism. It can be said that she, form beginning to end, is against sexism and the fetters imposed on her by the gender attribution, and does her utmost to look for women’s rights which are equal to or even more than those of men’s with her own practices. She is the perfect embodiment of Virginia Woolf’s “androgyny” thought governed by two kinds of power at the same time: the feminine power, soft on theoutside while staunch on the inside; and the masculine power, tender inside despite a hard shell. She overthrows the images of “angels” or “lamias” in the patriarchal literature, and becomes a masculine woman——a woman with men’s wisdom, indomitable will and wild ambitions. As an image with the ideal personality of “androgyny” which is the deconstruction of gender binary opposition, Scarlett announces Margaret’s strong protest against male-centered values.French famous sociologist Julia Kristeva once said that “God” in patriarchal religion creates the world: he separates light from darkness, land from ocean, and a variety of animals and human beings from himself, putting over the original chaotic connection. Through similar separation, humans are divided into two categories: men and women. Women are departed from men, turning into wives, daughters, mothers, or being the three at the same time with the function of multiplication (Julia Kristeva, 1974). God seldom talks to women and most of religions in western cultures oppress women’s consciousness. In patriarchal society, Go d stands up for men, the evidences of which can be traced in the Holy Bible “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ” (Bible, 2008). Therefore women’s rebellion against “God” who defends male rights is an exhibition of their self-consciousness. Scarlett, the heroine, is such a woman who is afraid of neither “God” nor men.For Scarlett, religion is just a thing on the lips. When the whole family is praying, her disappointment and sadness have indeed gone with the wind, and she gains a sense of hope; however such comfort is not from God but from her mother’s peaceful face as she is praying. In Scarlett’s eyes, her mother Ellen rather than God is her real spiritual backbone and source of wisdom. Therefore when Scarlett leaves her mother, her religious convention becomes quite weak. “Scarlett’s conscience smote her at this last, for it had been months since she had been to church.”(Margaret Mitchell, 2008). In addition, the misery later brought by the war further stops Scarlett from going to the church, praying or communicating with God, for she feels that asking for God’s blessing dose little good to relieve her sufferings. She even questions God’s power and justice in her heart “For some time she had felt that God was not watching out for her, the Confederates or the South, in spite of the millions of prayers ascending to Him daily” (Margaret Mitchell, 2008). After pushing through the flames of the war and going through thick and thin, Scarlett return home Tara only to find her mother’s death and the devastated house with nobody and nothing to rely on. The death of her mother completely cuts off the contact between God and her, and becomes the symbol of her non-believing. The so-called “Omniscient and omnipotent” God cannot give her strength, nor can he be the one that can be counted on. Hence, she dose what she wants to do, says what she wants to say, and creates her own life with her own hands, regardless of the God’s wil l.From the very beginning she denies accepting the marriage proposed by her father. At the barbeque in the Twelve Oaks, she casts off lady’s style, takes the initiative to reveal her true love to Ashely and even proposes the idea of elopement. She throws off family bondage, steps out of the cave of “home” into society and no longer blindly sacrifices herself to fulfill others. Instead she courageously quests fortrue self and her value. Through her numerous anti-conventional behaviors, Scarlett demonstrates her outstanding judgments and courage. Her behavior outdoes what the patriarchal society has set for women, expressing women’s desire for self-consciousness and independent rights.3.3 The great significance of the female consciousness of Gone with the WindAs for the marriage in the traditional patriarchal society, men occupy the positive role while women are passive. However, Scarlett actively keeps searching for her own marriage and true happiness. She chooses to express her deep love to Ashely instead of accepting the marriage selected by her father. Although her later marriages are resulted from life forces, they are her own decisions. She is the rare master of her love and marriage in that era.For many years, there is only one man in her heart——Ashely. In order to win his love, she simpers, pretends to be innocent and shows her off with every means which she despises so much. For this blind love, she would rather to raise Ashely’s whole family. Furthermore, she is even willing to give up her lumber mill’s half profits just for Ashely’s stay. After Ashely’s return from the war, he has nothing except depression and inability. However Scarlett, who always disdains the weak and the coward, shows her great tolerance and understanding to him, taking every possible measure to support him materially. Lost in her love, Scarlett considers Ashely as a deity. She would give everything even her life to do what he wants. But when she stands a chance to get Ashely, she miserably finds that he is not her “Mr.Right”. “He never really existed at all, except in my imagination” (Margaret Mitchell, 2008). She realizes her real beloved is Rhett, the man who stands behind her but quietly supports and loves her. But unfortunately it is too late to realize it because Rhett, with a deeply broken heart, decides to leave her. Although Scarlett is at her wits’ end for a while, she regains her fighting spirit. She makes up her mind to get him back. She believes that she can make it as long as she has determined to do. She will not and neither can she admit failure. Her fate and her happiness are in her own hands. Therefore in Scarlett’s sub-consciousness, she has strong awareness of male conquest.4.Analyzing the novel's theme and its significance and enlightenment for the modern societyBefore the Civil war, the South is a new reclaimed land where the industrial civilization has not yet penetrated it. The residents rest on the rolling money gained by cotton planting and picking. There, within the shadow of chivalry, keeps the skin-deep grace and splendor. Women living on the red soil are delicate flowers, tightly clinging to men and decorating men’s world. They have no rights to vote. Nor can they control their belongings or children after they get married, let alone draw a will or make a treaty without their husbands’ permission. Their social status is parallel to “that of a minor or a slave” (Deborah L.Madsen, 2006). They endure dualoppression not only from men but also from themselves, lying in the subordinate social position without the privilege to manage their own lives. In this male-dominated world, men stifle women’s development from every aspect.5. ConclusionGone with the Wind, an American novel by Margaret Mitchell is one of the most popular of all time. The author of Gone with the Wind is Margaret Mitchell, an American modern woman writer. She is frequently neglected by critics. Many people neglect the value of feminist learning contained in her work. So in her novel, we can find her idea of women’s equality and independence with men.Gone with the Wind is a very successful commercial novel; however it doesn’t get enough attention from the literary critics accordingly. If we focus on the limited critiques of Gone with the Wind, we can find that the novel was discussed only as a realistic romance. Few scholars analyze the novel from the feminist perspective. Actually, Gone with the Wind turns out turns out to be a valuable target to be studied and analyzed from the feminist perspective. The value of feminist leaning contained in the novel is very obvious.The author of Gone with the Wind is a woman who was deeply influenced with Feminism. The story of Gone with the Wind is set during the American Civil War and Reconstruction period. At that time, in the South, men were the dominance of women. In order to obey the passive femininity, the Southern women needed to appear timid, helpless, and feeble. They didn’t have the fundamental political and civil rights. And their economic and educational opportunities were also very limiter. This paper has analyzed the awakening of female self-consciousness reflected in this novel by analyzing the changes Scarlett gone through before the war, during the war and after the warThere are many lively and vivid characters in Gone with the Wind, and the most important one is Scarlett O’Hara. She is an extraordinarily energetic woman. Scarlett has the courage to survive the horrors and chaos of the war years. Her transformation is closely associated with the changing Southern culture and society. What impress the reader most is her constant feminist leanings which become and more noticeable in the novel. According to the analysis done by the thesis, it is found that Gone with the Wind is a valuable work which contains feminist leanings. We should read it and study it from different perspectives.At last, as the limitation of the thesis, the paper ends here, but it is obvious that researches on Gone with the WindWorks CitedAbraham, M Francis.,and P Subhadra, ed. Women, Development and Change: The Third World Experience. U.S.A: Wyndham Hall Press,1988.Bodin, Jeanne.,and Beth Millstein, ed. We, the American Women. U.S.A: Publisher, 1977.Chatham, New Jersey. Citizen Politics in Western Democracies . U.S.A:House Publisher Inc,1988.Norton, Mary Beth. 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