《飘》是美国现代女作家玛格丽特.米歇尔于1936年发表的一部长篇通俗小说,也是其一生唯一的一部长篇小说,《飘》问世70多年来,被广泛流传并受到广泛的好评,不失为一部旷世经典之作。然而《飘》所走过的路程却并不是一帆风顺的,在许多批评家看来,《飘》不能被称为一部优雅的艺术之作,甚至不能进入美国文学的神圣殿堂。小说的女主人公斯佳丽被他们描绘成一个极度自私、爱慕虚荣、冷酷无情、为达目的不择手段的女性。但是,经过

Chapter Two The Period before the War

Mitchell s work relates the story of a rebellious Georgia Southern belle named Scarlett O Hara and her experiences with friends, family, lovers, and enemies in the South during the antebellum period, the War of Northern Aggression, and the Reconstruction era.

2.1 About the Title

The title of Gone with the Wind is taken from the first line of the third stanza of the poem Non sum uails eram bonae sub regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson: “I have forgotten much, Cynara! Gone with the wind.” The title phrase also appears in the novel: When Scarlett of French-Irish ancestry escapes the bombardment of Atlanta by Northern forces; she flees back to her family s plantation, Tara. At one point, she wondered, “Was Tara still standing? Or was Tara also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia?”

The title is beautiful, gone with the wind, everything, like the old traditional South, like Melanie, like the slave system and Scarlett s love to Ashley…

2.2 The Plot Summary

The novel opens at Tara, the O Haras plantation in Georgia, with scarlet O Hara flirting idly with Brent and Stuart Tarleton, twin brothers who live on a nearby plantation. Amidst the chatter, the pair tells Scarlett that Ashley Wilkes, the man Scarlett secretly loves, and his cousin Melanie Hamilton, a plain and gentle lady from Atlanta, are to be married. Shocked, Scarlett sits in silence until the two leave, without inviting them to dinner. Ignoring her mammy s cautions against the cold, Scarlett goes to meet her father to confirm the news. After discovering the truth of the engagement, Scarlett is miserable, but realizes that Ashley has no idea that she s in love with him. She plans to make Ashley jealous by surrounding herself with boys in love with her at the barbecue the next day at the Wilkes plantation of Twelve Oaks, and then afterwards admit to him that she prefers him above all others. She never thought of the war, even it would break out soon, even everyone in the South was talking about it included her father, what she cares is only Ashley, the man she loved. But things did not go according to plan, when she finds Ashley later, he tells her that though he lives her, he will still marry Melanie.