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This paper will first review some important literature on Gone with the wind from academic circles, and then analyzes the heroine’s character from the feminism perspective, which will serve as a reference to the construction of the feminism in China’s society.
II. The Current Research Situation of Gone with the wind
2.1 Some Important Literature Related to the Research of Gone with the Wind
As a profound work reflecting the southern social life during the American civil war, the novel Gone with the Wind not only has important historical significance, but also has important practical significance. Because of this, it has attracted great attention in the foreign literature research field in China for quite a long time. The current academic circles hold some views for Gone with the Wind from the following several points of view in general.
Firstly, there are essays about the relationship between Margaret Mitchell and Scarlet. For example, Carolyn Gage in the Feminist Theory and Literary Practice concluded that Mitchell’s writing purpose was to reveal the delusion of female life and escape from her shadowy preceding life. Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta, many of her relatives were cotton planters, lawyers, and Methodists ministers. Her father was a noted lawyer, and her mother Mary Isabelle, was a suffragist of Irish Catholic origin. Around 1900, Mitchell’s mother became one of Atlanta’s leading suffragists. In the following years, she often held the meeting of her feminist organization at her home, during which she always stood on the chair to denounce the unfairness imposed on women. This scene gave the little Margaret a deep impression; she adopted her mother’s feminism and clashed with her father’s conservative ideas. So in her novel Gone with the wind, the heroine Scarlet O’Hara is an artistic character that has strong and rebellious inpiduality. 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 what she wants and immediately takes action for what she wants. All of these are the epitomes of her strong senses of feminism. So an analysis of Margaret Mitchell’s experience has a great influence on the novel’s heroine, both of them have the feminism consciousness. Therefore, Gage appealed that females should not live in dream under the patriarchal society, but take Scarlet for example, and live in present and pursue what they need and the independence and equality with men.
Secondly, in this novel female consciousness of tomorrow catches people’s attention. Luo Minyu in his work, “Gone with the Wind: An American Epic” considered Starlet’s consciousness of tomorrow as a kind of expectation: expect the equality between men and women, a peaceful world and happy homeland and a true love.
Thirdly, another popular topic is the comparison between Scarlet and other female characters in other works, such as: Jane in Jane Eyreor or Wang Xifeng in A Dream in Red Mansions. On the basis of these research achievements, this paper attends to deepen reader’s comprehension of Gone with the Wind, and then analyze the novel from the perspective of feminism.