【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 e and marriage. Scarlett?s mother Ellen, by softvoiced admonition, their mon Mammy, constant carping and labor to inculcate in her the qualities that will make her truly desirable as a wife. She does not disappoint them in this aspect because, by the age of sixteen, she has learned to use the attributes of womanhood to advance predatory designs: the manipulation and seduction of men. Extremely selfish in love and marriage, “she was constitutionably unable to endure any man being in love with any woman not herself” (). Bored by the Tarleton twins? talk of war, she moodily changes the subject to something far more interesting to her: the next day?s barbecue and hall at the Twelve Oaks. Deeply rooted in Western culture is the assumption that a woman?s energies are properly devoted to the chores of her family. In the South, little attention is paid to women?s education and educational opportunities for girls are more limited than those for boys. In the opening chapter of the novel, we got the information that Scarlett is not offered enough 10 education and she has not opened a book since she left the Fayetteville Female Academy at the age of fifteen. However, the door of education is much wider for the boys. Stuart and Brent, the Tarleton twins, have been expelled from the University of Geia, the fourth university that has thrown them out in two years, when they sit with Scarlett in the cool shade of the porch of Tara, the plantation of Scarlett?s father Gerald O?Hara. Unexpectedly, they are soon offered another chance to go on with their college education. All of a girl?s education, if there is any, is reduced to the arts and graces of being attractive to men. It is universally acknowledged that scarlet eventually bees a belle in the neighboring counties after years of the conbined efforts of her mother and Mammy. She does not feel sorry for her lack of education. In fact to all men in the South, lack of education carries no shame at all, though they are given more chances to receive education. The things that matter to men include such things as rainsing good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, and squiring ladies with elegance and carrying liquor like a gentleman. Brought up in such an environment, Scarlett is actually a representative of Southern women who are deeply influenced by Southern culture. Scarlett shares dissemblance, an essential trait of Southern Womanhood, with the other girls. Thanks to her mother?s and Mammy?s continuous admonition and harping, she bees a fairly beautiful, sweet and demure girl. Men have a mon interest in appreciating the beauty, sweetness and demureness of a girl. Scarlett?s beauty is partially inborn and partially acquired, but her sweetness and demureness are chiefly achieved by means of dissemblance. Scarlett understands of how to dissemble her own true feelings is even better than that of other girls. Scarlett?s “manners had been imposed upon her by her mother?s gentle admonitions and the sterner discipline of her Mammy, her eyes were her own” (). Her mother Ellen does not realize that it is only a veneer, for Scarlett always shows her best face to her mother, concealing her escapades, curbing her temper and appearing as sweet as she can. She is utterly willing to pretend to be sweet and demure in order to succeed in catching her beloved Ashley as her husband. 11 Scarlett the Rebellious Girl The woman chained to her household tasks has known as a girl that it is the first duty of a girl to get married. However from the outset, Scarlett challenges the conventions of her society. A tomboy who can ride horses, throw stones and climb trees as well as any make panion, by 1861 she has evolved into a typical young lady only under the insistent instruction of her mother Ellen and her Mammy. Scarlett seems femininity remains merely a superficial shell, embodying outward signs, but arising from no genuine inner grace. Most of her natural impulses are unladylike. She pretends to look sweet, charming and giddy, but she is in reality rebellious, selfwilled and vain. Scarlett is fond of love and marriage just like other girls and she can pretend to suppress her true feelings successfully. Actually Scarlett never ceases to seek to air her feelings openly, whatever the consequences or the chaos she may create. In the old South, arranged marriages are widespread. A girl is expected to find a marriageable man and she has to accept the husband chosen by her parents. Gerald O?Hara (father) insists that “the best marriages are when the parents choose for the girl” () and that she should marry one of the Tarleton twins. The clever and rebellious girl goes so far as to demand freedom in love and she is not satisfied with the future husband chosen by her father. When she es back, she quickly makes full preparation for her great purpose of catching Ashley right on the following afternoon. A minute description of her feelings is provided to strengthen her longing for Ashley?s love. Unlike the mon girls, she is determined to act on her own wishes. Thus, while her rivals retire according to the convention of the submissive female, she slips downstairs retire according to the convention of the submissive female, she slips downstairs to confront Ashley in the belief that he will not be able to resist her assault. Though her love is declined by Ashley, her efforts to obtain her true love do not wither away even in adversity. As we can see in the later chapters, if she has no love for Ashley, she will have been discouraged in adversity and will not have lived through so many difficulties to obtain financial independence. 12 The very obvious is her disregard for religion, and indispensable element in Southerners? life. At prayer time in the evening before the ball, while all the other