Scarlett in My Eyes

Scarlett in My Eyes I. Introduction Gone with the Wind，Margaret Mitchell’s first and the only novel, has aroused worldwide response and becomes the most popular novel in American literature, since its publication in 1936. Up to now, more than 30,000,000 copies have been sold. The creation of the novel has relations with Margaret Mitchell’s experiences. She was born in Atlanta in 1900. Her father worked in the post of Chairman of Historical Society in Atlanta, and her mother was one of the leaders of Atlanta Feminist Movement. Throughout her childhood, Mitchell was captivated by her parents’ and elders’ stories of the Civil War, which eventually served as materials for her famous literary work. Against the background of the Civil War, Mitchell creates a strong character Scarlett who constantly struggles for success in defiance of any frustrations. The novel wins extensive recognition since the vision of Scarlett is part of the universally shared and sharable human beings’ experience. Gone with the Wind is an encouraging book, a book of hardship and survival. It was issued against the background of a savage depression. The world was as badly off. There was something in Gone with the Wind for all who read it. When Gone with the Wind was published in 1936, America had been in the Depression. It was a time, which the nation was deep in sorrows, and frustrations produced by economic. People in the Depression，could easily understand, without prompting how it was to be penniless and confused in a rich and fallow land. At the height of Depression, thirteen million workers were unemployed. People who had enjoyed marked prosperity during the twenties suddenly found themselves struggling just to stay alive. Equally troubling was their inability to comprehend the reasons for this devastating reversal. Gone with the Wind succeeded in large measure because it so effectively tapped the emotional wellsprings of this urban audience. Repeatedly, the viewers found himself confronting these same troubling issues but they were presented in such a way that he was reassured that everything would work out just as he hoped it would. The people in the Depression could easily understand, without prompting, how it was to be in a suddenly 1 collapsed world, which was formerly rich and stable. Furthermore, Scarlett’s spirit and struggle in facing adversities is really encouraging. When she returned to Tara, to dead Ellen and to senile Gerald, she was indeed the heroine, at grips, at death grips with life in raw. This brave, undefeatable Scarlett represented something of a wish fulfillment for us all. For here she is, standing stoutly on her own feet, though her whole would crashes around her, and then setting herself doggedly to its rebuilding, asking no odds of fate. Scarlett has life in herself, whatever else she is, and always she is vital. Life presses on us; its complexity confuses us; its tragedy appalls us. Too often we yield, but some of us still have manhood enough to wish that we didn’t, to know that we shouldn’t, and to admire someone, even a character in a book, who does not. She’s going to survive any time, and live in any readers’ heart. For as long as life is a challenge which men must have courage to meet, the fighting O’ Hara who wouldn’t say die is going to live. There has to be a little bit of Scarlett O’Hara in people who come through adversities. Besides her fortitude stated above in fighting difficulties from without，her strategy in coping with troubles from within is also worthy remembering. To any people in their nation’s hard time, Gone with the Wind shows an example of the fortitude and ideals of a civilization, which had faced monumental uncertainties and had survived in spirit. Scarlett, the most vital woman in American literature, is going to survive any time. This character is very charming, though she may have some shortcomings. She’s self-centered. Her whole life centers on her own wants, and what she wants foremost is attention and adulation in a setting of comfort and security. And she is independent. In fact, after the death of her mother and the breakdown of her father, Scarlett never depends on another human being other than herself. She knew that the lazy luxury of the old days was gone, never to return. She is also supremely utilitarian. Even though it was said that she would never be able to understand a complexity, in fact, the only complexities she failed to understand were those that had no practical usefulness to her. Only if a novel deals with human beings’ universality can it have widespread influence. Mitchell once said if the novel had a theme, the theme was that of survival. She described her work just as a single story of some people who went up and some who went down, of those who could take it and those who could not. It is this sort of “simplicity” that has stricken great 2 response in readers. The problem put forward in Gone with the Wind is the problem of all the people in the world. The novel is designed to portray the perceptions, the growth and the change necessary for survival. It provides us with an intensely autobiographical portrait of a young woman Scarlett, who lives through the Civil War and the terrible days of the Reconstruction. What Scarlett does after the fall of the south is a matter of making the best of a disadvantaged situation. Scarlett and the world of man-made disaster she inhabits contain a prophetic version of modern men and women seeking to accommodate themselves to each other and to circumstance. Mitchell trusts in individual’s capacity to survive in hardships and locates her greatest trust in women’s potential in standing any difficulties. She presents Scarlett as a strong-willed and brave woman who dares to challenge everything that hinders her advance and finally succeeds in an unfavorable environment. After reading the novel, people are always touched by the heroine Scarlett’s spirit of struggle. 3 II. Disproval of the Wrong Understanding about Scarlett In the book of Gone with the Wind, the other people always consider Scarlett as a bad woman who likes corrupting public morals. It is because they use a simply negative way to comment her and her behaviors. So, basing on a new point of feminist view, this thesis will give a totally new and fair comment on Scarlett. A. On Her Attitude towards Man At the barbecue, which is held at Twelve Oaks, Scarlett’s behaviors incur Honey Wilkes’ unsatisfying reprehension. “I think Scarlett acted as fast as a girl could act today” (Mitchell 97). Then in the process of the barbecue she continued, “Well, you saw how she was carrying on with every man she could get hold of-- even Mr. Kennedy, and he’s her own sister’s beau. I never saw the like! And she certainly was going after Charles” (Mitchell 98). Honey’s indignation on Scarlett is unreasonable. Scarlett is extremely charming and sociable. So it is normal that she could attract many men’s attention. At that time, whether a woman is popular or not depends on the number of the beaux surrounding her. This was the only way to prove her charm. Scarlett is trained to attract men by her mother and Mummy when she is still a little girl. So she is competent enough to catch men’s attention. In addition, Scarlett likes to be the central person no matter where. Therefore, what she does is just based on her hobby and the aesthetic standard of the society not only for satisfying her vanity. It is her fault to lure the other girl’s beaux. However, if we only put her as our target, it is not correct and fair. These men should also be blamed, too. Because those men who can not be strong-willed enough to refuse Scarlett’s flirt are not faithful to their girl friends. If they can be the same as Ashley, no matter how hard Scarlett tried to attract them, they would not submit to with her. Hence, Scarlett’s behavior has its reason and is understandable. B. On Her Manner to Save Tara In order to save Tara, Scarlett marries her sister’s boy friend, Frank Kennedy; this matter 4 astonishes everyone, especially those old traditional ladies whose reproaches come in a continuous stream. Mrs. Merriwether asks Frank to explain what he meant by marrying one sister when he was betrothed to the other. Her sister, Sullen, writes a letter to her, a letter so violent, abusive, full of venom. Even her bosom friend, Will, also criticizes her on this matter on two occasions. “You know that was a kind of scurvy trick to play on a sister” (Mitchell 512). “You’re a smart girl, Scarlett, you could have helped him preferring you. Girls always can. But I guess you kind of coaxed him. You’re a mighty taking person when you want to be, but all the same, he was Suellen’s beau” (Mitchell 578). The reason why those people have such a strong reaction on Scarlett’s decision is that they do not understand what Tara means to Scarlett. What Scarlett has done for her favorite Tara is unimpeachable. Tara is her home, is the most valuable present her parents left her, is the substantial source of her family and the most important of all, is the indispensable support of her spirit. Even Rhett has to admit that: “Sometime I think she’s like the giant Antaus who became stronger each time he touched Mother Earth. It doesn’t so for Scarlett to stay away too long from that patch of red mud she loves. The sight of cotton growing will do her more good than all Dr. Meade’s tonics” (Mitchell 812). She must try all means to maintain Tara; if not, she would lose not only the land but also her spiritual support. Her family member would have the same fate as her. If there were another alternative for her to save Tara, she would not humble herself to negotiate with Rhett. Nonetheless, for certain objective reasons, Rhett cannot lend her money. So she turns to her sister Suellen’s fiancé for help. Based on the convention, Scarlett should send her sister to deal with this matter. But Scarlett is so smart that she understands the nature of her sister thoroughly and forecasts that if Sullen marries him, she would not keep thinking about her family members. She would forget the tax as soon as she gets married. Even though she still remembers, she is too mean to let her husband lend money to pay the tax of Tara. Therefore, for saving her Tara and her family members she sacrifices herself to marry Mr. Kennedy whom she does not love. 5 The reviewer has no right to blame her, for she sacrifices herself in this matter. C. On Saw Mill Problem After Scarlett begins to manage her husband’s saw mill, she acquires numerous censures. Her tender husband stands out to argue against her. In his mind, letting woman to do such kind of thing is unbelievable and cannot be accepted by the town people. “She is selling lumber in town! That was worst of all. She frequently did take a day off from the mill and peddle lumber and, on those days, Frank wished he could hide in the dark back room of his store and see no one. His wife is selling lumber” (Mitchell 532). But it is clear that Frank’s misgivings only origins from the conventional attitude towards women. In fact, Scarlett does not do wrongly in this matter. She just wants to get the same right as men, to do the same things as men, to gain more money and insure her unstable life. All of these criticisms are coming from the prejudice of women. The ones who stand at the same side with her husband are totally wrong because they discriminate against women. D. On Her Attitude towards Money Rhett always holds prejudice when surveying Scarlett’s problems and he always look down on Scarlett’s passion for money. “Good Lord!” he (Rhett) cried impatiently. “Don’t you ever think of anything but money?” (Mitchell 514) And in the later stages of their conversation, Rhett said, “Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve wanted two things: Ashley and to be rich enough to tell the world to go to hell” (Mitchell 865). No miser ever counted his gold oftener than she and no miser ever had greater fear of losing it. She would not put the money in the bank, for it might fail or the Yankees might confiscate it. So she carried what she could with her, tucked into her corset, and hid small wads of bills about the house, under loose bricks on the hearth, in her scrap-bag, between the pages of Bible (Mitchell 539). The thesis objects this point of view. Scarlett has showed a great zeal for land and money, but she is not as bad as Rhett has said. Before the Civil War, Scarlett has no interest in land and money. When her father reveals his intention that he will bequeath Tara to her, Scarlett does not appreciate and even refuse to accept the gift. However, the war and the hard life, which goes 6 after the war, torture her nerves and open a door of her insecure feeling. After the civil war, how to survive under a totally ruined and changed environment is a very hard and thorny problem placed under the nose of almost every Southerners. Scarlett has to take care of the whole family, so there is no extra energy for her to care more about people’s benefit under this difficult age. Money, Scarlett realizes is the only thing that can prevent people from starvation and being defeated by the insecure and unstable age. If one has enough money, he will not be scared of anything happened in the world. Thus she endeavors to earn money. She makes up her mind to gain sufficient money, which could insure her against the needy and tough life, which she has once experienced and engraved deep and painful memory on her heart. So she is gradually aware that the two things are important to protect her against her trepidation. Since then Scarlett begins to do all she can to seize land and obtain money and her belief is that the more she gets, the safer she is. It is the sequel of the war. Besides that, after the war, everyone depends on her. In order to ensure a better life for the whole family, she exerts the utmost strength to seize the land and money. Therefore, Scarlett’s aspiration for land and money is only the concretion of her insecure feeling. 7 III. Scarlett O’Hara’s Positive Attitude toward Life Scarlett holds positive attitude to everything forever. Pinning her hope on tomorrow is fundamental stone of Scarlett’s confidence. She always says, “After all, tomorrow is another day.” Her spirit and struggle in facing adversities is really encouraging. Her strong sense of survival in a completely new world, her admirable capability of changing with changing times and her persistent pursuits of love, independence and freedom have deeply influenced many people. A. Scarlett’s Attitude towards Difficulties. Brave Scarlett has never been beaten down by any difficulties. She can tackle any trouble in the end. She does not yield to any misfortune, which her fate brings to her. To struggle against unfair fate with all efforts is the way she treats fate. When confronting the challenges of the difficulties, Scarlett does not wince. Although she is very young, she has already undergone lots of hard experience. She comes across the thorniest difficulty in her life when she returns home from Atlanta. The process of her journey to home is exceedingly hard and dangerous. At that time, people in Atlanta on their way home may come across the soldiers of the South at anytime who would rob the horse and everything they have. However, Scarlett does not backpedal. Even though, during this process, Scarlett has endured hunger, thirst, scorching sunshine, constant fear as well as groan from her companies, eventually she arrives at her destination without a flash of giving up. But, her house is not the one she once lives in. “Tara stretched before her, Negroes gone, acres desolate, barns ruined, like a body bleeding under her eyes, like her own body, slowly bleeding” (Mitchell 322). Obviously, Tara has been totally damaged by the army of the south. The enemy leaves no food, no wine and no animals. What makes things worse is that none of her family member has 8 the ability to give her a hand: old and stunned father, ill and almost dying sisters, frail and weak Melanie, helpless children, and faithful Negroes, all of them stretch their arms and hands plucking at her shirts. Never again could Scarlett lie down, as a child, secure beneath her father’s roof the protection of her mother’s love wrapped about her like an eiderdown quilt. There was no security or haven to which she could turn now. There is no one on whose shoulders she could rest. Under such kind of harsh and rough situation, nobody but herself, Scarlett O’Hara Hamilton, nineteen years old, a widow with a little child could be the right one whom she could rely on. At first, Scarlett owns no experience of solving this kind of problems before, she does not know how to deal with them, the only thing she intends to do is to remove these heavy burdens forever to have an eternal rest. But as we all know that Scarlett is not a coward. She persuades herself with the firm belief that “her burdens were her own and for shoulders strong enough to bear them, that her shoulders were strong enough to bear anything now, having endured the worst that could ever happen to her” (Mitchell 348). Hence, after primary struggle of puzzle headedness, Scarlett decides to take her responsibility and to accept this big challenge arranged by fate. Then Scarlett begins to manage the faun. Soon, she is forced to do tough physical work, cotton picking. Because of various kinds of reasons, the other persons could not do cotton-picking, only Dilcey, Prissy and Scarlett are left to pick cotton. A delicate nineteen-year-old woman who is used to be spoiled by relatives, served by slaves has to work personally in the field, which she has never imagined before. But Scarlett does it. “Scarlett stood in the sun in the cotton rows, her back broke from the eternal bending and her hands roughened by the dry bolls, with her back aching and her should raw from the tugging weight of the cotton-bags she carried” (Mitchell 350). However, no matter how tough the current situation is, Scarlett still has her plan and dream. Under this hard situation, she comforts herself by her next year project that is “next spring she would try to make the Confederate government sends back Big Sam and the other field hands they had commandeered…Next spring she would plant and plant…” (Mitchell 352). Although Scarlett makes her plan with great enthusiasm, she does not realize that her plan is a little unreasonable and too perfect to be realized and too great and magnificent to amply, 9 she still gives loose to her hope even in her harsh times. While Scarlett supposes that the condition gradually becomes better, Sherman’s men pass through Tara the second time. The cotton is burnt by them, the food, the pigs and chickens are also carried away by them. Everything is gone and the condition is worse than the time when she just returns to Tara. But these calamities do not decrease her confidence; she still works hard, being thriftier on food in order to save the seed for next spring’s sowing. Even though this unexpected disaster makes her dream half-broken, Scarlett does not lose her heart and give up. She convinces that future would be better if she insisted on trying her best. At last, Scarlett overcomes all the difficulties and realizes her great ambition. Scarlett looks forward and perseveres in times of stress. There is no failure in her mind even if it is staring her. The life times of Scarlett calls for hard struggle. Before Scarlett takes Melanie to Tara plantation, never does it occur to her that her home is completely ruined by the flames of war. Food, cotton, money, slaves, security and position have vanished all of sudden. Only her insane father, sick sisters and three slaves are left in the desolate plantation. Scarlett becomes the breadwinner overnight. She goes out to look for food the next day after her arrival. She is so weak and hungry as to lie behind a Negro cabin. She recalls the lazy luxury of the old days, but immediately she promises to go forward and never to remember the past any longer. To provide food and clothes for the big family, Scarlett tries her best. She walks several miles every day to find vegetables despite injured feet; she learns to milk the cow at the expense of being attacked; she goes down to fields to plough, to pick cotton. And she even shot a Yankee who slips into Tara to steal. Calamities come in succession. Tara has been in utter destitution. Scarlett, however, is never daunted by repeated setbacks and goes through one difficulty after another. No matter what obstacles she has to face, Scarlett fights on with a determination that will not recognize defeat and keeps on fighting, even when she sees defeat is inevitable. Whenever she gets into trouble, she always says, “I won’t think of this or that bothersome thought now. I’ll think about it tomorrow” (Mitchell 161). Scarlett has suffered from war, fire and devastation, known terror, fight and starvation. But no frustration is capable of shattering her strong determination. At the end of the novel, Scarlett finally realizes it is Rhett whom she really loves, 10 while at the same time he is going to leave her. But with her spirit of struggle, Scarlett, who doesn’t know defeat, promises herself to get Rhett back. Her mind is set on pursuit and success once more. Depending on the unswerving will, she pulls herself through a series of troubles and walks on. B. Scarlett’s Attitude toward Society In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels point out within the old society the elements of a new one have been created, and the dissolution of the old ideas keeps even pace with the dissolution of the old conditions of existence. Many Southerners do not understand this fact, and they fail to realize that their ideal is out of date and must be remolded to correspond to the new conditions of the social environment. However, Scarlett is wiser and more flexible in the new environment. With the collapse of her easy and slow-moving life, her thoughts and actions change greatly. Hardships in reality and changes in society make her realize overnight that she is no longer a spoiled woman dependent on other people and, instead, the other people are dependent on her. Scarlett begins to launch a desperate struggle to save her family and Tara. Before the fall of Atlanta, Scarlett is not far away from being a Southern girl with some features of the above-mentioned femininity, but after her return to Tara from Atlanta, she violates all the rules of conduct laid on Southern young ladies. On the night of the fall of Atlanta, though exhausted from the delivery of Melanie’s child, Scarlett has to drive a carriage towards Tara. She maneuvers safely past soldiers of both camps, who may rob her of her horse. The long ride is harrowing and Scarlett emerges at Tara exhausted, but she has changed and will continue to change. She finds nothing is in favor of her. Her mother Ellen is dead the day before, her father in a state of dementia, her two sisters sick with typhoid. Without her mother to turn to for support or comfort after her hellish trip, she drinks some whisky and sinks into despair. She suddenly remembers her courageous ancestors who have overcome hardships and won fortunes. She is eager to give up this newfound responsibility and collapse into the arms of her mother Ellen, but Ellen has been dead. Scarlett can not put down this burden that she has never even wanted to pick up. Tara without Ellen needs a strong woman, and without any hesitation, Scarlett takes up maternal duties that she keeps for the rest of the novel. It is her mother’s death that forces Scarlett to face reality and serves as an indispensable catalyst for change in Scarlett 11 . Her actions in the following days are an excellent illustration of the power of the human will to overcome even the most relentless and unexpected adversity. To some extent, this process is her rebirth, which also involves a conscious repudiation of her mother. In her new self, she discovers that everything her mother has taught her is of no value. Her mother has instructed her that life treats women well when they are gentle, gracious, honorable and kind, but now if they are still gentle, weak and futile, life will be impossible for them. Scarlett resembles her father before his breakdown in looks, personality, strength, and spirit. She even wishes she “could roar as loudly as Gerald used to roar when in a temper” (Mitchell 852). Confronted with physical labor on the plantation, she thinks to herself how much easier it will be if only she can get rid of her tough hardships. Her quick transformation under the burden of new hardships reveals the sudden change in the South. In the months after Sherman’s depredations, the necessity of survival turns her into a seemingly heartless taskmaster, driving the “pampered” house slaves such as Mammy and Prissy and even her sickly sisters into the field to pick cotton. A coquette and a traditional Southern woman in 1861，now she is even willing to pick cotton just like a field-hand when she has to face starvation, the chaos of the war, and the lack of aid and support of the male. Perhaps the very superficiality of her ladyhood enables her to abandon its veneer and astonish those around her who even in defeat are committed to the expectations and civilities of the Old South. She wins a reputation for bravery among the ladies of Atlanta. Aunt Pittypat and Melanie are willing to stay without a man if Scarlett is living with them in the house. Melanie declares herself convinced that Scarlett has never been afraid of anything. It is she who kills a stealing Yankee soldier, who is 1 to rape her when he sees she is alone in the house. It is she who is nearly burnt to death when she is trying to put out a fire caused by a Yankee soldier. It is also she who nearly faints in search of food for her family and then stands up in the devastated grounds of Twelve Oaks, shaking a defiant fist against the hostile sky and swearing, At the moment of great triumph she throws off the shackles of her childhood education and of her womanhood, and adopts the masculine stance that has energized the United States of America and made it great from its inception. Central to her character is her determined ability to “change with the changing times” (Mitchell 703), as Old Miss Fontaine puts it. Scarlett and Rhett stand out among the novel’s Southern characters, the rest of whom either can not or will 12 not give up their basic social customs during or after the War. Since the gracious and patrician life of the Old South has been completely shattered and gone with the wind, never to be reclaimed, it will be no use lamenting over it. However, not all the Southerners realize the simple reason. Ashley Wilkes, the gentleman whom Scarlett has always loved deeply, is a typical example. Before the War breaks out, though he shares the same, standpoint with Rhett Butler that the South is going to fight an inevitably lost war, he joins the Confederate troops and fights stubbornly for the South. The War ends in the failure of the South and the success of the North. He survives the War and comes back safe and sound. Unlike Rhett and Scarlett, Ashley is evidently ineffectual in coping with the War’s aftermath. He can not find his proper place in the new life and would rather dream and lament over the old days than do something to support his own family. Grandma Fontaine wisely points out that “we can lick ourselves by longing too hard for things we haven’t got any more-and by remembering too much” (Mitchell 700). Ashley’s allegiance to a value system and way of life is absolute despite the obvious fact that the means to sustain them are utterly gone. In fact, Ashley and his family depend on others’ help for a living. He belongs to and depends too much on the past, and he is conquered by his passion, a kind of winds from the within, to adhere to the past. Unswerving loyalty to a lost cause is fatal. Owing to the adaptability, Scarlett overcomes all the unexpected difficulties she has met with during the War and distinguishes herself as an extremely strong-willed woman who shares none of the elements of femininity valued by traditional women in the South. Before the war, Scarlett has the happy memory as Ashley. However, after the war, it is the time to require her to put her happy memory aside and fling herself completely to the reconstruction of her new lives. Scarlett is a practical woman who knows that it is helpless to enmeshed herself in these memory which can only double her pain and Melanie who like to enjoy her memory knows very well when to stop it and can have a clear view and distinction of the memory and fact. Although Scarlett was also born in the rich family of slaveholder, at the age of alternation between the old age and the new age, Scarlett does not look back anymore; does not cry for the collapsed age anymore; throws over the sweet romantic dreams of maid; casts away the stupid arrogance of southern noble; bravely faces the life and uses her strong will 13 to struggle with and overcomes the difficulties which might emerge in her life. Only Ashley refuses to break away from his fancy of memory, which makes him grievous. C. Scarlett’s Attitude towards Love Unlike the other Southern girls who suppress their normal desires and just passively accept their husbands arranged by their parents, she has a persistent pursuit of her love in spite of the then prevailing belief that “for a woman, love comes after marriage” (Mitchell 39). She experiences three marriages, but in fact she only loves Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler. She does not realize her only true love is just Rhett, for whom she has mixed feelings, until it is too late. However, her stubborn love for Ashley, though a little too blind and girlish, and her firm belief that Ashley is deep in love with her, are indispensable to her courageous actions in and after the War. Scarlett is unsuccessful in every female role and in her relations with other women. As I have mentioned, she is a rebellious woman, quite different from other women. Her total lack of female friendships places her more on the masculine than the feminine side of the indelible gender line in the culture. Scarlett is a masculine woman and interestingly enough, Ashley is a feminine man and a representative of traditional Southern gentlemen. He is “born of a line of men who used their leisure for thinking, not doing, for spinning brightly colored dreams that had in them no touch of reality” (Mitchell 28). She does not understand his mind or show any interest in what he reads and talks about. She is simply captivated by his complexity. “The very mystery of him excited her curiosity like a door that had neither lock nor key” (Mitchell 28). Her love for him is so mysterious and beautiful that it is beyond description and it serves only to increase her determination to have him for her own. Until the very last scenes of the novel, Scarlett O’Hara is also sustained by her love for Ashley Wilkes. Despite his humiliating rejection of her and his marriage to Melanie, she persists in loving him. Because of her strong love for Ashley, she does a great deal of sacrifice for the man she loves and a large number of people around her. Selfish desires give in to noble love. During her stay in Atlanta, though she is reluctant to see the terrible scenes, she does do much volunteer nursing. Work in the soldiers’ hospitals full of bearded, sweaty, wounded men that stink of gangrene. At Christmas, Ashley comes home on a brief leave of absence. Seeing him is rapturous to Scarlett, but she is frustrated by her inability to speak to him alone. Just 14 before he leaves, she has a moment with him and he again makes clear the inevitability of their failure, asking her to take care of his wife. It is a hard alternative for Scarlett, because she has always hated this rival in love. According to her logic, it is simply because of Melanie’s intervention that she is unable to win Ashley’s love. However, she promises, because she can sacrifice anything for Ashley. Before the siege of Atlanta, many people, including Ashley’s aunt Pittypat, flee the city for other safe places, but Scarlett has promised Ashley to stay with his wife Melanie. It is an unimaginable circumstance for her to deal with, because at the crucial moment, Melanie is going to have a baby. Though obsessed t, with longings for her family in Tara, she stays to look after Melanie and goes to the square filled with wounded, dying and dead soldiers, hoping to ask a favor of Dr. Meade, only to find that he is extremely busy taking care of the wretched soldiers. Though ignorant of how to deliver a baby, she tries to help Melanie, who gives birth to a tiny baby. Their trouble has just begun and what happens in the following days is inconceivable to her. Every time she is in trouble and despair, she will think of her beloved Ashley and regain sufficient courage to go on with her struggle. The end of the War brings Scarlett to a moment of reflection: Somewhere, on the long road that wound through those four years, the girl with her sachet and dancing slippers had slipped away and there was left a woman with sharp green eyes, who counted pennies and turned her hands to many menial tasks, a woman to whom nothing was left from the wreckage except the indestructible red earth on which she stood (Mitchell 478). In fact, besides the red earth, something else is left: her girlhood image of Ashley Wilkes. Scarlett, a solitary fighter, has nothing to depend on but Ashley’s love for her. As a result of her inability to comprehend Ashley and his actions and her failure to have Ashley for her own, she is always obsessed with anxiety and solitude. At the daytime, she busies herself by working hard, but at night, she is haunted by a nightmare in which she is running after something mysterious in a wild strange country thick with swirling mist. After she is married to Rhett, she is financially more secure, but her firm belief that Ashley loves her does not weaken. During the day, Rhett keeps her too busy to think of Ashley, however, at night, she will miss him. Rhett is 15 mad to catch her thinking of Ashley. Her life with Rhett is casual, cheerful, but she is reluctant to face it. What she wants is to control and make fun of Rhett. The nightmare continues to plague her, and Rhett tries every means to comfort her. From the very outset, Scarlett is the woman Rhett really loves. Whenever Scarlett’s gumption fails, whenever she is in need of money, rescue, consolation, or challenge, he will appear in due time and lend a helping hand to her, but he is furious at her stubborn and inconceivable love for Ashley. Rhett wisely points out to her that all her life she wants two things: Ashley and to be rich enough. No matter what happens to her, she has been in love with Ashley for twelve years. She does not recover from her persistent and selfless love for Ashley until Melanie’s sudden death which functions as a catalyst for change in Scarlett and forces her to face psychological reality. Immediately after Melanie’s death, Scarlett recognizes Ashley’s love for his wife and her own love for both Rhett and Melanie. Realizing that Ashley is merely a pretty suit of clothes she makes for herself and that her love for him is merely a dream, she decides to break away from him and embrace Rhett, a representative of the new capitalists in the South. However, it is a little too late when she comes to realize Ashley’s frailty, the importance of Rhett to her and the object of her true love, for after all these eventful days, Rhett tells her that his love for her has worn out and that he is going away. He is determined to search for a calm, dignified life like the one he and the South have lost in the War. She believes that after her return from Tara, a place where she can lick her wounds, recuperate and plan her campaign, she will find a way to regain Rhett’s love and devotion. “After all, tomorrow is another day” (Mitchell 1011). Her complete transformation indicates that the story does not end with the novel and that Scarlett will never give up her quest for happiness. In her loss of Rhett, there is a gain in maturity and a growth in spirit 16 IV. Conclusion No one will doubt that Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind is one of the world’s most popular books, with more than 25 million copies sold---in 27 languages and 185 editions. The charm of it increases as time goes by. It makes a legend, and the legend will never be gone with the wind. Gone with the Wind is always considered as a romantic love story runs parallel with the descriptions of the realistic American Civil War. The readers always sighed with emotion not only about the complicated and touching love of entanglement among Scarlett, Ashley and Butler, but also the historical panorama of the crisscross and soul-stirring Civil War and postwar reconstruction, just as a powerful and magnificent epic poem, No other Civil War novel has much “breadth” in conception as Gone with the Wind. What it lacks in “depth” and in “art” is compensated for in the clarity and vitality of its presentation of the diverse and yet unified issues involved in sustained narrative interest. The conflict, which it dramatizes, is as old as history itself. It has been presented more skillfully before, and no doubt will be again, but it will never be done more excitingly or appealingly than it is here. Although this work does not gain high reputation in the world literary history, even in America, the enchantment of this excellent work still lasts until today without abatement and more and more people become the adherent of Margaret Mitchell. To any people in their nation’s hard time, Gone with the Wind shows an example of the fortitude and ideals of a civilization. . Especially, the pains- taking strive of the indomitable and unyielding Scarlett who dares to face reality and never bows to fate and no compromise with difficulties shake the readers’ hearts and inspire their spirit. What she had encountered begets the feeling of the readers and also adds the courage and strength for the people who lived in the difficult time of 1930s that may be the reason why Gone with the Wind has the ever-lasting charm all through the ages. 17 In spite of some shortcomings, Scarlet’s spirit in facing adversities is really encouraging. Her strong sense of survival in a completely new world, her admirable capability of changing with changing times and her persistent pursuits of love, independence and freedom have deeply influenced many people. Scarlett’s charming character will never be gone with the wind. 18