The Analysis of Love View in Gone with the Wind《飘》的爱情观分析.doc

毕 业 论 文The Analysis of Love View in Gone with the WindAcknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Zhang Hongtao, for her constant encouragement, supervision and guidance. It would have been impossible for me to finish this thesis without her help. She pointed out some mistakes in my paper. Then I corrected them and made it become better than before. Also I would like to thank all the teachers who have great influence on my worldview and the attitude towards life, and to my beloved classmates, who helped me to collect reference materials for this thesis, and friends for their love and care in my study and life.Lastly, sincere and heartfelt thanks also for my family, for their love and support during my study in the university. I would like to extend my special gratitude to my parents who consistently support and encourage me at any time of my life. Abstract Margaret Mannerly Mitchell, an American author, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel Gone with the Wind. This novel is one of the most popular books of all time and it has always been regarded as one of the most classic love stories in American literature. It describes some love stories about the heroine Scarlett. This thesis aims to analyze the love view in Gone with the Wind. In this novel, Scarlett had three failure marriages. Her marriages were not based on love, just for satisfying her need. In retaliation for Ashley, she married Charles, in order to live, she married Frank, and in order to satisfy the vanity, she married Rhett. So, this paper will analyze Scarletts love view through analyzing her three marriages. There are two important factors that affect ones love viewcharacter and society. Scarlett had a complex character and her love views were deeply affected by her character. All these characters together with the special and complex historical background in America make her become a loser in love. So the causes of Scarletts love views will be explored by analyszing her character and the social background. Love view reflects the view of life; love was the foundation of marriage and they should be related to each other. In real life, many young peoples attitudes towards love and marriage may be inadvisable. Through analyzing Scarletts character and views on love and marriage in Gone with the Wind, the paper intends to make young people think deeply and establish proper attitude towards love and marriage.Keywords: love view; Gone with the Wind; character; social background 摘要 飘（Gone With The Wind）是一部出版于1936年的美国小说，作者为玛格丽特·米契尔，在1937年获得普利策奖。它成了美国史上最为畅销的小说之一，同时也被认为是美国文学史上经典的爱情小说之一。它围绕主人公斯嘉丽，描写了几段爱情故事。本论文旨在分析飘中的爱情观。小说中的斯嘉丽有三段婚姻，她的婚姻都是为了满足她的不同需要。为了报复艾希礼，她嫁给了查尔斯，为了生活，她嫁给了弗兰克，为了满足虚荣心，她嫁给了瑞德。所以，本论文将通过分析斯嘉丽的三段婚姻来分析她的爱情观。影响其爱情观的两个重要因素是性格特征和社会背景。斯嘉丽拥有复杂的性格特征，而她的性格深深地影响了她的爱情观，她的性格再加上美国当时复杂而特殊的历史背景使得她在爱情上成为一个失败者。所以本论文将通过对斯嘉丽的性格分析以及所处的社会背景来分析影响斯嘉丽爱情观的因素。爱情观反映一个人的生活观。爱情是婚姻的基础，它们是相互联系在一起的。 在现实生活中，许多年轻人对待婚姻和爱情的态度是不可取的，所以本论文希望通过对飘中斯嘉丽的性格以及爱情观分析帮助现代年轻人认真思考并树立正确的爱情观和婚姻观。关键词：爱情观；飘；性格特征；社会背景 Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstract in EnglishiiAbstract in ChineseiiiTable of ContentsivI Introduction11.1 The background and purpose of the research11.2 The thesis framework2II Literature Review22.1 Studies on Gone with the Wind from different perspectives22.2 Studies on the Marriage in Gone With The Wind42.3 Studies on the Character of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind5III The Analysis of the Love View in Gone with the Wind63.1 Introduction of Scarletts three marriages63.1.1 Scarletts first marriage with Charles63.1.2 Scarletts second marriage with Frank73.1.3 Scarletts third marriage with Rhett83.2 Causes of Scarletts love view93.2.1 Scarletts character93.2.2 The social background10IV The Enlightenment from the Love View in Gone with the Wind12V Conclusion13References14I Introduction This chapter mainly focuses on the background and purpose of the research, and then introduces the contents of the paper.1.1 The background and purpose of the research Margaret Mitchells novel Gone with the Wind is a typical love story. It described a few youths love imbroglio around the heroine Scarlett. In this novel, Scarletts attitude towards love and marriage was inadvisable. In order to resolve living problems or make her life better, she marriaged the men she didnt love but kept her love to Ashley. This appeares not only in novel, but also in real life. Nowadays, more and more young people have no correct love view and they dont know how to establish proper attitude towards love and marriage. Based on the phenomenon, this paper will do some work to help people establish the correct view on love and lest posterity repeat. The most focus is the study on the female protagonist of the novelScarlett OHara. Due to the complexity of the character of Scarlett, scholars study her from different aspects with various focuses. Some scholars deal with the characterization and the aesthetic values of Scarlett, while others try to focus on the realistic aspect of this character. Some articles focus on the traditional consciousness of Scarlett while others try to explore the rebellious aspect of her. Some focus their attention on the quite contradictory qualities of her while others try to understand the American culture through the analysis of this protagonist. Through reading these studies, readers will benefit a great deal since they will have the chances of getting to know this heroine from different perspectives and they will be able to master a comprehensive view of Scarlett. However, she didnt understand what the love was; each of her marriage was full of tragedy.This thesis is to present the character and love views of Scarlett who is the heroine in Gone with the Wind, and to analyze the relationship between Scarletts character and love views through analyzing Scarletts character and views on love and marriage in Gone with the Wind, the paper intends to make young people think deeply and establish proper attitude towards love and marriage.1.2 The thesis frameworkThe thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one, the introduction part, display the layout of the thesis after expounding the research background and main purpose. Chapter two justifies the study by reviewing the previous researches from different perspectives. Chapter three mainly concerns about the analysis of the love view in Gone with the Wind, by analyzing Scarletts views on love and marriage, and the causes of the love view. The enlightenment form the love view in Gone with the Wind will be compared in the forth chapter. The last chapter is the conclusion. Some suggestions and the limitations of the study will be presented in this part.II Literature Review Gone with the Wind has won the worlds largest audience for its pathos and delicate style. Since it was published, it had been among the forefront of the worlds best-selling book, sales second only to The Bible, but the position in literary history was not so high. Now there are more and more people addressing themselves to study it from many perspectives.2.1 Studies on Gone with the Wind from different perspectives Firstly, there are some essays about the relationship between Margaret Mitchell and her works. Anne Edwards (1983) wrote a book on Margaret Mitchells life. The book presents readers with the real language and the real thoughts of Margaret, which will help people to deconstruct the false legends about Margaret Mitchell. Carolyn Gage (1997) described a true-life Mitchell who suffered great grief after her fiancés death and then got flash marriage to a bootlegger which took her little happiness. And later, even though she enjoyed a fast pace of life, she could not escape the stigma of her gender. So when Mitchell reinvested her in the novel, she rewrote life the way she thought it should have been, and therefore, she created a right man instead of the dashing and sexually charismatic alcoholic. In this way, Gage concluded that Mitchells writing purpose was to reveal the delusion of female life and escape from her shadowy preceding life, so Gage appealed that females should not live in dream under the patriarchal society, but took Scarlett for example, to live in present and pursue what they needed.Secondly, female consciousness of tomorrow catches peoples attention. Luo Minyu (2005) thought that Gone with the Wind had three aspects and considered Scarletts consciousness of tomorrow as a kind of expectation: the first was to expect the freedom of life and equality between men and women, the second was to look forward to a peaceful world and happy homeland, and the third one was to expect a pure and true love.Thirdly, another popular topic is the comparison between Scarlett OHara and some females in other works, such as Jane Eyre or Wang Xifeng. Liang Yaru (2006) compared Scarlett OHara with Jane Eyre. Both Scarlett and Jane were brave, strong-minded, independent and rebellious against the restrictions which set against the females by the society of their own time. Moreover, many scholars focused their attention on the comparison and contrast of Scarlett with Wang Xifeng. Zhai Xu (2007) compared Scarlett and Wang Xifeng and thought that they were a typical paragon of feminism who possessed the awareness of womens awakening. Huang Lintao (2008) compared the tragic marriages of the two heroines of Wang Xifeng and Scarlett from A Dream of Red Mansions and Gone with the Wind. They both have similar characters, as they live in different time; the causes of their marriages are different. Wang Xifengs tragic marriage is a typical social tragedy while Scarletts is individual.Fourth, a majority of professors analyzed the novel from the perspective of feminism. Both Gu Shaoyang and Wang Yanli (2003) acclaimed the novel was a great one, not only because it reflected females self-awareness, especially after the war broken out and women had to go out to realize their economic independence, but also because it confirmed womens contribution to the society, praised their fraternity, selflessness and rebellious spirit, and revealed the belief that women should be liberated from families. Wu Shijuan (2006) and Xie Jingzhi (2005) also thought that Scarlett was a heroic female since she dared to break the traditional prejudice that “females are inferior to males”. She was brave enough to walk out of the house and entered into the “patriarchys world” and competed against the men for her economic independence. Liu Xiaoyong (2003) pointed out that Scarlett was increasingly maturing and in the end she became a Southern new woman with strong feminist leanings along with the advance of war and industrialization.Besides, some critics tried to analyze the novel from the perspective of eco-feminism, which studied the close relationship between female and nature. This is a most novel and interesting way to analyze the book. The Eco-feminists point out that nature and females are intertwined and closely related. Cao Peihong (2007) focused on the links between nature and women. She generalized that the links cover three aspectsthe symbolic, experiential and the status. Then she discussed in detail about their mutual dependence“females were caretakers of nature while nature was the haven for females.” Based on the exploration of Gone with the Wind in detail, Cao attempted to study the close relationship between nature and females, which were mutually complementary, represented, symbolized, dependent on and supported in Gone with the Wind to enrich and expand the study.2.2 Studies on the Marriage in Gone With The WindThe subject of marriage has been involved many times in Gone with the Wind. The characters marriages develop the story to some extent. Different views on marriage reveal different personalities, and display the characters different class natures as well.Wang Jian (2007) though that Gone with the Wind reflected the changes in all aspects of the social revolution period. And the difference in marriage is a performance of the characters, and at the same time, it also reflects the people of different classes and different ranks. Scarlett is the representative of the emerging bourgeoisie and she seeks material benefits; Rhett stands for the compromised and he pursues the perfect life; Ashley and Melanie who represent the old power are addicted to the fantasy of the old world.Bing Wen (2005) specially wrote an article on Scarlett, Gone With the Wind-A Course of Scarletts Love. The author gave a whole portrait of Scarletts love. The whole novel is a course of Scarletts love pursuit. It is her deep love for Ashley, Tara and Rhett respectively that supports her to pull through the difficulties, and it is the very deep love for her land and for the men she loves which pushes her to live on bravely. These positive elements rooting in her character continuously influence the women in the twentieth century.2.3 Studies on the Character of Scarlett in Gone with the WindThere are also many analyses about the characters of Scarlett. Zhu Fang (2010) wrote An Analysis of Scarletts Character in Gone with the Wind. There are three parts to analyze the features and reasons of Scarletts complex character. The figure of Scarlett is real and vivid and the image of Scarletts portrayed by the author. The figures character is real and full of appeal, and that is enough to prove that Gone with the Wind is a masterpiece, charming and valuable.On American Spirit From Scarlett (Yang Yujie&Tang Jianfeng, 2011) is another good work to explain the heroine Scarlett. The new research into the American Spirit in Gone with the Wind can make reader deeply understand this novel. Many people cannot ignore Scarletts bravery, optimism, and striving for life. She reflects individualism, materialism, pragmatism and optimism well, which are the essence of American Spirit. American Spirit is a kind of driving force, which combines Scarlett and American Spirit to support American people and prosper America.Zhang Lu (2011) said that Scarlett dared to face reality and never bowed to the fate. Likes most American people, Scarlett is a full blooded woman. Zhang Lu thought that Scarlett had four character traits in her life. First, She never yields to the pressure of life. No matter how hard the life is, she always tries to survive and make life better through every means. Another distinctive point in Scarletts nature is to pursue success. Besides what is mentioned above, there is also another shining point on her, which is the independ