DOCSLIB.ORG

A Study on Scarlet O' Hara's Ambitions in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Study on Scarlet O' Hara's Ambitions in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind Chapter 4 Conclusion From the analysis on the ambitions of the main female character, it can be concluded that there are many factors behind the ambitions of Scarlett O’Hara to preserve Tara and to win Ashley Wilkes’ love, which drive her to enthusiastically achieve them. The aspiration to preserve Tara is aroused firstly at the time before the war. There are three aspects in this factor that is first, the sense of belonging to the land, second the Southern value that deals with the traditional point of view, and third Tara itself as the biggest source of income for the O’Hara family. Secondly, the aspiration to preserve Tara is also affected by the factors that come after the war that is, her great love toward Tara, as if it is her own mother and the fear that she might lose it and live in poverty. The factors behind her desire to win Ashley Wilkes’ love can be found in the long and close relationship during their childhood. Besides, Scarlett O’Hara also lives in the illusion of love. She has a strong belief that Ashley is her destiny; thus she dearly longs to capture his heart. During these times of struggles, the aggressiveness of her characters appear and impel her to be more fearless in facing all of the sorrowful impact of the Civil war. Her strong traits make her possible to do such contradictory ways and strengthen her ambitions. What she has done in those difficult times shows her power in which the others do not possess it. Hence, I conclude that Scarlett carries the message that a Southern woman is able to establish her own life and shoulder the man’s responsibility [in this case, to support Tara and Ashley’s needs]. For this cause, she employs many things in the second and the third marriage in order to make her ways easier. In the second marriage, she uses Frank Kennedy, her husband, and takes over his money to rebuild the ruined Tara and fulfill her promise to Ashley. The way Scarlett O’Hara does it is by betraying her sister, Suellen O’Hara. To get Suellen O’Hara’s lover, Frank Kennedy, she sacrifices the relationship with her sister. She can restore Tara, however, she cannot create “home” for her family or children. She avoids doing the domestic chores, which actually, can make her 38 39 close with the family. Thus, she just gives the money to them and supplies all of their needs, but she does not give them “motherly touch” to the children and fondness toward the family. Furthermore, she also does not care about her reputation in the society. In everything she does, she just thinks about how she can use every chance to achieve the ambitions. Her deeds show that she is deliberately against the point of view of the South. Due to this fact, she suffers the isolation from the society, and the rumor about her awful endeavors is spread among them. She also uses the second marriage in order to win Ashley’s love but she fails. Even though she has done everything to support Ashley’s life and his family, she cannot successfully conquer his heart. In the third marriage, after the birth of Bonnie, she rejects to have sex with Rhett Butler in the aim to show to Ashley that she can keeps herself for him because of her true love toward him. By all means, she has sacrificed to possess him, including taking advantages of her husbands’ money to support Ashley’s life. Still, she cannot win his love. In her ways to achieve the ambitions I see the elements of feminism in her traits. Even though she I consider her to be the feminist forerunner in the South, still her goal, actually, is not to gain the equality in her marriages. Instead, she only intends to reach the ambitions and during the process of the accomplishment, her traits demonstrate some of the elements of feminism. By analyzing the factors of her ambitions and the ways she uses to reach the ambitions, I learn that Scarlett O’Hara is truly a survivor. Despite the fact that she fails to accomplish the two ambitions, she still becomes the pioneer of a brave woman in the South who has courage and endures the hardship and poverty. She can survive in the time of shortage, recover the ruined Tara, and seek her true love at the same time; meaning that she is an incredible woman. The endurance and the strong characters in her life make her come out as the winner. Hopefully, the insight about this strong courageous character would give something to learn about that life goes on and in order to survive one needs to be strong as well. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Study on Scarlet O' Hara's Ambitions in Margaret Mitchell's Gone
    Chapter 3 The Factors of Scarlett O’Hara’s Ambitions and Her Ways to Obtain Them I begin the analysis by revealing the factors of O’Hara’s two ambitions, namely the willingness to rebuild Tara and the desire to win Wilkes’ love. I divide this chapter into two main subchapters. The first subchapter is about the factors of the two ambitions that Scarlett O’Hara has, whereas the second subchapter explains how she tries to accomplish those ambitions. 3.1. The Factors of Scarlett O’Hara’s Ambitions The main female character in Gone with the Wind has two great ambitions; her desires to preserve the family plantation called Tara, and to win Ashley Wilkes’ love by supporting his family’s needs. Scarlett O’Hara herself confesses that “Every part of her, almost everything she had ever done, striven after, attained, belonged to Ashley, were done because she loved him. Ashley and Tara, she belonged to them” (Mitchell, 1936, p.826). I am convinced that there are many factors which stimulate O’Hara to get these two ambitions. Thus, I use the literary tools: the theories of characterization, conflict and setting to analyze the factors. 3.1.1. The Ambition to Preserve Tara Scarlett O’Hara’s ambition to preserve the family’s plantation is stimulated by many factors within her life. I divide the factors that incite Scarlett O’Hara’s ambitions into two parts, the factors found before the war and after. The factors before the war are the sense of belonging to her land, the Southern tradition, and Tara which becomes the source of income.
    [Show full text]
  • The Depiction of Women and Slavery in Margaret Mitchell's
    “Tomorrow is Another Day”: The Depiction of Women and Slavery in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind and Robert Hicks’ The Widow of the South. Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter I: Before the Civil War ........................................................................................ 5 Chapter II: During the Civil War .................................................................................... 12 Chapter III: After the Civil War ..................................................................................... 23 Conclusion..………………………………………………………………………….....31 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………34 1 Introduction Gone with the Wind and The Widow of the South are both Civil War novels written by first time writers. Margaret Mitchell‘s Gone with the Wind was published in 1936 and Robert Hicks‘ The Widow of the South was published in 2005. These two novels are written nearly seventy years apart. The protagonists of these two Civil War novels are very different, but still it is worth taking a look at the difference in attitude that the two novelists have in regard to women and slavery in the seventy-year span between the two novels. It is interesting to take a closer look at the portrayal by the two authors of the kind of lives these women lived, and what similarities and differences can be seen in the protagonists as pertaining to their education and upbringing. Also, how the women‘s lives were affected by living in a society which condoned slave ownership. The Civil War brought about changes in the women‘s lives both during its course and in its aftermath. Not only were the lives of the women affected but that of the slaves as well. The authors, through their writing, depicted aspects of the institution of slavery, especially how the slave hierarchy worked and what made one slave ―better‖ than the next.
    [Show full text]
  • Interpretation of Scarlett's Land Complex in Gone with the Wind
    102 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN ENGINEERING AND SOCIETY, VOL.1, NO.4, Interpretation of Scarlett‘s Land Complex in Gone with the Wind from the Perspective of Humanity Shutao Zhou College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China [email protected] Abstract: The famous novel Gone with the Wind by Tara was leisurely and wealthy. In this context, a Margaret Mitchell takes the Civil War as the young girl who was just sixteen years old lived a background. With the three marriage experiences of carefree life without a single worry, and the only Scarlett as the main line, her strong feeling of land thing she thought of was how to attract the attention complex runs through the whole book. The red land of men. She did not realize the importance of land at at Tara witnessed Scarlett‘s gradual growth and all. maturity, revealing the eternal blood ties between When her father persuaded Scarlett to give up her land and Scarlett. This paper, by analyzing Scarlett‘s obsession with Ashley and give Tara to her, she life course, explores the development of the land would not mind or even be hostile to the idea of complex which is a process from unconsciousness to being the master of the land. As her father gave her fight for the land. Scarlett‘s land complex gave her a the generous gift, she said in fury, ―I wouldn‘t have vivid image. Cade on a silver tray,‖ ―And I wish you‘d quit Key words: Scarlett; Tara; Land Complex pushing him at me! I don‘t want Tara or any old plantation.
    [Show full text]
  • Gone with the Wind – Part Two Book Key 23–24 Open Answers 25 Rhett Will Lend Melanie and Ashley the Money to Buy 1 Open Answers the Sawmills from Scarlett
    PENGUIN READERS Answer keys LEVEL 4 Teacher Support Programme Gone with the Wind – Part Two Book key 23–24 Open answers 25 Rhett will lend Melanie and Ashley the money to buy 1 Open answers the sawmills from Scarlett. 2 a will. Open answers 26 Because Bonnie’s eyes are just like Gerald O’Hara’s, b He was a man of honour and she knew he would and the words she says are almost the same as his not break the oath he had taken. before his riding accident. 3 a Scarlett 27 Rhett won’t let them take her body from the house. b Jonas Wilkerson 28 When Melanie is dying. c Mammy 29 After Melanie dies and Scarlett realises she doesn’t love d Aunt Pitty Ashley after all. e Rhett 30 To go home to Tara and to get Rhett back. 4 She wants his money. 31–35 Open answers 5 Her hands are rough from work. 6–7 Open answers Discussion activities key 8 a fussy 1–3 Open answers b rape 4 guide students using information on page 2 of the c sawmill Teacher’s notes. d candle 5–12 Open answers 9 a funeral b owe Activity worksheets key 10 a He tells her he has money and business ideas. 1 a Scarlett O’Hara b Tara c Ashley Wilkes b She says she went to the Yankees to try to sell them d Melanie Hamilton e Charles Hamilton clothes for their wives. She tells him Suellen is f Rhett Butler g Wade h Atlanta going to marry Tony Fontaine because she got tired i Melanie Hamilton j Rhett Butler k Tara of waiting for Frank.
    [Show full text]
  • Subject-Verb Agreement
    SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Finding the Subject and the Verb The subject in a sentence names the person or thing performing the action expressed in the predicate (= the verb, verbs, or verb phrases), which describes the action. An easy trick to find the verb(s) in a sentence is to change the tense in the sentence. The verb(s) will change if you do this, but nothing else will. Jean works at the grocery store. She stocks shelves, works the cash register, and helps the manager lock up at night. (present tense) Last year, Jean worked at the grocery store. She stocked shelves, worked the cash register, and helped the manager lock up at night. (past tense) To find the subject, you simply ask “who or what performs the action?” In the above example, who works at the store, stocks shelves, and helps the manager? Jean – so there is the subject. • In English, verbs take the same form for all persons with one exception: the third person singular in the present tense. For all subjects that can be replaced with he, she, or it, you need to add –s to the verb in the present tense. If the verb is “to be,” use the form is or was. Singular Plural I am poor. I work two jobs. We are poor. We work two jobs. You are poor. You work two jobs. You are poor. You work two jobs. He/she/it is poor. He/she works two jobs. They are poor. They work two jobs. • Different subjects joined by “and” (= compound subjects) are nearly always plural: Scarlett and Melanie nurse the injured soldiers.
    [Show full text]
  • Thematic Analysis of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
    VEDA’S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL) Vol.7 Issue 1 An International Peer Reviewed (Refereed) Journal 2020 Impact Factor (SJIF) 4.092 http://www.joell.in RESEARCH ARTICLE THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF MARGARET MITCHELL’S GONE WITH THE WIND Mrs.P.Rajisha Menon (Assistant Professor-in-English, CVR College of Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences (English), Hyderabad, India.) Email:[email protected] DOI: 10.333329/joell.7.1.62 ABSTRACT Gone with the Wind written by Margaret Mitchell illustrates the aftermath effects of the Civil War. The protagonist is Scarlett O’Hara, who victoriously survives the war. She is a gorgeous girl in the area. She is in love with Ashley Wilkes. She loses temper when she comes to know that he is going to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton. As a vendetta she decides to marry Melanie’s brother. The effect of war is severe. Men go to the battle thinking that it will only last a few weeks but continue for a longer period of time. Scarlett who is living in Atlanta witnesses the ravages that war brings. She also gets reacquainted with Rhett Butler, whom she had first met at the Wilkes barbecue. Though a widow, she still strives to get the attention of the married Ashley and dreams of his return. They lose the civil war and she is compelled to return to Tara and experiences the hardship of keeping her family together and Tara, the plantation from being sold. She is hardened and bitter with the circumstances which she faces. There is a drastic transformation in her.
    [Show full text]
  • Gone with the Wind – Part Two Book Key D Some Negro Men Are Rude and Insulting to White 1 a Blockader, Convict, Confederate, Mammy, Negro, Pa, People
    LEVEL 4 Answer keys Teacher Support Programme Gone With The Wind – Part Two Book key d Some negro men are rude and insulting to white 1 a blockader, convict, confederate, Mammy, negro, Pa, people. prostitute, slave, trash, Yankee e Rhett Butler is in prison for killing a negro. He has b carriage, wagon stolen some confederate money. c cheek, nail 7 She visits Rhett in prison, telling him everything is fine 2 a Scarlett has lost her husband and friends in the civil in Tara. Everything is not fine in Tara and she actually war. She has to pay high taxes to Northerners. She wants Rhett’s money. is clever, strong and independent. Scarlett wants 8–9 open answers Ashley, but he does not love her. Rhett is handsome, 10 a F dangerous, wealthy and rich. Melanie is a loyal friend b T to Scarlett. c T b Before the war, negro slaves had been made to d T work hard for rich white plantation owners. At e F the end of the civil war, negro slaves were freed. 11 a hang However, many negroes did not know how to live b dishonest as free men so they continued to work as before. c Suellen Negroes were often threatened by the Ku Klux Klan. d Yankees c Carpetbaggers were men who came from the e sign North. They came south to demand money from 12 a Scarlett marries him because he has wealth and can southerners or buy their land cheaply. provide opportunities to make more money. d The northern Yankees beat the southerners in the b Scarlett didn’t realise that Rhett was very wealthy civil war.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Birth of Freedom: the Forgotten History of the 13Th, 14Th, and 15Th Amendments
    A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF THE 13TH, 14TH, AND 15TH AMENDMENTS NATHAN NEWMAN & J.J. GASS JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE SERIES BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE AT NYU SCHOOL OF LAW A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF THE 13TH, 14TH, AND 15TH AMENDMENTS NATHAN NEWMAN & J.J. GASS JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE SERIES BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE AT NYU SCHOOL OF LAW www.brennancenter.org ABOUT THE BRENNAN CENTER The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law unites thinkers and advocates in pursuit of a vision of inclusive and effective democracy. Our mission is to develop and implement an innovative, nonpartisan agenda of scholarship, public education, and legal action that promotes equality and human dignity, while safeguarding fundamental freedoms. The Center operates in the areas of Democracy, Poverty, and Criminal Justice. ABOUT THE JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE SERIES The Brennan Center’s Fair Courts Project combats threats to fair and impartial courts. The Project focuses on resisting threats to judicial independence, such as improper attempts to constrict jurisdiction and attacks on individual judges; improving judicial selection processes, including the financing and conduct of state judicial elections; increasing the diversity of the federal and state benches; and fighting efforts to gut, in the name of states’ rights and “federalism,” judicially enforceable protections for individual rights and other progressive values. In keeping with the Center’s mission, the Project offers public education resources for advocates, state and federal public officials, scholars, and journalists who are concerned about fair courts. This paper is the fifth in a series, which also includes: Regulating Interest Group Activity in Judicial Elections by Mark Kozlowski Freeing Candidate Speech in Judicial Elections: Or, How Safe Are Loose Canons? by Mark Kozlowski and Praveen Krishna Public Funding of Judicial Elections: Financing Campaigns for Fair and Impartial Courts by Deborah Goldberg After White: Defending and Amending Canons of Judicial Ethics by J.J.
    [Show full text]
  • Atlanta's Marketplace for Gone with the Wind Memory Jennifer Word Dickey
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History 8-2-2007 "A Tough Little aP tch of History": Atlanta's Marketplace for Gone with the Wind Memory Jennifer Word Dickey Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Recommended Citation Dickey, Jennifer Word, ""A Tough Little aP tch of History": Atlanta's Marketplace for Gone with the Wind Memory." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2007. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/4 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “A TOUGH LITTLE PATCH OF HISTORY”: ATLANTA’S MARKETPLACE FOR GONE WITH THE WIND MEMORY By JENNIFER W. DICKEY Under the Direction of Clifford M. Kuhn ABSTRACT Since the 1936 publication of Gone with the Wind and the 1939 release of David O. Selznick’s film version of the book, the city of Atlanta has been associated in the public mind with Margaret Mitchell’s tale of the Old South, the Civil War and Reconstruction. The work of Mitchell and Selznick created images that shaped the public’s understanding of southern history and of Atlanta’s identity. This dissertation examines a series of attempts to capitalize on the fame and popularity of Gone with the Wind in museums in the Atlanta area. Focusing on the interpretive efforts of three entities—the Atlanta History Center, Clayton County, and the Margaret Mitchell House, Inc.—this study reveals the problematic nature of Mitchell’s and Selznick’s work and the impact that the book and film have had on shaping Atlanta’s identity and the public memory of the South.
    [Show full text]
  • Plot Overview
    Plot Overview It is the spring of 1861. Scarlett O’Hara, a pretty Southern belle, lives on Tara, a large plantation in Georgia. She concerns herself only with her numerous suitors and her desire to marry Ashley Wilkes. One day she hears that Ashley is engaged to Melanie Hamilton, his frail, plain cousin from Atlanta. At a barbecue at the Wilkes plantation the next day, Scarlett confesses her feelings to Ashley. He tells her that he does love her but that he is marrying Melanie because she is similar to him, whereas he and Scarlett are very different. Scarlett slaps Ashley and he leaves the room. Suddenly Scarlett realizes that she is not alone. Rhett Butler, a scandalous but dashing adventurer, has been watching the whole scene, and he compliments Scarlett on being unladylike. The Civil War begins. Charles Hamilton, Melanie’s timid, dull brother, proposes to Scarlett. She spitefully agrees to marry him, hoping to hurt Ashley. Over the course of two months, Scarlett and Charles marry, Charles joins the army and dies of the measles, and Scarlett learns that she is pregnant. After Scarlett gives birth to a son, Wade, she becomes bored and unhappy. She makes a long trip to Atlanta to stay with Melanie and Melanie’s aunt, Pittypat. The busy city agrees with Scarlett’s temperament, and she begins to see a great deal of Rhett. Rhett infuriates Scarlett with his bluntness and mockery, but he also encourages her to flout the severely restrictive social requirements for mourning Southern widows. As the war progresses, food and clothing run scarce in Atlanta.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond Tara...Eclipsing the Image of Scarlett O'hara
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Supervised Undergraduate Student Research Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects and Creative Work Spring 4-1996 Beyond Tara...Eclipsing the Image of Scarlett O'Hara Candice Larissa Reed University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj Recommended Citation Reed, Candice Larissa, "Beyond Tara...Eclipsing the Image of Scarlett O'Hara" (1996). Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/179 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Supervised Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Work at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ~~7Ma, , , &~ ~ 'l~ 01 Seadett () ~Ma A Literary Perspective of the "New" Southern Woman in the Novels, Charms for the Easy Life, Crazy Ladies, Tending to Virginia, and The Odd Woman Candice L. Reed College Scholars Senior Project Tennessee Scholars Project Apri12S, 1996 "You let Robert stay out past eleven when he was my age," she had said all through high school. "Itls a little dlfferent, II her mother always replied. "Robert is a boy." A son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all of her life. That's what her mother says: thatls what Gram says. "I cannot tell Susie how she's ironing Robert's shirts all wrong, the way the collar stands up, II her mama says.
    [Show full text]
  • Slavery and the Civil War in Cultural Memory
    Slavery and the Civil War in Cultural Memory The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Adkins, Christina Katherine. 2014. Slavery and the Civil War in Cultural Memory. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13070064 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Slavery and the Civil War in Cultural Memory A dissertation presented by Christina Katherine Adkins to the Committee on Higher Degrees in American Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of American Studies Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts August 2014 © 2014 Christina Katherine Adkins All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor John Stauffer Christina Katherine Adkins Slavery and the Civil War in Cultural Memory Abstract That slavery was largely excised from the cultural memory of the Civil War in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly by white Americans, is well documented; Slavery and the Civil War in Cultural Memory moves beyond that story of omission to ask how slavery has been represented in U.S. culture and, necessarily, how it figures into some of the twentieth century’s most popular Civil War narratives. The study begins in the 1930s with the publication of Gone with the Wind—arguably the most popular Civil War novel of all time—and reads Margaret Mitchell’s pervasive tale of ex-slaveholder adversity against contemporaneous narratives like Black Reconstruction in America, Absalom, Absalom!, and Black Boy/American Hunger, which contradict Mitchell’s account of slavery, the war, and Reconstruction.
    [Show full text]