摘 要

本研究旨在分析米切尔·玛格丽特小说lt;lt;飘gt;gt;中斯嘉丽与梅兰妮的小说中的主要女性人物。本研究拟将这两个女性人物斯嘉丽和梅兰妮的人格特征进行比较，探讨作者创作动机的出发点。本研究试图指出，梅兰妮和斯嘉丽之间的强烈对比是作者表达其对“理想女性”观点的一种方式。

关键词：人物性格；创作动机；理想女性

Contents

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration ........................................................................................................2

2.1 Before the war......................................................................................................2

2.1.1 Scarlett: An Carefree and Will-ward Girl ....................................................2

2.1.2 Melanie: An Elegant and Honorable Lady...................................................3

2.2 During the War.....................................................................................................3

2.2.1Scarlett: A Brave and Self-reliant Woman ....................................................4

2.2.2Melanie: An Effeminate and Helpless Woman..............................................6

2.3 In the Postwar Reconstruction.............................................................................6

2.3.1.Scarlett:A Greedy and Self-seeking Woman ................................................7

2.3.2Melanie:A Tolerant and Selfless Woman ......................................................8

3. Conclusion .............................................................................................................9

Works Cited .................................................................................................................10

Bibliography ................................................................................................................11

Who is the Ideal Woman? A Comparison between Scarlett’s and Melanie’s Character in Gone with the Wind.

1.Introduction

Gone with the Wind, the long novel written by Margaret Mitchell has taken an irreplaceable status in the world literature. Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American author and journalist. For Gone with the Wind, She won the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. In more recent years, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novella she wrote as a teenager, Lost Laysen, has been published. A collection of articles written by Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal was republished in book form.

Gone with the Wind is set in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who uses every means at her disposal to claw her way out of the poverty she finds herself in after Sherman's March to the Sea. The story is a Bilingualism or coming-of-age story, with the title taken from a poem written by Ernest Dawson.

Gone with the Wind was popular with American readers from the outset and was the top American fiction bestseller in the year it was published. In 2014, a Harris poll found it to be the second favorite book of American readers, the first the Bible. More than 30 million copies have been printed worldwide.

Gone with the Wind has been extensively studied in academia. Domestic and foreign research focuses on the following points: Firstly, some focus on character study, like that of the major character. Secondly, researches on female consciousness. These studies examine the major character’s pursuit of self-awareness and autonomy. Thirdly, researches on themes of the novel, like the decline of the southern culture.

This study intends to compare the characteristics of the two female characters and to explore the author’s motive for creating these two completely different female characters. The paper is divided into three parts, examining the two characters’ difference before the war, during the war, and after the war respectively.

2.Demonstration

2.1 Before the war

In the period before the Civil War, as a daughter of a large Southern plantation owner, Scarlett is a little girl who only worries about her love fairs. She has no ideas about the war. In contrast, Melanie is a standard gentle, sweet girl, small but with dignity which was beyond her age. She conforms to all the requirements for women: kind, gracious and forgiving, trustable and respectable.

2.1.1 Scarlett: An Carefree and Will-ward Girl