【英语论文】谈《飘》中女性意识的觉醒 Awakening of Feminine Consciousness in Gone with the wind.doc

谈飘中女性意识的觉醒Awakening of Feminine ConsciousnessIn Gone with the wind ContentsIntroduction8ChapterOne The Women Characters Show the Awakening of Women9ChapterTwo The Most Important Women Characters Showing Their Woman Spirits to Protect Their Freedom and Their Dreams10Conclusion15Acknowledgements16Bibliography17IntroductionAs time goes by, with the development of the human civilization, the people began to realize the women status in all walks of lives in the world. Through continuous social realities we can see that women play an important role in creating the new world. So women want to improve their situations and social status. They want to be equal with men.From the old history to the modern time, many social activities, organizations and movements are advocating womens rights that are protected by the law and men and women are equal. Womens views and ideas are the key. Thus knowledge and education become the first. In this essay, I take Gone with the Wind as an example to describe womens rights in the novel.This essay is describing the feminism in Scarlett. It enlights the feminist movement, daringly reflects the theme of the freedom, the dream and the love and expresses the awakening of women's consciousness and self-consciousness and their seeking for independent human dignity. After that, people began to study the novel from a brand new angle, affirmed its significant exploration concerning problems of marriage, freedom and love, and established Scarlett's status in the society.The research is conducted on the awakening of feminists and the main characters. Then the author analyses the importance of the different loves in the novel to help Scarlett express the theme of feminism. In light of these ideas, the author puts the idea on the analysis of aspects of men and the author gets the conclusion that Scarkett is a famous piece of fiction about the theme of feminism.Chapter One The Women Characters Show the Awakening of Women1.1 Scarletts Ideas and Actions Describe the Awakening of WomenScarlett is by far the most developed character in Gone with the Wind. She stands out because she is strong and saves her family but is incredibly selfish and petty at the same time. She challenges nineteenth century society's gender roles repeatedly, running a store and two lumber mills at one point. Scarlett is in some ways the least stereotypically feminine of women, and the more traditional Melanie Wilkes is in many ways her foil. But Scarlett survives the war, several marriages, the birth of children, and even a miscarriage. Melanie, on the other hand, struggles with fragile health and a shy nature. Without Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett might simply be seen as harsh and "over the top," but beside Melanie, Scarlett presents a fresher, deeper female characterization; she lives a complicated life during a difficult period of history. Some of Scarlett's lines from Gone with the Wind, like "Fiddle-dee-dee!," "Tomorrow is another day," "Great balls of fire!" and "I'll never go hungry again!", have become modern catchphrases. As for her love, Scarlett did not care about the traditional rules. she wanted to choose her husband by herself. Sometimes, she kept her love as her private rights.As for her marriage, Scarlett once had been married for three tImes. At that time, it was shocking. Scarlett was not controlled by the traditional rules of marriage. She just did what she wants to do.As for her birth of children, through the three marriages, Scarlett had born three children, who had different fathers. She chose her marriage when she needed a man.As for her survival, Scarlett worked at Tara and made it better and better after the war. She also runs a store and two lumber mills. All she did support her family and relatives.Chapter Two The Most Important Women Characters Showing Their Woman Spirits to Protect Their Freedom and Their Dreams2.1 Scarlett OHara From a Young Girl to a Complicated WomanNo matter what we can see, the most important is the different loves of Scarlett There is a course of Scarletts Love Pursuit. Gone with the Wind depicts the perplexed love matter of Scarlett OHara during the Civil War and Reconstruction Age in the South. The whole novel is a course of Scarletts love pursuit. In the novel, Scarlett is a full-blooded woman; selfish, deluded conflicted, but driven by her own strength of will. She protects her land and runs her timber mills by using many base conducts; however, the motive power which pushes her to do like that is rightly her deep love for the land and for the men she loves. It is her deep love for Ashley, Tara and Rhette that supports her to pull through the difficulties, and to live on bravely. These positive elements rooting in her character continuously influence the women in the twentieth century.Her love for Ashley: Ashley is born of a line of men who use their leisure for thinking, not doing, for spinning brightly colored dreams that have in them no touch of reality. He moves in an inner world that is more beautiful than Georgia and comes back to reality with reluctance. Why is he so attractive to Scarlett? The very mystery of him stems from her curiosity like a door that has neither lock nor key. The things about him, which she could not understand only, make her love him more. In childhood, Scarlett and Ashley always play together. They seem to be as friendly as other friends. She has seen him come and go and never gives him a thought, and Ashley has never seemed so very attractive to her. It is as simple as that. That year she is only 16. She is attracted and falls in love with him. Scarlett stays headstrong and stubborn, as well as very selfish. All that she does is for her benefit. Yet she is not inherently evil. She turns to Ashley to be that authority figure, but he is not able to be one for her. She, just like a child, needs boundaries, and because she was not getting them, runs wild just like a child. Her so-called love for Ashley is a childs love. He is something that denied her, so that makes her want it more.She has wanted him, in that first instant, wants him as simply and unreasonablly as she wants food to eat, horses to ride and a soft bed on which to lay her. Consequently, Ashley does never show love for her, nor do the clear gray eyes ever glow with that hot light which Scarlett knows so well in other men.“And yet- and yet she knew he loved her. She could not be mistaken about it. Instinct stronger than reason and knowledge born of experience told her that he loved her. Too often she had surprised him when his eyes were neither drowsy nor remote, when he looked at her with a yearning and a sadness, which puzzled her. She knew he loved her.” In fact, Ashley does not love her. He just lusts for Scarletts body. At the same time, he is afraid of her warmth, her forces and her frankness. As he has said that Scarlett had a lion heart. He needs a wife who is as quiet as himself. And the best woman is his cousin-Melanie Charleston. The marriage had another aim that is to uphold their family properties. But he never has the courage to face Scarlett and tell her that is Melanie who he truly loves. He chooses to keep a vague dubious relationship with her. As a result, Scarlett is a victim; no matter how she is cheated by him. He is a liar and a coward. He has no courage to face reality and his heart.He insists on closing himself in the entire old world, and cherishes the memory of the life in Twelve Oaks in sigh. His idea, language, fear and pain are all that Scarlett cannot understand, so he is attractive to her. However, in fact, Scarlett just hugs an unreal image. During the war, she tries her best to look after Ashleys wife and son, only because she loves Ashley and has promised him to take care of Melanie. As a loser, Ashley lives like a weak dog under the protection of Scarlett. He does not learn how to survive on his own in the new emerging South. He relies on both Scarlett and Melanie to keep him going. He realizes this, but does nothing to change it. He has nothing, no emotion, no enthusiasm, no aim, and dangles like an empty bag in the wind. But the foolish Scarlett still wants Ashley to marry her at that time and unchanged with wishful thinking to be his wife. She even encourages him to flee with her. Fleeing with Ashley is always a nice dream to Scarlett, and she dreams all the way to realizing it is too late. She just casts the unreal image on Ashley, though Ashley is not the one she loves in the real life. The one she really loves is an image in her dream.Her love for Rhett: Then from Cathleens words, Scarlett knows his terrible reputation: “Rhett Butler comes from Charleston. One day he took a Charleston girl out by buggy riding. They stayed out nearly all night and walked home finally, saying that the horse had run away and smashed the buggy and they had gotten lost in the woods. But to their surprise, he refused to marry her the next day.” In peoples eyes, this was a bad guy in those days, as Scarlett also thought it like that. But somehow, unbidden, she has a feeling of respect for Rhett Butler for refusing to marry a girl who is a fool. In a word, the first impression of Rhett Butler was not so good. Anyhow, Rhett Butler is the typical southern young rogue, the one all the ladies are warned off, yet to be found fascinating. On the other hand, how about Rhetts first impression on Scarlett? It was amazing though it was also not very good. Rhett overheard all the bold and enthusiastic expressions that Scarlett had told Ashley in that room. Then there was a quarrel between Rhett and Scarlett. Rhett was really attracted by her nature at once. From the very beginning, they had the same feeling about each other-ridicule and respect. They should not pretend to be lady and gentleman when facing each other. Rhett loves Scarlett, so whenever she gets into troubles, he will try his best to help her. After Scarlett is married to Frank Kennedy, it is Rhett who lends Scarlett the money to buy the mill and drives with Scarlett to-and-fro along the mill. It is he who warns her about the dangers of making the drive alone. There was an intense sexual desire between the two. But Scarlett insisted on that she loved Ashley and would never change her mind. It is Rhett who tells her that she would never be happy with Ashley. And he is the only one who understands Scarlett thoroughly because they are alike. This mistaken feeling like a veil blinded her to convince that the one she really loves was-Rhett Butler. He finally marries her, but it is the beginning of the end. A marriage built on power struggles, communication difficulties and personality clashes between two fiercely independent and frustrated individuals can only lead to the inevitable break-up. Perhaps they are too much alike to live peacefully together. Rhett knows that the two things in the world. She longs for-Ashley and wealth. He can give her wealth. But he cannot become Ashley. He is Rhett, Rhett Butler. He loved Scarlett, but he does not tell Scarlett that because he thinks it will give her power over him that he does not want her to have. And he finally matched her in wits. But Scarlett still was too stubborn to understand Rhetts love.Her love for the land-Tara: The hand of Fate and a hand of poker combined to give Gerald the plantation, which he afterwards called it Tara, and at the same time moved him out of the upland country of north Georgia. Tara is a beautiful place with the long red road that leads down the hill to the river and the red fields with springing green cotton. Growing up in Tara. Scarlett understands that land and Negroes are all the resources of her big family. As a Southerner, she also hates the war and the Yankees, although she does not like to discuss the war. However, during the war, she volunteers to take care of the wounded in Atlanta. Like many white women, she takes an active and educated part in the movement to separate the South from the North. To protect the south means to protect her family and the plantation. After Shermans campaign, Atlanta is completely lost from the South. Many people desert their lands and families and escape to other places.Scarlett loves her family and the whole of Tara. Tara is her land and her backbone. She can lose Ashley or Rhett, but she cannot live without Tara. She stays and tries her best to preserve Tara no matter what it will cost. She deludes Frank Kennedy, her sisters beau, a successful merchant in hardware, furniture, and lumber, and marries him to save Tara-the familys plantation, her home. She relies on it to practice usury, run timber mill, and illegally employ Negroes. She is abused by the southern royalty to be greedy, selfish, shameless, cruel and cold. It does not matter, because those features are just the qualities of the ascending bourgeoisie. And she follows the improved bourgeoisie. She is an adventure, an upstart and a great heroine who has survived in the war. She is a belle in the turbulent days. Factually, all the people in Tara including the Ashleys are living on Scarletts shoulders. Without her cruelty and coldness, how could there be so many virtues in Melanie? Without Scarlett to be an evil, how could Melanie be respected as an angel? Therefore, Scarlett is the real respectable person. She is a heroine in the campaign at the terrible times.At the end of the novel, Rhett loses confidence in her, and leaves her away. The only thing that can comfort Scarlett is the land-Tara. Tara is her physical and emotional home to perch; Tara gives her life and energy. At this time her fathers words occurs in her mind “Lands the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because its the only thing that lasts.” From the beginning to the end, the land-Tara was the center in Scarletts heart, though she once gave up peasantry and ran after commerce during the war. Tara gave her the confidence to live on to win back her soul-Rhett again. This is where she always goes when her problems are too many for her to bear. Tara is her heaven as she finally understands what her father meant-the land is the only constant thing. She does whatever she can to hold on to it, and she is able to have it for comfort. It is the only thing she has left at the end of the story.In summary, Scarletts love for Ashley, Tara and Rhett respectively supports her to live on. When she falls in love with Ashley, she can give up the land-Tara to flee with him so as to get her sweetheart. During the war, when Ashley is enlisted in the Confederacy and Rhett is still a common friend to her, Tara becomes her beloved one. After the war, when she wakes up from her dream to Ashley, she loses her best lover, also her “soul”-Rhett Bu