Abstract

Gone with the Wind , written by Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell, relates the story of a rebellious Georgian woman named Scarlett O’Hara and her travails with friends, family and lovers in the midst of the antebellum American South, the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Period. In Scarlett O’Hara’s life, there are two quite different but both important men: Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes, who are two male protagonists of this novel and they have quite different destinies. This thesis aims to explore the factors, including their different personalities, different world views and different philosophies of life, leading to different destinies of the two male protagonists of Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes.

Key words: Gone with the Wind, Rhett Butler, Ashley Wilkes, different destinies, factors
 
摘要

美国作家玛格丽特•米切尔的代表作《飘》(1936)讲述了具有叛逆精神的佐治亚州妇女斯嘉丽和她的朋友、家人和爱人的故事，反映了南北战争前美国南方的生活以及南北战争期间和战后重建时期社会动乱的情况。斯嘉丽的生命中有两位存在诸多差异但对她都很重要的男人：瑞德•巴特勒和艾希礼•威尔克斯。本论文主要剖析造成《飘》中的两位男主人公瑞德•巴特勒和艾希礼•威尔克斯不同命运的诸多要素。这些要素包括两者不同的个性，不同的世界观和不同的人生哲学。

关键词：《飘》；瑞德•巴特勒；艾希礼•威尔克斯；不同命运；要素

1.    Introduction
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (1900 —— 1949) was an American author, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel Gone with the Wind, which was published in 1936. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling altogether more than 30 million copies. An American film adaptation of the novel, released in 1939, became the highest-grossing film in the history of Hollywood, and received a record-breaking ten Academy Awards. She has been honored by the United States Postal Service with a one-cent Great Americans series postage stamp.
Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind relates the story of a rebellious Georgia woman named Scarlett O’Hara and her travails with friends, family and lovers in the midst of the antebellum South, the American Civil War, and the Reconstruction Period. By narrating Scarlett’s life story, Mitchell examines the effect of the War on the old order of the South, and the aftermath of the war on what is left of the southern planter class. It also tells the love story that blossoms between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler.